Exciting news out of Washington!

The U.S. Senate yesterday passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.  This bill is expect to pass the House next week and should be signed by President Obama shortly thereafter.
The NonProfit Times detailed some of the highlights of the bill:
The Serve America Act updates and strengthens national service programs administrated by the Corporation for [...]

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Hewlett Foundation’s Paul Brest calls for foundation flexibility

Friday evening, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation president Paul Brest posted his third Huffington Post piece related to the controversial National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy (NCRP) report entitled, Criteria for Philanthropy at its Best. In this installment, he takes on the NCRP recommendation that 50 percent of all foundation support be directed toward unrestricted [...]

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Interview with Acumen Fund CEO Jacqueline Novogratz

Bill Javetski, an editor with The McKinsey Quarterly interviews Jacqueline Novogratz, a speaker at the upcoming Global Philanthropy Forum 2009 Conference in Washington, DC, April 22-24, on the changing dynamics of philanthropy as opportunities and debates arise surrounding the incorporation of private sector strategies.
Watch the video here or see the original post and full length [...]

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Peter Singer: Our Power to Help the Poor

According to Peter Singer, a professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, the ordinary American has an obligation to the world’s poor. He suggests that for the first time in history we, as individuals, are in a position to end extreme poverty.  He spoke here at the Council last week on this, and, as Tactical Philanthropy [...]

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Success for $100 million Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance fund

From a $100 million microfinance fund begun in 2005, Tufts University officials say they are now reaping the benefits.  The fund has been invested solely in microfinance initiatives, and provides economic self-empowerment for the poor along with financial returns for the university.   Just last year, Tufts earned $6.6 million in dividends, money that has “helped [...]

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“Hell on Earth” for Tibetans

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary 0f the 1959 Tibetan demonstrations against China’s presence in Tibet – protests that sent the 14th Dalai Lama and thousands of others into exile in India.  In remarks made yesterday, the Dalai Lama harshly denounced the Chinese Communist Party  – saying that “through a series of repressive and violent campaigns” [...]

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Van Jones named Special Advisor for Green Jobs

Word on the blogs the past two days (and confirmed today by the Green for All website) is that Van Jones, Founding President of Green for All and senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, has accepted the position of Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation at the White House Council on [...]

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International Womens Colloquium in Liberia

This weekend, in honor of International Women’s Day, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia hosted the International Colloquium for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security in Monrovia.  The Colloquium, conceptualized in 2006 during Sirleaf’s inauguration (as the first female president in Africa), brought together more than 400 international participants and 400 Liberian national [...]

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Capturing the promise of philanthropic prizes

McKinsey just released a report titled “And the winner is…” [PDF] in response to the recent renaissance in the use of prizes to stimulate new and innovative ways to produce societal benefit.  As the number and size of these philanthropic prizes has grown, people are asking when these prizes should be used, and how they [...]

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Stimulating entrepreneurship

The America Forward Blog highlights an interesting piece by Mitch Landrieu and Andrew Wolk on the need for social entrepreneurship in this country, especially in the face of these difficult economic times.  They argue that the Obama Administration’s ability  “to foster social innovation and entrepreneurship will be crucial to maximizing the use of our resources [...]

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Martin Wolf on fixing global finance

Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator for the Financial Times , joined us at the Council a few weeks ago to discuss the state of global finance.  In conversation with James Manyika of McKinsey, Wolf talked about the links between the microeconomics of finance and the macroeconomics of the balance of payments, demonstrating [...]

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What Farmer’s Markets can teach us about philanthropy

Tactical Philanthropy has a great post today inspired by a creative article Jacob Harold (of Hewlett Foundation) wrote for Alliance Magazine about what philanthropy can learn from farmer’s markets.
Jacob argues that we need to reframe the way we think about markets, for “If markets fail the private sector, why should they work for civil society?”
Sean [...]

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