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October-November 2003
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
Online forum empowers social entrepreneurs
Social Edge, a lively new online community created at www.socialedge.org by the Skoll Foundation, was officially launched on September 22 with an invitation to social entrepreneurs to log on and share the secrets of their success. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, and Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, were among the participants. Social Edge is a free, member-driven discussion forum designed to stimulate dialogue on a wide range of social sector topics. A recent message on Social Edge brought together three social entrepreneurs from Australia, Cambodia and Malaysia, who are now sharing best practices and resources on international development. As a partner, Alliance (www.allavida.org/alliance/) is making its own content available to more people by providing it on Social Edge. Monthly discussion events will be archived on the site as well. The Skoll Foundation is also taking to the airwaves to spread its message of social change, with a four-part TV documentary series highlighting the work of 12 nonprofit leaders from around the globe, scheduled to air in 2004.
Association of Caribbean Community Foundations launched
Representatives of more than 20 Caribbean community foundations have formed the Association of Caribbean Community Foundations (ACCF). ACCF was created by the National Community Foundation (St. Lucia), the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, the St. Croix Foundation, the BVI Investment Club and the Anguilla Community Foundation. It aims to improve the quality of life of island residents through organized community-based philanthropy and to increase resources on individual islands and throughout the region. For more information, contact Caroline Perry Devonish, Director, Anguilla Community Foundation at cperry@anguillanet.com. (PNNOnline, July 22)
Gates Foundation doubles commitment to fight AIDS in India
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (www.gatesfoundation.org) has announced that it will double its commitment to fight AIDS in India from $100 million to $200 million. The funds will be used to support education and prevention initiatives, initially targeting commercial sex workers and truck drivers who pay for their services along the country's major highways. In addition to the new funding, the foundation also announced the first $67.5 million in grants to AIDS prevention efforts in India -- money that will be awarded to seven organizations over the next five years to distribute condoms and provide voluntary counseling, testing, and care services. "India has the largest number of AIDS victims after South Africa," said Richard Holbrooke, who heads the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. "We have to speak frankly and openly to young boys and girls -- thirteen to fifteen years old -- and tell them how AIDS is really spread and how to avoid it." (Associated Press, October 13).
...while Global Fund to Fight AIDS to slow its grantmaking
Meanwhile, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (www.globalfundatm.org), an independent agency in Geneva that raises money from governments, foundations, and individuals to fight the three diseases, plans to reduce the number of grants it will provide next year. Fund officials fear the organization, which has awarded $2.1 billion in grants so far, will commit more money than it will raise if it does not slow its grantmaking. About 60 percent of the fund's donations support nonprofit organizations. (Washington Post, October 17)
Women activists in Africa win continent's "Nobel Prize"
Two champions of women's rights in Africa have been awarded the 15th annual Africa Prize for Leadership, known as the "Nobel Prize for Africa." The prize recognizes efforts to legally guarantee women's full human rights on the African continent. The two honorees are Maeza Ashenafi, founder of Ethiopia's leading women's legal aid, education and policy forum, the Ethiopian Women Lawyer's Association, and Sara Longwe, a grassroots organizer in Zambia and former head of FEMNET, the African Women's Development and Communication Network. In accepting their awards in New York, both expressed hope that pressure from foreign aid donors could help move their respective countries toward enforcement of women's rights laws and treaties. They noted that the HIV/AIDS crisis has made the situation for women even more complex in Ethiopia and Zambia. The $50,000 dollar award was sponsored by The Hunger Project (www.thp.org), a global strategic organization committed to ending hunger worldwide. (Inter Press Service, October 11)
Grameen-Ashoka dialogue convenes in Bangladesh
Social entrepreneurs from around the globe were set to converge on Dhaka, Bangladesh October 11-23 to hammer out a global action and marketing agenda to promote business-social ventures. The gathering is the inaugural event for Ashoka's new Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. The Academy's first class of 15 Ashoka Fellows will have the opportunity to network with each other and meet with Muhammad Yunus and representatives of his Grameen Bank, a leader in the micro-credit movement. Among the Ashoka Fellows attending will be Arturo Garcia, who developed self-help cooperatives owned and operated by 12,000 peasants in Mexico, and Albina Ruiz Rios, who developed 15 "Healthy Cities" waste management microenterprises in Peru. Yunus hopes to stimulate both the social and the business sectors to think about how everyone -- especially the poor-can participate in the global economy as producers of value and empowered consumers. A report on this gathering will be available in November at www.changemakers.net.
"Digital Village" to strengthen NPOs in Taiwan
A new public-private partnership has launched Taiwan's first effort to bridge the digital divide for nonprofit organizations. Located inside the Taipei City Hall, the NPO Digital Village (www.e-village.org.tw) will offer free on-site access and training to nonprofits lacking computers. Partners include HP-Taiwan, Taipei City Government, the United Way Taiwan and the Himalaya Foundation. The new services are aimed at an estimated 300 nonprofit organizations located in the Northern Taiwanese region that includes Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli. The new technology will permit more nonprofit organizations to provide services online and store their data in the Digital Village's server. A recent study by the United Way Taiwan revealed that more than half of the country's nonprofit groups are using outdated computer equipment and need technical assistance to set up a website. More than 83 percent of Taiwanese nonprofit groups expressed a need for assistance with their IT needs. (Taiwan Philanthropy News, August 11)
Social enterprise for sustainability to be examined in Chile
The venture philanthropy organization NESsT (www.nesst.org) is hosting its first International Social Enterprise Exchange (ISEE) in Chile, January 4-10, 2004. The weeklong seminar will focus on the development of social enterprise among human rights and social justice organizations. ISEE Chile 2004 will examine how civil society organizations have adjusted in the transition to democracy, and how the socio-economic and political situation has shaped their strategies for survival. Designed specifically for graduate level students and mid-career professionals in business administration, nonprofit management and international development, the trip will combine classroom study, field/casework and eco/adventure tour experiences. For more information on ISEE Chile 2004, contact Annabel Ipsen at aipsen@nesst.org.
In memoriam: philanthropist Joan Kroc
Joan B. Kroc, the widow of McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc, died in San Diego October 13 at the age of 75. Kroc had become known as a major donor to organizations working to promote world peace. With an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion, her donations funded the creation of Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. She was also a major benefactor of the Carter Center of Emory University in Atlanta. Kroc was inspired to contribute $12 million to establish the Notre Dame center after hearing the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, then president of the university, warn about the arms race during a San Diego talk in 1985. The University of San Diego think tank has worked to broker peace in such conflict-torn regions as Nepal, Madagascar and Côte d'Ivoire. (Associated Press, October 13)
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