Global Giving

MATTERS
Issue 32
November 2007–January 2008

In This Issue 2 Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs – Collaborating for

Philanthropists have recently become Innovation
more interested in social entrepreneur-
ship. This issue of Global Giving 7 Global Giving Round-Up
Matters looks at this emerging field,
• Philanthropy by Indian diaspora expanding focus and becoming institutionalized
and reports on the challenges social
• Sri Lankan Diaspora Day?
entrepreneurs face and the opportuni-
ties philanthropists have to move the • Labor and the environment top CSR issues in Asia
field forward. • GPC Member’s company joins environmental partnership in Asia
Working with social entrepreneurs can • “Execution counts,” says Mario Morino
provide philanthropists tremendous • Giving wisely: Mike Murray and other high-impact donors profiled in Barron’s
leverage of their resources, and allow • Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation supports orphans, mobilizes resources
them to connect with a kindred entre- • Gates Foundation supports Chinese effort to combat HIV/AIDS
preneurial spirit.
• Jet Li’s new fight – mental illness and natural disasters
Philanthropists looking to support • Financial Times looks at Internet giving
social entrepreneurs can choose indi-
• Philanthropy through career change – the move to “green jobs”
viduals making a difference on an issue
• Philanthropy by the wealthy more frequent in South Africa
of importance to them. They might also
consider working with a growing • Ackerman family honored for philanthropy
number of support organizations such • Synergos seeks director of networks
as Ashoka, the Schwab Foundation for • BusinessWeek profiles the Global Philanthropists Circle
Social Entrepreneurship and the Skoll
Foundation. These organizations pro-
12 Resources & Links
vide a range of services to social entre-
preneurs and advance understanding • New guide for philanthropy against racism
of social entrepreneurship. • New research on diaspora philanthropy
• Alliance Magazine focuses on measuring impact
• Synergos launches institutional newsletter
Global Giving Matters presents best
practices and innovations in philanthropy
and social investment around the world. 13 Your Ideas Wanted
It is an initiative of The Synergos Institute’s
Global Philanthropists Circle and the World
www.globalgivingmatters.org comments@globalgivingmatters.org
Economic Forum, under the direction of
Adele S. Simmons, President of the Global
Philanthropy Partnership, and Beth Cohen,
Senior Director, Global Philanthropists Circle.
Neil Carlson is the features writer. Synergos
If you would like to subscribe to this
newsletter, to unsubscribe, or to designate
someone else in your organization to receive © 2008 Synergos/World Economic Forum
it in your stead, contact us at
comments@globalgivingmatters.org.
 Global Giving MATTERS

Feature: Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs

– Collaborating for Innovation
It’s been over 25 years since Ashoka, a pioneer in social entrepreneurship, appointed its
first fellows in India, and nearly a decade since the approach to social change gained
widespread notoriety. Since then, Ashoka has been joined by the Schwab Foundation for
Social Entrepreneurship in Geneva, Switzerland, along with the Skoll Foundation and
Echoing Green in the United States, plus a host of others. Academic centers now exist at
Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford Universities. In short, the field of social
entrepreneurship has grown into a global phenomenon.

