October Programs Spotlight Middle East

October has been a busy month at the Council. We’ve had programs about issues ranging from the resource curse of oil to the ways game theory can be applied to national security challenges. There was one region, the Middle East, which was given particular attention as we strove to provide the community with multiple [...]

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Nicholas Kristof in Conversation with Jane Wales

Speaking to a capacity crowd at the Fairmont Hotel, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof said, “We’ve all won the lottery of birth, and with that comes some real responsibility.” Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, are the authors of a new book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide.  He joined the Council and the [...]

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Jane Wales Joins Schwab Charitable Philanthropy Speaker Series

Jane Wales, World Affairs Council President and CEO, will be the featured speaker at the Schwab Charitable Philanthropy Speaker Series on September 15. The series is a partnership between Schwab Charitable and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, which unites Haas students and alumni with leaders from the philanthropic [...]

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Jane Wales named one of the NPT Power & Influence Top 50

Jane Wales, World Affairs Council President and CEO, is honored as one the NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50 in their 12th annual celebration of the sector’s top leaders. See the full article on the NonProfit Times website or download the pdf.

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Remarks by the Honorable Vicente Fox

Last Thursday, former President of Mexico Vicente Fox joined a packed Council audience and our President and CEO Jane Wales for an unscripted conversation on the current challenges facing Mexico. On Mexico’s war on drugs, the first topic of discussion, President Fox gave potential strategies and necessary actions for ending the violence and killings, emphasizing [...]

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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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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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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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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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Philanthrocapitalism at GPF

Matthew Bishop and Michael Green put up a great post yesterday on Obama’s plans for philanthropy that came out during GPF last week.  Looking at Sonal Shah and Secretary Clinton’s remarks, they discuss the administration’s attitude toward philanthropy and what this might mean going forward for joint government-philanthropic initiatives.  They applaud most of Secretary Clinton’s [...]

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Jane’s Blog: Day 2, 8th Annual Global Philanthropy Forum

We were lifted by a live musical performance by Peter Buffet, Co-Chair of NoVo Foundation – whose music seemed to reach out and embrace the room. He performed pieces that were inspired by his work in promoting the lives of adolescent girls, by his observations of tremendous environmental waste, and by philanthropy, which – he [...]

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Jane’s Blog: Day 1, 8th Annual Global Philanthropy Forum

The 8th Annual Global Philanthropy Forum Conference kicked off today in Washington, DC with an opening keynote by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, who reminded GPF members that this conference is about borderless giving. She urged them to transcend national and societal boundaries as they seek long-term solutions to the problems they [...]

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