 |
April-May 2002
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
South African foundation makes its mark on health care
The Donald Gordon Foundation, South Africa's largest private foundation, has taken an initiative that represents a "first" for philanthropy in Africa. The Foundation, created in 1971 and named for businessman Donald Gordon, founder of the Liberty Life Insurance Company is, through a grant of $9 million to the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, forming a partnership aimed at reviving the university's post-graduate medical program. According to Hylton Appelbaum, executive trustee of the foundation, this grant is part of a partnership initiative with the university to support the development of a superior medical teaching curriculum, with facilities, targeted at black South Africans as well as women -- populations traditionally excluded from the upper reaches of medical education and practice.
GPC trip to Southern Africa concluded
In March 2002, 20 GPC members from nine families met with a range of leaders from all sectors of society in South Africa and Mozambique -- including Nelson Mandela, the President of Mozambique, and ministers of finance of both countries. Participants also visited a number of leading community and civil society initiatives and obtained a unique view of local action on the issues of education, HIV/AIDS, rural development, fostering leadership, eco-tourism and youth as an asset for the future. One early
outcome of the trip was the announcement by GPC members Hylton and Wendy Appelbaum that the Donald Gordon Foundation, of which Mr. Appelbaum is executive trustee, would contribute $1 million to the Peace Parks Initiative (www.peaceparks.org) launched by GPC member Anton Rupert. Documentation on the trip is online at www.gpcparlor.org.
Digital Freedom Network: Supporting free speech around the world
The Digital Freedom Network (DFN -- www.dfn.org), headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, which since its launch in 1997 has used internet technology to support global human rights and free speech, has recently started a series of on-line chats with prominent activists around the world. DFN gives technical assistance to these activists by developing free internet-based campaigns and creating technology tutorials. It also publishes news articles on human rights and participates in the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, an international forum that fights on-line censorship and the invasion of privacy. DFN is funded almost exclusively by 39-year-old billionaire Howard Jonas, founder of IDT Corporation, an international telecommunications firm. At its founding, Jonas indicated that his company could not support the project because it has business operations with governments which oppose free expression, such as China, so his investment is personal.
India library project keeps children hooked on books
The six-year-old Libraries in the Schools project created by the India-based Infosys Foundation to provide books to thousands of school libraries in impoverished rural areas near Bangalore in the state of Karnataka is about to expand. Launched by Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys CEO Narayana Murthy, owner of India's largest IT empire -- and leaders in philanthropy as well as business -- the project aims to review and, if necessary, improve, the 6,500 libraries that were established under its auspices. In addition to supplying books, Libraries in the Schools emphasizes publishing books in the local language, Kannada, so that knowledge of it is not lost. (The Deccan Herald, March 2, 2002)
New emphasis on results in high-end Indian philanthropy
The Indian magazine Business Standard reports that Indian corporate philanthropy, which is closely linked to family foundations established by Indian billionaires, is moving away from paternalistic "pure" charity initiatives to results-based funding. Citing examples such as educational partnerships that aim to create a more literate population that can then become more self-sufficient, and community sanitation projects, such as water purification efforts and improved health care, the article describes how Indian philanthropy is taking a cue from western counterparts and developing more partnerships with NGOs that can implement programs. While some of this is new, other models, such as the Tata Rural Foundation, funded by the Tata family conglomerate, have been in place for years.
French magazine spotlights female philanthropist in Taiwan
The April 1 edition of the French women's magazine Elle featured a four-page report on Buddhist Master Cheng Yen, focusing, among other things, on her "empire of charity." Cheng is the founder of the Buddhist charity Tzu Chi, whose works have shown that Buddhism is not just a meditative process but also one that involves activism and participation. Although much of Tzu Chi's work is in Taiwan, it also has projects in most other provinces of China, and in Africa and Latin America. (Taipei Times Online, April 6, 2002)
Ukrainian business owners urged to think philanthropically
Although the Ukrainian nonprofit sector has expanded significantly since independence, donor sources are not growing fast enough to provide needed support. Although foreign donors, especially multinational companies, are investing in Ukrainian nonprofits, the current vacuum could -- and should -- be taken up by local businesses and their leaders. Ukraine may lack a strong indigenous culture of philanthropy, however, this situation is beginning to change, according to Oleksander Sydorenko, Director of the Innovation and Development Centre (www.ngoukraine.kiev.ua/idc/), a nonprofit organization that provides legal, accounting and fundraising training to charities. (Kyiv Post, March 7, 2002)
Pioneers of Change foster culture of global leadership
Pioneers of Change (www.pioneersofchange.net), a three-year-old global network of young people that aims to support young visionaries to "bring their values and creativity to the world of work," is seeking to spread its mantra to the philanthropy establishment. Launched by a network of 26 young people in January of 1999, Pioneers now reports some 500 members in 30 countries. Relying extensively on the internet, their projects include learning events; relief projects; an "action toolbox" and other resources to help members become social entrepreneurs. Three full time facilitators operate out of Denmark, South Africa and Brazil, and meetings of the network have taken place in Denmark, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. The Pioneers have collected a resource of community action ventures of projects that Pioneers have implemented.
