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April-May 2004
Resources & Links
Activities, Web sites and other cutting-edge information for global givers
Bentons recap rewards of a life spent in philanthropy
The Council on Foundations recently honored Charles and Marjorie Benton for a lifetime of achievement in philanthropy by naming them winners of the 2004 Distinguished Grantmaker Award. Charles is board chair and Marjorie a trustee of the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org), which seeks to create a public interest vision for the digital age and to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. An interview with the couple can be found in the March/April 2004 issue of Foundation News & Commentary (www.foundationnews.org). Marjorie Benton discusses how her experiences working in developing countries changed her, and, as an American with long service in philanthropy, what she brought to the table as the first woman to serve on the board of the Bernard van Leer Foundation in the Netherlands. She also shares some thoughts about why global giving is so important, and how she inspires others to give. Assessing his foundation's legacy, Charles Benton sees its greatest contribution as putting communication policy on the public and philanthropic agenda. He describes the challenge of a relatively small foundation such as the Benton Foundation trying to engage in various aspects of global communications policy in an era of rapid change and media consolidation. And he reveal4 plans to transfer the Benton Foundation's Digital Divide Network and digital literacy efforts to the Education Development Center in Boston to create a better framework to make an impact with the program.
Alliance magazine examines donor exit strategies
The June issue of Alliance magazine (www.allavida.org/alliance/) examines exit strategies with articles including an examination of how the long-term needs of civil society can be reconciled with the eventual exit of funders, a set of "twelve commandments" for foundations withdrawing from a country or region, and a look at Social Venture Partners, which explicitly builds withdrawal into its grantmaking. It also contains information about the new Johns Hopkins Global Civil Society Index, and an interview with Lester Salamon, director of the Center for Civil Society Studies.
© 2004 The Synergos Institute
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