It’s easy to see why. For starters, social entrepreneurship took root at a time when tech-
nology, knowledge, capital, and social problems were all going global. It’s no accident
that the same epoch that gave rise to the Internet and saw the emergence of India and
China as global economic powers also saw the emergence of HIV/AIDS, global
warming, and persistent poverty in the developing world as inter-connected, transna-
tional problems. As Pamela Hartigan, Managing Director of the
Organizations Supporting Social Schwab Foundation, notes, social entrepreneurship is an
approach that, in cutting across traditional disciplines, opens up
Entrepreneurs
new approaches to dealing with complex social, economic and
Ashoka – www.ashoka.org political issues. “Social entrepreneurship is not about a funding
Founded in 1980 by Bill Drayton, Ashoka pioneered model. It’s an approach. It’s an innovative approach to a social
the field of social entrepreneurship. Today it provides problem that uses entrepreneurial thinking to create sustainable
financial and other forms of support to social entrepre- change.”
neurs around the world. It also promotes networking
among them and what it calls “group entrepreneur- Not surprisingly, this new approach to social change resonates
ship” – an approach through which networks of people with a new class of entrepreneurs and business leaders who
can more quickly expand their impact. Ashoka has made their fortunes using innovative approaches to business
created a website www.changemakers.net that shares challenges. Many contemporary business leaders – like Jeff
ideas and approaches to social problems and pro- Skoll, the founding President of eBay, or Robin Richards
motes “collaborative competitions” to refine them. Donohoe, a venture capitalist and co-founder of the Draper
Echoing Green – www.echoinggreen.org Richards Foundation – made their money at a relatively young
Echoing Green provides financial support and technical age and are eager to apply their business skills to making the
assistance to its Fellows. To date it has invested world a better place.
$25 million in seed grants to nearly 450 social entre-
Over the past decade, these social investors have begun creating
preneurs.
an entire ecosystem to support social entrepreneurs worldwide.
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship “Think about the institutions and networks that sustain the
– www.schwabfound.org technology industry in Silicon Valley,” explains Lance
Established in Klaus Schwab and his wife Hilde in Henderson, Skoll Foundation Vice President for Program and
1998, the Schwab Foundation helps connect social
Impact. Stanford and Berkeley are centers of research and
entrepreneurs to sources of funding, other resources
scholarship, drawing talent from around the world. The venture
and networks that enable them to strengthen and
expand their work. The Schwab Foundation is a sepa-
capital industry provides financing for technology start-ups.
rate entity from the World Economic Forum but Talent, ideas and innovations move across business and social
works closely with it and other important organizations networks. And entrepreneurs come to Silicon Valley because of
promoting global dialogue and understanding in pro- that infrastructure. “That’s what we need to create in the social
viding opportunities for Schwab Fellows. entrepreneurial sector.”
Continues

November 2007–January 2008 2

 Global Giving MATTERS

Yet if the practice of social entrepreneurship has grown up, it’s

Organizations Supporting Social by no means mature. Social entrepreneurs and investors still
Entrepreneurs, continued lack a rigorous capital market capable of allocating resources
Skoll Foundation – www.skollfoundation.org efficiently to nonprofits, hybrids and social businesses.
Created by Jeff Skoll in 1999, the Skoll Foundation Performance metrics are still fairly idiosyncratic. And, as Sally
invests in social entrepreneurs through its award pro- Osberg and Roger L. Martin argue in a recent Stanford Social
gram, the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. It Innovation Review article, there is no consensus even on basic
also promotes networking among social entrepreneurs
questions such as: What is social entrepreneurship? Who is an
and supports documentation of new approaches. Skoll
entrepreneur? How does the approach differ from social service
has built a website www.socialedge.org to promote
or activism? Let’s call it an awkward adolescence.
sharing of best practice information among social
entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and others. In the end, the practice of social entrepreneurship grows by the
Other organizations are beginning to work in this experience of entrepreneurs dealing with concrete, real-world
space. Synergos itself is an example – it has recently challenges. Here is how four leading social entrepreneurs have
launched the Middle East/North Africa Social tackled some of the biggest challenges facing the field – and
Innovators Program to enable social entrepreneurs in how social investors have helped them along the way.
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine to
bring their successful ideas to scale, build the sustain-
ability of their programs and contribute to lasting social
Scale Up
change. Services provided will include financial When Vicky Colbert created the Escuela Nueva (“New
awards, training, and links to businesses, govern- School”) methodology in 1975, with the participation of rural
ments, influential individuals and other social entrepre- Colombian teachers, it represented a breakthrough for the
neurs. country’s rural schools. Escuela Nueva upended the conven-
tional teacher-centered model, replacing it with a cost-effective
educational model that emphasizes active, cooperative learning,
small-groups, and cast teachers as facilitators. Equally important, the Escuela Nueva
methodology provided a roadmap for strengthening the ties between teachers, adminis-
trators, and community members. In its expansion phase in Colombia, Escuela Nueva
reached over 20,000 rural schools and, to date, over five million children in 16 countries
throughout Latin America and Asia.Yet Escuela Nueva’s long-term success – and the
setbacks it overcame along the way – illustrate how an idea moves from an innovation to
silent a revolution.

From the outset, Colbert says, Escuela Nueva approached reform systemically. “This
was not just at the classroom level,” Colbert says. “It was with the teachers, with the
administration, with the community, so you had to have a systemic approach.” Colbert
also had the foresight to build her reform from the bottom up, and to root demands for
reform in empirical results. Once the first few schools had proven superior results,
Colbert could point to rising test scores, increased self-esteem, democratic behavior, and
citizenship skills among students, and improved teacher attitudes as evidence that
Escuela Nueva worked. “And cost effectiveness, of course,” she adds. “You have to con-
sider that the innovation is feasible, technically, politically and financially – and that it’s
easily replicated. It’s not how one teacher can do it, but how thousands can do it.”

