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Summer 2004
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
Mindset Health Channel set to expand in South Africa
The Mindset Health Channel, a satellite broadcast service to promote awareness of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, will receive $3 million to expand its programs as part of US President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Created through a public-private partnership, the Mindset Health Channel delivers free education to patients and healthcare workers in hospitals and clinics. A pilot phase began last fall, with the official launch expected later in 2004. The Mindset Health Channel aims to be in all 4,000 public health care sites in Africa within five years; plans include expansion of broadcast content to include a range of health topics beyond HIV/AIDS. This innovative South African approach to dealing with critical health topics is the result of a strategic alliance between the national Department of Health; Sentech, the state-owned broadcasting service; and the Mindset Network, a partnership led by the Liberty and Standard Bank Foundations. "This financial boost will enable us to produce and broadcast significant new educational material on HIV and AIDS, in a war against ignorance -- a war we cannot afford to lose," said Hylton Appelbaum, Chairman of the Mindset Network, and a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle. The Mindset Network is a new multi-media satellite television network launched in 2003 to tackle South Africa's key educational and healthcare challenges. (USAID, April 9, 2004)
Goldman Prize winners declare victory in Australia and India
Four women -- two Australian aboriginal elders and two Indian survivors of the Bhopal gas leak that killed more than 20,000 people two decades ago -- have recently declared victory in separate campaigns that earned them Goldman Environmental Prizes. The award is the world's largest prize program honoring grassroots environmentalists. In one case, the Australian national government has withdrawn its plans to build a national nuclear waste dump in the southern Australian outback, and in the other, the Indian Supreme Court has ordered the immediate disbursement of $325 million of the Bhopal disaster compensation fund. Eileen Kampakuta Brown and Eileen Wani Wingfield, both in their 70s, shared a Goldman Prize in 2003 for their work in Australia. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla were the 2004 Goldman Prize winners from India. The award program was created in 1990 by philanthropists Richard N. Goldman, founder of San Francisco-based Goldman Insurance Services, and his late wife Rhoda, a descendant of Levi Strauss. (Goldman Environmental Prize, July 22, 2004)
Hilton Humanitarian Award nominees sought
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (www.hiltonfoundation.org)invites nominations for the 2005 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, which each year honors an organization that has made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world. The $1 million prize is not a grant based on future goals, but rather an award for recent and historic accomplishments. An independent international panel of jurors makes the final selection. The 2004 award will be presented this fall. The 2005 prize will be announced in the fall of 2005. Nomination packets for the prize are available on the Hilton Foundation website and must be received or postmarked by November 1. For more information, contact prize@hiltonfoundation.org.
New infusion of funds for world's largest private foundation
Bill and Melinda Gates plan to donate more than $3 billion to their private foundation, already the largest in the world, with about $27 billion in assets. The windfall comes from a dividend expected this fall from the sale of stock from Microsoft, the software giant founded by Bill Gates. The infusion of funds will make the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation almost three times as large as any other private foundation in the United States. Mr. Gates said the latest donation will be used to promote the foundation's goals of "improving equity in health, education and access to information and human services for vulnerable families." Many of the foundation's grants have been devoted to fighting diseases in developing countries. At July's AIDS conference in Bangkok, for instance, the foundation announced that it will give $50 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, bringing its total contribution to the fund to $150 million. The foundation also announced in July that it would give $44.7 million to the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS-TB Epidemic. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 21, 2004)
China's markets admit Gates Foundation, other foreign investors
In other news involving the Gates Foundation, Bill Gates has won approval for the foundation to invest in China's main stock and debt markets, under the first large-scale move by that country to admit foreign investors. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is only the 17th institution allowed to trade in China's $500 billion stock market under a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program, intended to attract big names into the country's fledgling markets. Other foreign investors admitted under the QFII program include Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS AG, Merill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. (Reuters, July 20, 2004)
First-time regulations on foundations formalized in China
After many years of drafting, China's State Council has finally approved new regulations on the registration and management of foundations, effective June 1, 2004. For the first time in China's growing body of nonprofit law, regulations will explicitly address not only Chinese, but also international organizations. Chinese foundations have cautiously welcomed the new rules, but the impact on international organizations remains unclear. An analysis of the new rules and their projected effect is available from China Development Brief (www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com), an initiative supported by ActionAid India, Kadoorie Charitable Foundations, the Ford Foundation, Save the Children (UK), the Trace Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Livelihood and environment linked in new partnership to benefit India
The American India Foundation (AIF -- www.aifoundation.org) and the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation -- www.unfoundation.org) have announced a new partnership to preserve India's five natural World Heritage Sites -- areas that have been designed by the UN as having universal value to the world -- and also promote alternative livelihoods for local communities living around them. AIF has set a goal of raising $1 million from "Indo-centric" individuals, corporations and foundations in support of this initiative, and the UN Foundation will match contributions dollar-for-dollar. The UN Foundation and AIF also are exploring partnerships in other areas critical to India's social development including empowering women, educating girls, and improving health services for children. The UN Foundation, created in 1998 by philanthropist and businessman Ted Turner, has committed more than $28 million to India's economic and social development, as well as to the protection of its environment. Launched in 2003, the UN Foundation's Pride in India campaign is mobilizing resources to address the country's most pressing challenges. "We strongly believe that partnerships with credible institutions like the UNF will be a more sustainable method of leveraging strengths in effecting meaningful social and economic change in India . We are excited about working with UNF and applaud the vision of Mr. Turner in philanthropy" said Lata Krishnan, President of AIF. (American India Foundation, May 14, 2004)
In memoriam: Laurance Rockefeller, philanthropist and venture capital pioneer
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller, the middle brother of the five philanthropic grandsons of John D. Rockefeller, who concentrated his own giving on conservation, recreation, ecological concerns and medical research, died July 11 in New York at the age of 94. Rockefeller's career began on Wall Street almost 70 years ago, where he became a trailblazer of modern venture capitalism. As a young man, Rockefeller grew steadily aware that the philanthropy of his generation would require specialization. "We feel you must give with the heart as well as the head," he said. "There must be a deep personal commitment along with an intellectual understanding of the project." In the late 1930s, Rockefeller provided much of the capital to help Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I fighter ace, start Eastern Airlines and was for many years the airline's largest stockholder. Rockefeller invested in hundreds of startups, initially in aviation and electronics and later branching out to computers (Intel and Apple) and biotechnology. He was instrumental in establishing and enlarging national parks throughout the United States and numerous parklands and urban open spaces in New York. He also served on dozens of federal, state and local commissions, and advised every president since Eisenhower on issues involving recreation, wilderness preservation and the ecology. In 1991, his philanthropic work earned him the Congressional Gold Medal. (New York Times, July 12, 2004)
© 2004 The Synergos Institute
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