Fair trade movement links philanthropists to grass-roots craftspeople
The Fair Trade Federation (www.fairtradefederation.org), which seeks to expand opportunities for indigenous craftspeople, farmers and small manufacturers in developing countries to sell their wares in global markets -- and for a larger share of the profit -- is increasing its impact through the use of the internet and e-commerce. Its website enables visitors to shop on the web and also provides information on retail outlets, mail order and on-line catalogs, and wholesalers and producers. Large-scale philanthropy has helped kick-start the movement; the Skoll Community Fund, created by eBay co-founder Jeffrey Skoll, was the principal funder of catgen.com, a program of Peoplink (www.peoplink.org), one of the larger fair trade companies, to train and enable producers to create their own product catalogs.
Nigerian businessman gives back to community
Owelle Rochas Okorocha, a Nigerian businessman, has allocated resources from the Rochas Foundation that he founded to create the Rochas Foundation College, which aims to provide quality free secondary education for gifted children of poor families. At its opening in October 2001, the college admitted 139 students, who not only received free tuition but also uniforms, text books, medical care, writing materials and monthly stipends. Created in 1996, the Rochas Foundation focuses on helping disabled and less privileged individuals throughout Nigeria. (This Day, February 25, 2002)
2002 Goldman Prizes announced
The winners of the 2002 Goldman Environmental Prize (www.goldmanprize.org), which honors grassroots environmental leaders on five continents and in island nations, were recently announced in San Francisco. Funded by the Goldman Environmental Foundation, the prize was launched in 1990 by Richard N. and Rhoda Goldman. This year's winners are Pisit Charnsnoh of Thailand, honored for his efforts to organize local communities to protect coastal habitats; Fatima Jibrell, whose leadership in Somalia at the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organizations, which she founded, has prevented uncontrolled logging of local wood resources; Jean La Rose of Guyana, whose work on behalf of the Amerindian Peoples' Association has resulted in the first petition to protect the rights of indigenous peoples against industrial exploitation which has led to river pollution, deforestation and threats to the integrity of local communities; Jonathan Solomon, Norma Kassi and Sarah James, members of the Gwich'in tribe, which is fighting to preserve natural lands in the Arctic against oil exploration; Alexis Massol-González, an engineer in Puerto Rico who convinced the Puerto Rican government to convert a proposed mining zone into a community-managed forest reserve, which generates income for local people through a program of eco-tourism and coffee growing; and Jadwiga Lopata of Poland, for her promotion of eco-tourism through the protection of family farms, which often provide the habitat for species not seen elsewhere. Prize winners receive $125,000.
Soros by the book
Two books have just been published about money-manager/philanthropist George Soros. Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Millionaire, by Michael T. Kaufman (New York: Alfred A. Knopf & Co., 2002), is the first biography of Soros that received his cooperation. It includes extensive coverage of his philanthropy around the world. George Soros on Globalization (New York: Public Affairs, 2002) argues for a more equitable, controlled approach to globalization that keeps financial institutions intact but adds an oversight mechanism to ensure that the "have-nots" are not excluded from the benefits of economic growth.
Philanthropy Ink: "The New Philanthropists"
In a recent column called "The New Philanthropists" in The Boston Globe, Boston College sociologist Paul Schervish observes that most of the new wealth reported in the last decade or so has been generated by middle class individuals or families who built their financial empires based on growing family businesses before becoming major players in philanthropy. He estimates that "with so much wealth in play, more and more individuals come to recognize at an earlier age that their financial resources exceed the material needs of themselves and their family [and] that these wealth-holders are joining their older peers as the new philanthropists. They seek out rather than resist greater charitable involvement. They approach their philanthropy in the same entrepreneurial spirit with which they made their fortunes. And they are making philanthropy a key element in the financial morality they pass on to their children."
© 2002 The Synergos Institute
|
|
|
