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December 2002-January 2003
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
Iranian philanthropic initiative strengthens science education
Since observing the appalling state of technology in Iran's schools on a visit home, London-based Iranian Abbas Edalat has made it a point to focus his energies on improving educational programs and access to state-of-the-art technology. Launching the Science and Art Foundation (www.science-arts.org) in 1999, Edalat has worked with other Iranian philanthropists in and outside of Iran, and with other funders, to improve technology education nationwide. Among the projects is an ICT Center in Zahedan, the capital city of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province, which now boasts over 15 local, national and international partners and provides training to community members, administers an "e-shop" to sell handicrafts made by local women to an international market, and a micro-enterprise program targeting youth, which will be carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Industry. A strong evaluation component will allow replication on a national level. (Silicon Iran, 2001)
Jordan's Queen Rania makes her mark on national philanthropy
Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan has become actively involved in a number of national philanthropic initiatives, with an emphasis on women's economic empowerment, children's issues, education, and human rights. This past November she took over leadership of the Arab Women's Summit, held in Amman, Jordan, which emphasized the need to put women's issues on the pan-Arab agenda. She has been involved with the Jordan River Foundation since its launch in 1995. During visits to New York City in November 2002, she helped launch a new microcredit project for women in Afghanistan, as part of the international Village Banking initiative. She has worked closely with Count Me In (www.count-me-in.org), a two-year-old internet-based initiative that raises money from women to be loaned to other women aspiring to set up their own small businesses and also gives scholarships for business training and technical assistance. (BBC News, November 4, 2002)
Indian NGO network encourages philanthropists to get involved
IndianNgos.com, a national Indian network of nongovernmental organizations, has created a program called P2G (People with Power to Give) to encourage local philanthropists to become more directly involved with nonprofit organizations within India. Membership in P2G gives donors access to thousands of pages of NGO information; training programs on nonprofit governance, measurement and social responsibility; volunteer opportunities and a "match-making" services to match the donor with an NGO closely linked to the donor's interests. IndianNGOs publishes an e-magazine, www.youandsocialpartnerships.com.
Nominations sought for 2003 Right Livelihood Award
The Swedish Right Livelihood Foundation (www.rightlivelihood.se) is seeking nominees for its 2003 awards cycle, with a deadline of April 10. The prize was established in 1980 by Swedish philanthropist and professional philatelist Jakob von Uexkull, who endowed the foundation by selling rare postage stamps. Right Livelihood prizes are known as the "alternative Nobels," in part because they highlight extraordinary individual achievement and also because they are awarded each year in Stockholm one day before the first announcement of the Nobel Prizes. A key difference is that the awards (four per year, each valued at $200,000) honor people from many different backgrounds, rather than mainly the industrialized countries where most Nobel laureates come from. According to von Uexkull, the award also aims to have a broader focus than the Nobel prize, being given to people who develop "practical answers to such challenges as the pollution of our air, soil and water, the danger of nuclear war, the abuse of basic human rights, the destitution and misery of the poor and the over-consumption and spiritual poverty of the wealthy."
South African foundation partners with US youth project to improve rural schools
The Johannesburg-based Africa Foundation (www.africafoundation.org) has joined forces with Kids for Africa (www.kidsforafrica.org), a program of US-based Friends of Africa Foundation, to encourage students to raise funds for rural schools. Its "Lights for Learning" initiative aims to raise $10,000, enough to electrify a school in a rural area not far from Durban. Other student-driven projects will focus on environmental issues. The founders of Kids for Africa, which was launched in January 2002, are sister and brother Bridget and R.J. Keating, both teenagers.
Sabera Foundation enables Spanish and other donors to help women in India
The Madrid-based Sabera Foundation (www.saberafoundation.org) enables donors to support projects targeting poor women and girls in Calcutta. Sabera was created in 1999 by Spanish pop singer and songwriter Nacho Cano, who was in India to tape a music video. In Calcutta he was struck by the immense poverty and came to know the little girl Sabera Khatum, whom he encountered picking rags in a garbage dump. He later brought her and her mother to Madrid. Sabera's mother later returned to India, while Sabera now attends school in Madrid. The foundation has programs in shelter, health, education, nutrition and microfinance, and has enlisted prominent Spanish performers to promote the cause. A US branch was launched in October 2002.
