Obama’s New Tax Plan: Debate over implications for Philanthropy

The past few days have seen lively debate over whether Obama’s new tax plan – which includes limits for charitable giving deductions – will reduce the amount of money given each year toward philanthropic ends.  The Chronicle of Philanthropy has posted several articles with competing views – one from the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy [...]

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Jane Wales: Input for the White House Office of Social Innovation

The Chronicle of Philanthropy today published a short piece on plans for a new White House Office of Social Innovation.  Jane Wales, our CEO & President, has been asked to design a series of meetings during the next two years to develop advice on how the office should operate.  She will host these through [...]

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UN SG Ban Ki-moon & President Clinton on tackling global public health with philanthropy

Earlier this week, the UN Economic and Social Council held a special event on the role of philanthropy in combating global public health challenges.  The meeting convened over 400 executives and philanthropy leaders, representatives of UN Member States and other partners at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called [...]

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Larry Brilliant steps down at Google.org

Late last night, Google.org’s Executive Director Larry Brilliant announced that he would step down from leading Google’s philanthropic wing, known as “DotOrg” to Googlers. A NY Times article notes that Megan Smith, a long time Google exec, is stepping in to align the focus of Google.org more with with Google as a whole.
“During our review [...]

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Renu Mehta’s Scheme for raising $75 billion

Renu Mehta,  a former model (and member of the  Global Philanthropy Forum community!), is working hard to change the face of British Philanthropy.  Together with Sir James Mirrlees, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, they have come up with a new scheme for directing billions of dollars toward ending global poverty.  An article yesterday in [...]

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Sharing Values – Madeleine Albright & her 3 daughters

Earlier this month, we hosted a very special evening honoring the work of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her three daughters – Katie, Anne, and Alice. Each has devoted her life to service in a uniquely meaningful way, and their closeness is evident throughout the program. Jane Wales, our President [...]

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Working to lift the burden of Malaria through Philanthropy

The Center for High Impact Philanthropy released a report this month titled “Lifting the Burden of Malaria: An Investment Guide for Impact Driven Philanthropy.”  In it, the authors synthesize data on effective malaria control strategies, consider funding trends and nonprofit performance data, and interview malaria specialists and public health practitioners to help you get to [...]

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Council staff at CGI U

Several Council staff are back in the office today after a long weeked in Austin Texas where they took part in the Clinton Global Initiative University conference.  While mainly involved in the Poverty Alleviation track, Council staff also got to participate in the plenary sessions with President Clinton, and in several of the breakouts in [...]

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Obama and the Non-Profit world

At this year’s Global Philanthropy Forum annual conference, we will be exploring ways that foundations and the non-profit sector can work with government and the Obama administration to address domestic and international crises. Rick Cohen, at The Cohen Report, recently provided an excellent summary of existing proposals from some leading organizations and thinkers in [...]

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Prospects for Philanthropy in a Bear Market

Over at Forbes.com, Betsy Brill of Strategic Philanthropy; Matthew Bonaguidi from Gresham Partners; and Patricia Angus, Angus Advisory Group talk about the need for philanthropists to be “tactical, effective and strategic” in these challenging economic times.
Read the full article here.

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No measures for philanthropy in new Stimulus Bill

The Chronicle of Philanthropy notes that the stimulus package passed yesterday by the Senate leaves out several measures that nonprofit leaders had proposed to ease the impact of the economic climate on philanthropy.  Some of the ideas left out include a $15 billion bridge-loan fund and a “flat” excise tax for private foundations.  Read the [...]

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The WSJ on Microloans as Good Investments

A Wall Street Journal article today ties back to our Friday post highlighting MicroPlaces’ new Global Poverty Note.  The WSJ piece focuses on some of the big online giving sites, such as Kiva.org, and notes that  “Credit markets world-wide are tight, and charitable donations are down.  But Web sites that specialize in “microlending” — small [...]

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