During the 1980s, Colbert served as Colombia’s Vice-Minister of Education, a position

she used to expand the Escuela Nueva model throughout the country, a tenure that
imparted an important lesson about the fragility of reform. “Once I left the Ministry of
Education, I realized that innovations are not sustained in government bureaucracies,”
she recalls. Under the next Colombian administration, schools began sliding back into

November 2007–January 2008 3

 Global Giving MATTERS

old ways of doing business. “Innovations are very vulnerable to political and administra-
tive change.”

Seeking to insulate Escuela Nueva from the educational bureaucracy, Colbert reached
out to the private sector and civil society, and launched the Escuela Nueva Foundation, a
nonprofit organization that develops and provides curriculum, consults on implementing
the Escuela Nueva model, and ensures quality and sustainability. In addition to enjoying
broad support from Colombia’s private and citizen sectors, Colbert has received support
from the Schwab and Skoll Foundations and Ashoka and was recently given one of five
inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Awards by the Clinton Global Initiative. Still, she
insists, government support is the key to long-term sustainability. It’s the balance of
power that needs to be recalibrated. “Through governments you reach coverage and
create public policy. Through public private partnerships, you reach quality and sustain-
ability.”

Acquire the capital to finance change

A Diversity of Social Entrepreneurs
Although our examples are drawn from the field of
education, social entrepreneurs can promote innova-
tion in many other areas and through both business
and non-profit approaches – or even hybrids of both.
One example is Ajantha Perera, an Ashoka Fellow in
Sri Lanka, who is an innovator in building multi-sector
cooperation in the field of recycling. She has been
able to demonstrate both to local governments and
local businesses how recycling programs can be
cost-effective and, for the business side, profitable.
Mexican businessman and GPC member José
Ignacio Avalos Hernandez is another example. He
has created Gente Nueva and related organizations
that together use both business and nonprofit
approaches in microfinance, savings, enterprise devel-
opment, health and nutrition programs. Avalos’ efforts
were examined in more detail in Global Giving Matters
December 2002-January 2003.
Some social entrepreneurs operate mainly in the for-
profit sector. Farouk Jiwa of Honey Care in Kenya
has, as the Schwab Foundation describes it, “revital-
ized Kenya’s national honey industry by focusing on
smallholder farmers across the country. Central to the
success is an innovation in production technology,
effective beekeeping training and community-based
extension service provision, the provision of a guaran-
teed market to smallholder farmers through forward
contracts, as well as prompt payments.” Like Avalos,
Jiwa is a Schwab Entrepreneur.
One of the perennial challenges facing social entrepreneurs
comes down to the question of money: How do you find big
chunks of flexible, patient capital that will sustain measurable
change? Financial metrics and traditional capital markets do a
poor job of capturing social value, while philanthropic capital
markets inconsistently reward efficiency and scale. Beginning in
2005, J.B. Schramm, the founder and CEO of College Summit,
a national US nonprofit organization that helps school districts
develop a college-attending culture throughout high schools and
a planning infrastructure for post-secondary education to match,
forged a new solution to this dilemma. Instead of waiting for the
capital markets to evolve, he created an investment instrument
that met College Summit’s needs: the College Summit Proof
Fund, a $15 million philanthropic investment fund that prom-
ised investors clear, measurable returns in four areas – growth
(measured by the number of children served), sustainability (fee-
for-service revenue), efficiency (cost-per-student) and success
(the number of young people who apply to college).
Granted, Schramm had some high-powered help. When his vice
president of development left in 2005, board member Charles
Harris, a former Partner and Managing Director at Goldman
Sachs, served as the interim development director for six
months. During his tenure, Harris saw first-hand the inefficien-
cies and strategic misalignment traditional fundraising caused,
fragmenting revenue into restricted grant pools and under-
funding core operations in favor of programs.
Drawing on Harris’s experience in private equity, he and
Schramm devised the Proof Fund and took the idea to investors
drawn from Harris’s Wall Street rolodex. Within six months,
Harris and Schramm raised the entire $15 million Proof Fund

November 2007–January 2008 4

Global Giving MATTERS

from ten wealthy individuals. Investors loved the accountability of the Proof Fund’s
bottom-line approach. Schramm loved not just the money but how it was structured as a
big, up-front pool of funds with no strings attached. (Harris went on to found
SeaChange Capital Partners, a nonprofit investment fund that will replicate the Proof
Fund model with other high-performing nonprofits; two weeks ago, Schramm was
named the 2008 US Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation.)

