Updates on the White House Office of Social Innovation

The Chronicle of Philanthropy published an interview today with Sonal Shah, director of the new White House Office of Social Innovation, and Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.  Although the office was officially established a few months ago, little in the way of official news has come through until now. The [...]

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More on Women’s Philanthropy

A guest post on Tactical Philanthropy this week elaborates on the rise in women’s philanthropy that we discussed in our May 18th post.  Sarah Hall of New Philanthropy Advisors outlines “six principles of high-engagement womens philanthropy”.  We particularly like #3:
“Women are willing to start at the beginning, allowing their energy for the mission to propel [...]

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Philanthropy steps in where government aid falls short

An article in yesterday’s Washington Times addresses the role of philanthropy  in spurring economic growth in developing countries as government aid lessens due to the financial crisis.  The article covers the Forum on Philanthropic Giving and U.S. Foreign Policy that was organized by the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington last week.   It quotes [...]

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Council Speaker May Play Critical Role in Afghan Government

Helene Cooper of The New York Times just reported that former Ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, may assume a position near the top of  Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government. The news of this proposal comes on the heels of Ambassador Khalilzad’s appearance at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco [...]

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As charitable giving dwindles, women’s philanthropy is on the rise

A post from Lynn Sherr this weekend highlights the recent rise in women’s philanthropy, even while overall charitable giving seems to be on the decline.  She highlights the recent success of the Women Moving Millions challenge campaign that raised $176 million for programs to improve the lives of girls and women around the world.  The [...]

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Inside Perspective on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Taliban and the Greater Middle East

With a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, former ambassador under President George W. Bush to the United Nations, Iraq and Afghanistan, joined the Council this past week for an in-depth discussion on the Middle East. At the outset, he humbly noted that during his time in [...]

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Database of Social Entrepreneurs

The Skoll Foundation and three other organizations (PopTech, ideablob, and Civic Ventures) are pooling their data to create an open database that will “allow philanthropists, investors, press, and fellow entrepreneurs to find social entrepreneur’s based on keyword, location, cause area, population served, and a variety of other factors, ” according to the Social Actions website.   [...]

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The Taliban, Foreign Policy and the War on Terror

As violence and tension rises among Islamic militant groups and the Taliban, award-winning author, scholar of religions, and columnist for The Daily Beast, Reza Aslan, joined the World Affairs Council for a discussion on his new book How to Win a Cosmic War.  Examining the worldview of Muslim militant groups and the previous administration’s approach [...]

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Global Philanthropy Forum as a “do-gooders’ shindig”

The Economist published an article yesterday on the effects of the credit crunch on philanthropy – both from rich to poor countries, and within rich countries themselves.  The author seems optimistic about the ability of US foundations to continue to give at the levels of past years, and highlights discussions on this subject at GPF [...]

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Jane’s Blog: Day 3, 8th Annual Global Philanthropy Forum

In opening the Annual Conference three days ago, Her Majesty Queen Rania eloquently noted, “when the sky is darkest, that’s when we see the stars.” We ended our three-day engagement in conversation with one of the brightest stars in economic development: Muhammad Yunus, the “father of microfinance,” the founder of the Grameen Bank.
Yunus urged GPF [...]

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