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September-October 2007
Resources & Links
Activities, Web sites and other cutting-edge information for global givers
Overall individual charitable giving remains static in United Kingdom
UK Giving, a joint survey of charitable giving by individuals in the United Kingdom by the Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations, showed static figures of about £8.9 billion in 2005-2006, the same as in 2004-2005. But giving by corporations and major trusts grew in the same period, as did income of the top 500 charities. Private giving now represents about 1.1% of the country's GDP. Other trends of note include the increasing proportion of income from individual gifts among larger nonprofit organizations; it is thought that this represents the ability of larger groups to leverage their brand in soliciting from the public. The UK Giving report is available online at www.cafonline.org/ukgiving. (Philanthropy UK, September 2007)
Bill Clinton highlights donors, ideas
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI -- www.clintonglobalinitiative.org) meetings, at which philanthropists, businesses and celebrities from around the world have made pledges of steps they will take to make a better world have been covered extensively in the press. Among the many such commitments is one by Global Philanthropists Circle members Vincent and Anne Mai to fund the expansion of the Ubuntu Education Fund's services for orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa. Inspired by their eloquence, CGI invited 16-year-old Zethu Ngceza and her Ubuntu Education Fund Case Manager Fezeka Mzalazala to speak at the CGI semi-annual meeting this past April in New York. (Video of this event is available through the Members in the News section of the GPC Web Parlor at www.synergos.org/gpcparlor/.)
But former US President Bill Clinton is trying to reach a wider audience with the message of the importance of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Through his new book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, he is shining a spotlight on ways in which people and organizations are donating time, ideas, money and other resources to good causes. Examples range from Bill and Melinda Gates, who created one of the world's largest philanthropies with their billions of dollars, to washwoman Oseola McCarty, who saved enough to donate $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi for a scholarship fund for African-American students, to Paul Farmer, who grew up living in a bus in a trailer park and was able to devote his life to giving high-quality medical care to poor people around the world. Clinton is building upon the book with the websites giving.clintonfoundation.org and www.mycommitment.org, which enable visitors to share stories on philanthropic efforts they have made or pledge to make. Together, these efforts are part of what Clinton calls "a global floodtide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity."
© 2007 The Synergos Institute/World Economic Forum
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