“The Proof Fund has allowed us to say no to non-strategic opportunities that have come
our way,” Schramm says. Because the organization was aligned from the board on down,
there was no reason to chase grants that didn’t align with College Summit’s core
strategy. Since implementing the Fund’s underlying business plan, College Summit has
achieved a 50% annual growth rate in the number of children served and in its fee-for-
service revenue – the cornerstone of long-term sustainability. Applications are up an
average of 18% per year, while per-student costs have gone down 10%. “If we hit our
four metrics in four years, we win,” Schramm says. “And that allows for much more
long-term decisions to be made.”

Attract bold people for bold ideas

Back in 1999, when John Wood left his position as a Microsoft’s Director of Business
Development for China to start Room to Read, he did what any ambitious entrepreneur
should do: established his big hairy audacious goal and started getting the right people
on board to help him meet it. The goal? To help 10 million children in the developing
world get an education by developing schools, libraries, and other educational infrastruc-
ture. The people? Therein lies the story of how Wood, in just eight years, took Room to
Read from a first-year start-up that brought 3,000 books to a Nepalese village on the
back of a yak to an organization that has built 440 schools, over 5,000 bilingual libraries,
and reached over 1.7 million children throughout Asia and Africa.

Perusing the bios of Room to Read’s board and management team, one could be for-
given for thinking that Room to Read was not a nonprofit organization but a world-class
corporation. Board members include Netscape co-founder and serial entrepreneur Marc
Andreessen, as well as John Ridding, Chief Executive of the Financial Times and
FT.com. The management team includes alumni of Goldman Sachs, Gap, Unilever, the
Asia Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

“Bold ideas attract bold people,” Wood says of his team. “One of the biggest issues in the
social sector is the inability and/or the unwillingness to scale. But there are so many
great solutions out there, and there is such need out there, why are we not scaling this
sector more quickly? If you can get a hybrid – you get a CFO who went to Wharton and
has a decade of corporate experience and you have another person from a top-tier non-
profit – that’s the best of both worlds. Not only can we talk about a great solution, we
can take it to scale.”

Beyond the bold vision, Wood made the strategic decision to hand over the reigns of day-
to-day operations to his management team, a move that has freed him up to play a more
public role. “I might be pretty decent at balancing a checkbook or looking at what kind
of dental insurance we should give employees, but that’s not my unique value added,”
Wood says. Instead, Wood spends 70% of his time on the road, speaking, evangelizing,
and raising money. Room to Read’s revenues grew 70% last year, off a $9 million base.

November 2007–January 2008 5

Global Giving MATTERS

To keep up with the pace of leads Wood is developing in his peripatetic fundraising from
corporations, high-net-worth individuals, and speeches, Wood has scaled his develop-
ment team from three people two years ago to 12 people today. “The fact that I have a
great team really frees me up to be the classic CEO, Mr. Outside Ambassador.”

Room to Read has been equally successful at hiring top-level local managers. “The key is
to find people who have the same zeal for education that we do, who see education as
the ticket for their country,” Wood says. To local managers, Room to Read’s focus and
discipline hold the promise of widespread change. “They see in us that we are going to
take things to a serious scale,” Wood continues. “Last year, we opened, on average, a new
school library every six hours and created the infrastructure to monitor and evaluate
them. What could be more motivating?”

Evolve and adapt

Like any good entrepreneur, Rodrigo Baggio has learned as much from his failures as
from his success. In 1993, Baggio, then a young information technology teacher in Rio
de Janeiro’s private schools, had a radical idea stemming from a newfangled thing called
the Internet. He would create an electronic bulletin board through which young people
from different social classes – the middle-class kids he was teaching and the young
people living in the favelas overlooking the city – could interact with each other.Yet
when the project was up and running, it turned out that the only kids talking were the
ones from privileged backgrounds. Why? Kids from the favelas didn’t have computers.

So Baggio retooled his idea. Partnering with the Information for All campaign (whose
aim was to bring used computers to poor communities), the C & A Fashion Institute and
ECO Group (a local nonprofit organization), Baggio opened the first Information
Technology and Civic Engagement Schools. Run by and for local residents, the schools
used technology as a foundation for debate, reflection and citizen engagement. The
school was a hit with local residents, and they clamored for more.