Soros' Russian programs to merge with Eurasia Foundation
The Russia-based programs of George Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) will merge with the US government-funded Eurasia Foundation and will spend US $45 million from 2003 to 2005, according to Yekaterina Geniyeva, head of OSI-Russia. The new foundation, not yet named, will focus on traditional charity projects such as health and education and will develop new projects in civil law, media and local self-government. (Moscow Times, December 18, 2002)
Bulgaria holds first national charity day
The Generous Heart initiative (www.generousheart.org) was launched last October as Bulgaria's nine largest cities observed the country's first national charity day. More than 1,000 volunteers canvassed for donations in city streets, giving a sticker reading "I Have a Generous Heart" to every donor. Planned as an annual event, each national fundraiser will focus on a different cause that the state is unable to support adequately. The first fundraiser supported programs for people in Bulgaria with multiple sclerosis. (Lifestyle, October 16, 2002)
New social investment portfolio helps small businesses in Egypt and Pakistan
The Acumen Fund (www.acumenfund.org), a nonprofit organization created in 2001 to link philanthropists with initiatives that promote positive global change, has created a new portfolio, Economic and Civic Enterprise, that aims to support entrepreneurs in Egypt and Pakistan who provide economic opportunity and voice to the poor. At its launch in November, the portfolio contained $1.1 million. Examples of projects to receive fund assistance include a women's finance organization in Pakistan to make borrowing easier for low-income women; a cooperative farm initiative in Cairo, Egypt; and a housing program to provide access to land ownership and public utilities to squatters in Karachi, Pakistan. Created in April, 2001, Acumen Fund is funded by investments from Cisco Systems and the Cisco Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and several individual investors. (CNN Money, November 8, 2002)
Give2Asia celebrates first anniversary
Give2Asia (www.give2asia.org), founded just over one year ago by The Asia Foundation to promote philanthropy to Asia, feted its first anniversary by noting that it has facilitated over $3 million in charitable giving to Asia. During this time, Give2Asia provided services to enable some 120 US donors, including individuals, foundations and corporations, to support 32 nonprofits organizations in nine countries in Asia. Projects helped were located throughout the continent, including Afghanistan (relief and reconstruction projects funded by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund), Cambodia, China, Hong Kong and India. In addition to Asia Foundation support, Give2Asia has also been funded by the Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and Taiwan-based Himalaya Foundation. (Philanthropy News Network On-Line, November 8, 2002)
Philanthropy Center to study link between faith and giving
Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy has announced the creation of the Lake Family Institute on Faith and Giving (www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/nr-LakeInstitute.htm), which aims to study the link behind faith and charity. Created with a $5 million donation from the family of the late Thomas H. and Marjorie Lytle Lake, the institute is believed to be the first academic research center in the US focusing on how religious beliefs affect giving.
British publication seeks nominations for 2003 Charity Awards
The British magazine Charity Finance (www.charityfinance.co.uk) is launching its first cycle of Charity Awards (www.charityawards.co.uk) as a means to honor and celebrate excellence in nonprofit organization management and raise awareness about the nonprofit sector as a whole; nominations are now being sought. The awards, to be given at a gala dinner in London on June 19, aim not just to promote best practices in nonprofit management but provide more knowledge to the sector as a whole.
Charity meeting highlights importance of effective "borderless giving"
The 2002 annual conference of the Charities Aid Foundation (www.cafonline.org) in November in London included a seminar on "borderless giving" that highlighted the need of donors to consider global philanthropy in their portfolios. Featuring a panel of three experts -- Bob Ellsworth, Director of Nonprofit Development for Network for Good and senior strategic advisor to the DotOrg Foundation; Lilya Wagner, Associate Director of Public Service at Indiana University Center on Philanthropy; and Tae Yoo, Vice President of Corporate Philanthropy at Cisco Systems and President of the Cisco Foundation -- the seminar examined new trends in global fundraising, e-philanthropy and cross-border giving programs, as well as major challenges and opportunities facing the non-profit sector in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. The seminar also explored the role of new technology in breaking down geographical divides. (Philanthropy News Network On-Line, November 7, 2002)
World Bank president urges greater corporate social responsibility
At a gathering of dozens of CEOs at the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue in Chicago last November, World Bank president James Wolfensohn exhorted leaders to see social responsibility as "not question of charity [but] a question of enlightened self-interest." He noted that the companies' futures depend on the stability of developing nations, which are expected to account for almost all the world's population growth in the next 50 years. (Business Respect, November 7, 2002)
Despite endowment plunge, Silicon Valley foundation will maintain spending levels
The Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, established by the founder of the web portal InfoSeek and his wife, has announced plans to continue current spending levels, even though the value of the endowment has plunged 80 percent since 2000, from $80 million to $16 million. This decision may mean that the foundation "might be out of existence in four years or so," according to foundation CEO Kathleen Gwynn, who explains that the Kirsches don't envision their foundation lasting in perpetuity "but to solve problems." Facing a choice of reducing grantmaking and cutting staff, the Kirsches chose to maintain existing programs. (San Jose Mercury News, December 2, 2002)
Philanthropy Ink: "The New Face of Philanthropy"
In a December 2 cover article, Business Week magazine examines what it calls the "New Face of Philanthropy," whose leaders are noted for being more ambitious, strategic, global and results-oriented than the preceding generation. The article, which focuses on the top 50 US-based philanthropists, observes that some of their projects are taking on enormous issues that cross cultures, geography and economics, such as finding cures for cancer and HIV/AIDS. It also states that these philanthropies are truly international in scope (the foundations created by George Soros and Bill Gates are the two best-known examples) and demand results that can be measured. Business Week dates this "new face" of philanthropy to 1997, when cable television mogul Ted Turner announced plans for a dramatic increase in his support for the United Nations and challenged his philanthropic counterparts to do something similar.
© 2003 The Synergos Institute
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