The country perhaps most associated with corruption in the U.S. popular press today is Afghanistan. Coverage of corruption in Afghanistan has mushroomed since the August presidential election, which observers found to be riddled with fraud. While it is not necessarily a valid assumption that electoral fraud indicates systemic corruption, in this case the accusation is […]
I last asked, “Will the West let Asia rise?” I was playing off a comment from Hans Rosling’s TED presentation – and was applying a similar notion to philanthropy and social innovation. Writing for Alliance, Olga Alexeeva turned my thesis around in her article “The Gucci bag of New Philanthropy” to ask: What if philanthropic […]
Returning from two weeks in India – with my mind full of thoughts, I came across Hans Rosling’s video from Ted India. I adore how excited Rosling is about statistics (b/c I’m not), and think GapMinder is quite clever (b/c helps people like me to “get it”). Since my mind tends probe the non-Western experience, […]
As a side project to my day job, I’ve been exploring the world of Canadian public policy. Given the opportunity to participate in a very smart program for non-profits called the Max Bell Public Policy Institute – I’ve been opening my eyes ( & brain) to the world of social enterprise and public policy. In […]
The increasing professionalization of (Western) Philanthropy has left most of us, the average check writer, in the dust. Professionalization is not necessarily a bad thing, but it elicits a similar answer to questions of “why I am unable to do my husband’s treasury job” and “why I need a lawyer to help me buy a […]
When the FP Article, A $9 Trillion Question: Did the World Get Muhammad Yunus Wrong?, came across my Twitter feed this morning my first thought was, blasphemy! The praise and attention that Yunus and Soto have received over the past few years – collecting fans and converts of their teachings – make it hard to imagine […]
Much of what I’m reading these days – in blogs, in articles – seems to swirl around the idea of efficiency: measuring efficiency, metrics for efficiency, foundations granting to efficient non-profits…and on and on. I don’t actually set out to look for these articles, they are just there – alongside the many discussing how to […]
Watching NBC’s premiere of The Philanthropist left me with more questions than answers. Luckily, I’m not the only one with conflicted views on the effect the show will have on philanthropy. Last night, we were saturated with quite a portrayal of white man’s guilt – where the most honest moment comes when our hero, Teddy […]
Hudson Institute released the Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances for 2009. The full report and executive summary are available. Once again, the Index shows that Remittances are a larger percentage of U.S. Economic Engagement in Developing Countries than Official Development Assistance and Private Philanthropy. Private capital flows are slightly higher. The Index confirms that […]
For as much as I want help philanthropy become an accessible, mainstream norm and value – I’m still wrestling with the idea of a billionaire playboy turned vigilante philanthropist as our superhero for doing so. NBC’s June premiere of The Philanthropist is making my head spin. From a foreign policy point of view, do we […]
Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a big deal for non-profit funders and organizations. How do you determine the most effective approach to solving homelessness, bettering education, or curbing poverty? Is it possible to weave a standard method of evaluation through a variety of themes, lens, and perspectives? Should we even try for one approach, […]
If you missed Obama’s comments last night regarding charitable deductions, I’ve included them here. For the past few weeks, the non-profit sector has been a flutter with commentary on the lowering of charitable deductions for wealthy donors. In summary, instead of deducting 39%, wealthy American will be able to deduct 28% of their charitable giving. […]
Whether you eat, sleep, and breathe philanthropy or whether you can barely pronounce the word, the entire sector revolves around personal choice. No matter how fancy or interactive our industry is able to make the word, the feeling, the community – the decision on when, where, or whether to participate will always be based on […]
Between the blogs I follow and my twitter-feed, I’m feeling issue-fatigue on the financial crisis and how the sector is coping. My weekly Economist continues to report the most pressing financial difficulties from manufacturing to mortgages – in every corner of the globe. Even for a sector-junkie, its challenging to keep up on the most current thoughts regarding Obama’s stimulus package […]