In 1995, Baggio founded Committee for the Democracy in Information Technology

(CDI) to help replicate the schools. Ten CDI schools were launched within a year, and
the organization had an annual growth rate of 70% until 2002. Now, six years later, CDI
has 840 schools in 20 Brazilian states and ten Latin American countries. Baggio, who
became an Ashoka Fellow in 1996, enjoys widespread support among Brazil’s business
community; CDI receives funding from the Skoll and Schwab foundations.

What is most extraordinary about this growth, however, is not the speed with which it
occurred, but rather the extent to which Baggio has managed to expand, improve and
evolve CDI through the rigorous use of information management. In 2003, 200 CDI
leaders from across the network came together to design an Internet-based assessment
tool that would help them track outcomes across the network. With 17 indicators for
measuring quality, results and process, the CDI’s information system is a vital manage-
ment tool for local and regional sites, and for CDI headquarters. “The system allows us
to take a photograph every four months of the CDI network and work a lot with quality
and good decisions to impact our work,” Baggio says.

With this system in place, CDI has managed to add programs while also expanding its
geographic reach – while retaining simultaneous commitments to high-quality services

November 2007–January 2008 6

 Global Giving MATTERS
Global Giving Roundup
Overviews of best
practices around
the world and
links to learn more
about them
Links to websites with
more details are available
at the online edition of
Global Giving Matters at
www.globalgivingmatters.org
and local control of CDI sites. Last year, for instance, CDI launched Connections, a
social venture with the Brazilian office of Accenture, the global consulting giant, which
will provide job training, internships, and entrepreneur training for students at CDI sites.
“This is about digital inclusion and job creation,” Baggio explains. “But the basis of
Connections is the CDI schools. It all begins with local schools and local people.”
Looking Forward
Despite these four challenges, an entrepreneur’s outlook is by definition hopeful. How
else does one look at the desperate poverty of, say, Rio’s favelas and see hope and oppor-
tunity where others see only misery? Yet even the most ardent advocates of social entre-
preneurism insist that widespread change will require more resources. “That’s the uber-
challenge,” insists the Skoll Foundation’s Lance Henderson. “The issues these organiza-
tions are trying to address are enormously complex. The challenge of taking on a world-
wide intervention takes a level of resources and talent that is beyond the reach of many.”
For investors and philanthropists, helping entrepreneurs reach scale means continuing to
bet on smart people doing big things. But it also means thinking about using their other
resources – vision, social connections, business skills – to build an ecosystem capable of
sustaining social entrepreneurs worldwide. Because it’s not just about money. It’s about
bringing the same urgency traditional entrepreneurs and investors bring to their tradi-
tional work to something more profound: making the world a better place.
Philanthropy by Indian diaspora expanding focus and becoming
institutionalized
India has a well-established tradition of philanthropy that has been carried to other
countries by its diaspora. For example, Britain-based Raj Loomba, founder of a series of
clothing businesses in that country, established a trust in 1997 which today supports the
educational efforts of several thousand children in 29 states in India. Among Indians in
other countries who do not have their own mechanism for giving, the amount of giving
often rises in response to natural disasters, such as the Gujarat earthquake and the
Indian Ocean tsunami. But giving on less dramatic issues is rising, as groups such as the
American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) are looking to make a
lasting impact through their members’ philanthropy. For example, AAPI has started a
pilot rural healthcare program in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The Tata Energy Research
Institute is also doing its part – starting a program to enable Indians (including those
living abroad) to donate in support of technology-based solutions to problems in rural
areas. (Earth Times, January 7, 2008)
Sri Lankan Diaspora Day?
The two million Sri Lankans living outside their country have become an important eco-
nomic and philanthropic force in their home country, returning an estimated $3.4 billion
annually. Some Sri Lankans living abroad have wondered if the country should attempt
November 2007–January 2008 7
Global Giving MATTERS

to follow the model of India, with explicit efforts to increase diaspora philanthropy
through the creation of an annual “Sri Lankan Diaspora Day.” Walter Jayasinghe, head
the Sri Lanka Foundation in the United States, is one supporter of the idea, and said that
large number of Sri Lankans working in the Middle East could be a major source of
money for development. (Asian Tribune, January 13, 2008)

Labor and the environment top CSR issues in Asia

In his blog 6A.M. (www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/), PR mogul Richard Edelman
points to a number of trends in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Asia – particu-
larly a focus on the issues of labor and the environment. Interestingly, he reports that,
overall, Chinese companies with international competitors seem to be moving faster on
CSR than companies based in Hong Kong. Another new trend he identifies is coopera-
tion among global NGOs, local NGOs and businesses on specific projects or industry
standards. Commentator Raul J. Palabrica of the Inquirer (Philippines) makes similar
observations on the focus of CSR in Asia. He adds that multinational corporations can
play a leadership role on the issue of labor when national companies and government are
reluctant or unable to do so.

