His Excellency Sameh Shoukry at the Council

His Excellency Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, joined the Council last week to discuss US-Egyptian relations and current issues in the Middle East. In his speech, and lengthy question and answer portion of the event, he covered issues from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran’s nuclear program to trade, economic aid, and political [...]

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Jane Wales in the Financial Times

Last Thursday, the British Financial Times published an article about the power of community in improving the efficacy of philanthropic efforts, and highlights the role of the Global Philanthropy Forum in doing so.  Our CEO & president, Jane Wales, is quoted as saying,
“It’s like doing exercise,” she [Jane] says. “You are much more likely to [...]

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The Catastrophe of the American Diet

Eat food. Sound simple? Not according to Michael Pollan. In his most recent book, In Defense of Food, Pollan uses fourteen pages alone to define “food,” as opposed to what he calls “edible food-like substances.” In his lecture, “The Politics of Food: Changing the Way the World Eats,” Pollan argued that society’s obsession with discovering [...]

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Obama’s Inheritance: The Opportunity Costs of the Iraq War

David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times, drew a large and attentive audience to our auditorium last night for his lecture, “The World Obama Confronts.” Although accounts of the Iraq War often focus on its direct costs, Sanger, in his lecture and recently published first book, The Inheritance, explores the depth of [...]

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The End of Globalization?

How many ports across how many countries does a piece of “fresh” salmon pass through before it lands on our dinner table? What is the cost of steel imports, not in terms of Chinese labor but in terms of the energy costs required for transport from China?
Jeff Rubin, former chief economist at CIBC, joined us [...]

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Lessons from the Recession for Foundations

The Chronicle of Philanthropy will host a discussion this Thursday, June 11th, on how foundations can manage themselves in this recession with an eye for long-term health.  Follow the discussion live, this Thursday at 12 noon Eastern Time here.

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Rethinking US Foreign Policy

President Obama’s speech in Cairo today clearly outlines a shift in US foreign policy toward the Middle East – a shift about which many are hopeful, and others wary.  Last week, Stephen Stedman, Senior Fellow of the Center for International Security & Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University, joined us to discuss the opportunity that President [...]

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Alliance magazine reports on Global Philanthropy Forum’s Annual Conference

Laura Starita, managing editor of Philanthropy Action, reported on her experience at the Global Philanthropy Forum 8th Annual Conference in Alliance magazine. Her candid observations illuminate the challenges faced by the investor community to address the numerous and varied nuanced issues associated with philanthropy. Despite her apparent disappointment with the lack of tangible answers, she [...]

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TED@State

Today, the Global Partnership Initiative, launched by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at our Global Philanthropy Forum conference in April, hosts the first ever US Government sponsored TED event – “TED@State.”  Speakers will include philanthropist Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund and economist Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion, among others. Videos from [...]

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Jane Wales on Dead Aid in Stanford Social Innovation Review

The summer 2009 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review is up now online. This season’s publication includes a review by Jane Wales, our CEO & President, of the much publicized book by Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid is not Working and How there is a Better Way for Africa. Read an excerpt from [...]

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