GPC Member’s company joins environmental partnership in Asia

GITI Tire Corporation, which is led by GPC Member Enki Tan, is donating $1 million for
conservation projects in northern Sumatra (Indonesia) and the southwest China for use
in partnership agreement with Conservation International (CI). The initiative will protect
habitat of threatened species such as the Sumatran orangutan and pandas while replant
forest areas, which will also reduce levels of atmospheric carbon that cause climate
change. “This collaboration is an important step in bringing more private sector invest-
ment for conservation programs in Indonesia,” said Jatna Supriatna, the CI regional vice
president for Indonesia. “We hope that the communities benefiting from better liveli-
hoods in the buffer zone will support our conservation efforts for the orangutan in the
wild.” (Conservation International press release, December 13, 2007)

“Execution counts,” says Mario Morino

In an essay Execution Counts in a World Enamored with Social Innovation, GPC Member
Mario Morino suggests philanthropists place more emphasis on supporting what works
and perhaps less on funding the latest trend. He agrees that the tremendous growth of
new ideas and new organizations in the nonprofit sector in the United States and else-
where is a good thing, but cautions that “… we can’t forget that building organizations,
managing them effectively, and helping them improve is vital as well. This concern is far
more relevant to the nonprofit versus the private sector, for the former has few mecha-
nisms or incentives to separate the wheat from the chaff.” One of the most tangible les-
sons is that greater attention should be paid to management and leadership of nonprofits
organizations. Recruitment and retention are important in the nonprofit sector, as is sup-
port that enable social entrepreneurs to have the management capacity to make the most
of their ideas. The essay is available online at www.vppartners.org – the website of
Venture Philanthropy Partners, which Morino chairs.

November 2007–January 2008 8

Global Giving MATTERS

Giving wisely: Mike Murray and other high-impact donors profiled

in Barron’s
Barron’s magazine asked Philadelphia-based consulting company Geneva Global to iden-
tify ten donors who are making a big difference in the world, despite not giving amounts
of money that would make them household names. The ten (including some couples and
families) are making a difference on issues arising from housing in the United States to
the provision of clean water in Ethiopia to disaster response worldwide. They share a
focus on impact. As Steve Alderman, who with his wife Liz Alderman has helped orphans
of war in Rwanda and Cambodia, put it, “We’re 66 years old and don’t have time to
mess around with stuff that doesn’t work.” GPC Member Mike Murray is one of the ten,
and is lauded for his work in helping increase the impact of the world’s best microfi-
nance organizations. Mike Murray and the organization he founded Unitus were profiled
in Global Giving Matters February-March 2003. Another example is Lynn Fritz, who
took his business expertise in supply chain management to the field of disaster response.
His Fritz Institute, launched with $6 million, has trained humanitarian workers from 50
countries and its software is used by nonprofit organizations around the world. Fritz was
profiled in Global Giving Matters December 2004-January 2005. Geneva Global has
launched a website – www.beyondphilanthropy.org – to share findings of its work on phi-
lanthropy and social investment. (Barron’s, November 26, 2007)

Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation supports orphans, mobilizes resources

Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation (BCAF – www.bcaf.bg), which has been operating
since 1995, has established a scholarship program to support orphan children who have
reached of 18 – the age at which they can no longer live in institutions for orphans. The
program is supported by national and international donors, including the International
Women’s Club, Eurofootball, Intracom, Mail.bg, Microsoft and BNP Paribas. BCAF was
one of the first nonprofit organizations in Bulgaria to take online contributions from
both within the country and from international donors. BCAF is part of the global net-
work of CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) organizations with headquarters in the United
Kingdom. Through the network, the CAF UK experience and experiences of its mem-
bers in effective philanthropy are shared internationally. (Sofia Echo, October 15, 2007)

Gates Foundation supports Chinese effort to combat HIV/AIDS

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $50 million to work with the gov-
ernment of China and nonprofit organizations fighting HIV/AIDS in that country. About
$30 million will go to the Ministry of Health and the remainder to local, national and
international NGOs. The focus of the work will include not only treatment of infected
people and prevention for high-risk groups, but also efforts to reduce the stigma associ-
ated with the disease. UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said, “I am sure this valu-
able new commitment from the Gates Foundation, which will also assist civil society
organizations, will lead to an even stronger response to HIV in China at all levels.”
(Gates Foundation press release, November 14, 2007)

November 2007–January 2008 9

Global Giving MATTERS

Jet Li’s new fight – mental illness and natural disasters

Action movie star Jet Li is taking a break from acting this year to focus on his new Jet Li
One Foundation Project, which he launched in cooperation with the Red Cross Society
of China. The foundation will raise funds to help victims of natural disasters worldwide
and Chinese youth coping with mental health problems. At a recent magazine launch, he
said, “I hope business leaders will take the lead and their employees will follow.” There is
hope for that – a recent rise in private philanthropy in China has followed two trends:
(1) growth and a great accumulation of wealth and (2) increasing social divides.
(Reuters, January 14, 2008)

Financial Times looks at Internet giving

Websites such as GuideStar (in the United States), GuideStar International and an
emerging number of similar databases around the world allow visitors to find informa-
tion about nonprofit organizations working on a particular issue or in a particular place.
Often, links are provided for visitors to contribute directly to organizations they find.
These tools are not limited to grantmaking but also include approaches as microfinance.
For example, Kiva.org and MicroPlace.com allow users to lend relatively small amounts
to microentrepreneurs in many countries. Social networking sites and online virtual
communities such as SecondLife are also being used by activities and concerned individ-
uals to make connections and mobilize support. (Financial Times, December 10, 2007)

Philanthropy through career change – the move to “green jobs”

As attention to environmental issues grows around the world, philanthropists are finding
ways other than giving money to make a difference. One approach is through career
changes that support environmental action. GPC Member Jeffrey Horowitz is an
example. Formerly a successful architect who also worked on some philanthropic ven-
tures, Horowitz now devotes the majority of his time to efforts such as the Avoided
Deforestation Partners (www.adpartners.org), a think tank that supports international
efforts to halt tropical deforestation. Avoided Deforestation Partners brings together
input from the private sector, governments, NGOs and forest communities in its work,
which includes promotion of the sale of carbon credits. Horowitz is not alone in making
a career shift that uses skills honed in the private sector in new, socially-oriented ways. In
fact, services are emerging to help people make such transitions. One example is Green
Careers, which since 2000 has helped thousands of clients move to “doing something
[they] already know how to do and putting it in the context of the green agenda,” as
company founder Marie Kerpan puts it. (BusinessWeek, January 10, 2008)

Philanthropy by the wealthy more frequent in South Africa

Companies and organizations serving wealthy clients in South Africa report increasing
interest in organized philanthropy, with the primary reason reported to be a rising social
conscience about the use of wealth. Others have pointed to a desire to leave a legacy,
which contributes to rising interest in endowments. Although tax laws in the country
don’t provide many incentives for charitable donations, progress has been made – with
notable effect. Anna Vayanos, Business Development Manager of TBS Consulting
(which helps wealth individuals organize their giving) points to a “massive increase” in
the creation of charitable trusts after changes in the tax laws at the start of the decade.

November 2007–January 2008 10

Global Giving MATTERS

Still, some observers, such as Tracy Fortune, Executive Director of the Non-Profit
Consortium, have called for increasing limits of income tax deductions individuals can
make. In South Africa, the limits are currently set at 10% of annual income. That figure
is sometimes exceeded when someone makes a large single gift, such as the establish-
ment of a trust or endowment. (Business Report (South Africa), October 23, 2007)

Ackerman family honored for philanthropy

The Ackerman family of South Africa has been honored in the inaugural 2007 Inyathelo
Philanthropy Awards in the category of “Family Philanthropy.” The Ackermans are GPC
Members and their philanthropic efforts – addressing issues such as education,
HIV/AIDS and local entrepreneurship – were profiled in Global Giving Matters October-
November 2002. Kathy Ackerman-Robins is also a member of the Board of Directors of
Synergos (Southern Africa). The Inyathelo Awards are a new initiative of Inyathelo:
South African Institute for Advancement, and were decided by an independent panel of
judges. For more information, visit www.inyathelo.co.za.

Synergos seeks director of networks

Synergos has undertaken a strategic planning process over the past 18 months and has
determined a need to focus attention on deepening its work around its extensive net-
works, including the Global Philanthropists Circle, Senior Fellows program and others.
To maximize these efforts, the organization will dedicate additional resources, including
adding a senior manager to oversee all of Synergos’ networks. Synergos is seeking a moti-
vated, creative and results-oriented leader to fill this newly created position, Senior
Director, Networks. We welcome your feedback and any suggestions of individuals who
could lead this effort. A full description of the position can be found at
www.synergos.org/employment/.

BusinessWeek profiles the Global Philanthropists Circle

The November 26, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek contained a feature on Synergos’ Global
Philanthropists Circle. The piece gives a broad overview of the Circle’s work, and the
GPC Members and staff who participated in the piece contribute their views on how
involvement in the Circle helps philanthropic leaders. The focus of many of the com-
ments is on the value of partnerships and networking. As Circle Member Hylton
Appelbaum puts it, “If I learn about someone else tackling the same problem in a bril-
liant way, I can fast-track what I’m doing by taking a leaf out of their book. I don’t have
to reinvent the wheel. Well, that’s priceless.” (BusinessWeek, November 26, 2007)

November 2007–January 2008 11

 Global Giving MATTERS

Resources & Links

Activities, web- New guide for philanthropy against racism
sites and other GrantCraft (www.grantcraft.org), an initiative of the Ford Foundation that collects and
shares best practice information about grantmaking, has produced a new guide in coop-
cutting-edge
eration with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equality (www.racialequity.org).
information for Entitled Grant Making with a Racial Equity Lens, the guide offers skills and strategies
global givers that donors can use to deepen their understanding and actions regarding race, ethnicity
and equity. The guide is available online at www.grantcraft.org/pdfs/equity.pdf. (Aspen
Links to websites with Philanthropy Letter, October 2007)
more details are available
at the online edition of
Global Giving Matters at
www.globalgivingmatters.org
New research on diaspora philanthropy
The Karoff Center at The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) and the Global Equity Initiative at
Harvard University have completed a research study that examines the growing philan-
thropic giving from citizens and residents of the United States to their countries of
origin. Entitled Diaspora Philanthropy: New Roles and Emerging Models, the effort
includes a look at trends in diaspora philanthropy in general, as well as case studies of
giving to Colombia, Kenya, the Philippines and Vietnam. It also includes a compendium
of institutions and programs that encourage and support diaspora giving. The studies
can be found in the Strengthening Global Philanthropy section of TPI’s website
www.tpi.org.

Alliance Magazine focuses on measuring impact

The December 2007 issue of Alliance Magazine (www.alliancemagazine.org) contains a
special feature on “Measuring impact: Who counts?” It includes an interview with Paul
Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in which he shares his
views on the importance of both funders and the organizations they support investing in
evaluation of their work. In another piece, David Bonbright of Keystone Accountability
(and a Synergos Senior Fellow) looks at new tools that are helping nonprofit organiza-
tions better measure their impact. As he puts it: “Current thinking favors a much friend-
lier pluralistic model in which qualitative, quantitative, perceptual and empirical data can
be assembled into a comprehensible whole that still honors the complexity of social
change.” Bonbright and Akwasi Aidoo of Trust Africa guest edited the special feature.

Synergos launches institutional newsletter

This December, Synergos distributed its first organization-wide electronic newsletter to
partners. Entitled The Commons, it provides an overview of work across Synergos’ var-
ious programs. The inaugural issue features articles about work in Brazil, Canada, India,
Namibia, the Middle East and North Africa, and along the US-Mexico border, as well as
brief profiles of new members of the Global Philanthropists Circle. It also presented
links to highlights of the GPC Annual Meeting. The Commons will be produced quar-
terly and available free. To subscribe or read the first issue, visit www.synergos.org/
thecommons/.

November 2007–January 2008 12

 Global Giving MATTERS

Your Ideas Wanted

Global Giving Matters aims to present information on best practices and innovations in
philanthropy and social investment around the world. We encourage you to send us:
• Ideas about issues or people you would like to learn more about
• Examples of your own philanthropy
• Comments about this issue.
Write to us at comments@globalgivingmatters.org.

Global Giving Matters does not present solicitations of support for particular
initiatives or organizations.

The Synergos Institute The World Economic Forum

51 Madison Avenue
21st Floor
New York, NY 10010
USA
tel +1 212-447-8111
fax +1 212-447-8119
www.synergos.org
91-93 route de la Capite
CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva
Switzerland
tel +41 (22) 869-1212
fax +41 (22) 786-2744
www.weforum.org

November 2007–January 2008 13