Social investments one year after Katrina

August 31st, 2006

In commemoration of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Co-Op America is highlighting members of the Social Investment Forum that are helping rebuild the affected areas through community investing.

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Celtic Tiger should become “Philanthropic Tiger”

August 29th, 2006

“The benefits from philanthropy to society as well as to donor companies and individuals are to be promoted on Friday, September 8 when Kingsley Aikins, Chief Executive and President of the Ireland Funds, delivers a lecture at Waterford Institute of Technology. [Co. Waterford, Ireland]

“Mr Aikins believes a unique opportunity now exists for the Celtic Tiger to become a ‘Philanthropic Tiger’ and feels many of the conditions are in place for Ireland to enter a golden era of generosity and become one of the leading philanthropic countries in the world over the next decade.

“’Recent estimates indicate there are some 30,000 millionaires in Ireland, even when the value of principal homes is excluded. More than 2,700 of these now have a personal net worth of €5-30m while a further 300 are worth over €30m so there can be no doubting the tremendous wealth that there is in Ireland today …’

“’Indeed, one of the points I’ll be emphasising when I speak at Waterford Institute of Technology is that the benefits of philanthropy and altruism don’t exclusively fall to those in receipt of generous support. Rather, it has been our experience time and again with the Ireland Funds that the donors also draw enormous reward from their giving.’

“Welcoming confirmation that Mr Aikins is to speak in Waterford on the afternoon of September 8, Desmond Miller, Chairman, Advisory Board, Waterford Institute of Technology Foundation said …

‘As global head of the Ireland Funds, a former Executive Director of the American Ireland Fund and founding Director of the Australian Ireland Fund and the Ireland Fund of New Zealand, Kingsley is uniquely qualified to guide us in this regard. The Ireland Funds have secured over US$300m (€235m) during the last 30 years for 1,200 organisations and projects throughout the island of Ireland’.”

Source 

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Text message to improve the atmosphere

August 28th, 2006

People are always coming up with clever, innovative ideas for putting their money to good use. This one, reported at Springwise, I found originally at studio51c (”created especially for nontechies in nonprofits”):

World Land Trust, which was founded in 1989 to preserve the world’s most ecologically important and threatened lands, recently created a new way for concerned citizens to help the earth. The foundation now offers carbon offsets by sms/text message.

Every time a consumer texts “WLT CARBON” to number 87050 (within the UK), World Land Trust will offset 140 kilograms of CO2 through its Carbon Balanced Program. The program regenerates rainforest, which not only helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but also provides habitat for endangered species. 140 kg of carbon dioxide is equivalent to the emissions produced by 16 restaurant meals, a one-way flight from London to Berlin, or average use of a tumble dryer over 2 months.

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Science, philanthropy alone won’t stop AIDS

August 25th, 2006

Solomon Benatar on the World Congress on HIV/AIDS, in the Toronto Star:

Another World Congress on HIV/AIDS has come and gone. Much light as well as passion was generated by scientists, philanthropists, politicians and activists at this meeting. The devastating implications of the pandemic, now in its 26th year, are becoming increasingly apparent.

Despite enormous efforts by individuals, organizations and nations, unmet needs remain great and prospects for controlling the pandemic and reducing suffering remain a long-term hope.

Great faith is placed in our scientific ability to develop and test new drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and to develop effective preventive measures like microbicides and vaccines.

The hope of science, buttressed by generous donations from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (further enhanced by Warren Buffett) and other philanthropists is promoting an unprecedented avalanche of welcome innovative scientific work aimed at achieving the above goals.

Such scientific work and generous philanthropy are indeed necessary but they are not sufficient. Wise politics that is seriously directed toward the future and not merely toward self-interested and illusory short-term goals is also required … [my emphasis - Nora]

Continues here

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SRI gaining ground in USA

August 23rd, 2006

It’s difficult to think ‘philanthropy’ without thinking ’socially responsible investing (SRI)’, which is also known (particularly in Australia) as ‘ethical investment’. Recent trends suggest that both corporations and investors are increasingly discovering SRI, as this US report shows:

A study released by the Social Investment Research Analysts Network on July 11 reveals that 34 companies listed on the S&P 100, a weighted index of 100 major blue chip companies, now base their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports on a recognized third-party standard—the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. The use of uniform reporting criteria is critical to helping SRI firms select appropriate companies in which to invest. Other indicators similarly point to corporations’ greater embrace of social responsibility: according to the same study, 79 of the S&P 100 firms now have CSR websites, up 34 percent from last year.

This story was produced by Eye on Earth, a joint project of the Worldwatch Institute and the blue moon fund. Source: WorldWatch

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Hezbollah presents a challenge

August 23rd, 2006

“International relief agencies have had a difficult time helping residents of some of the harder-hit areas of southern Lebanon, where the militant group Hezbollah controls access to such assistance, reports The New York Times.

“Mercy Corps and other groups are banned from giving aid or money through Hezbollah because the United States considers it a terrorist organization. But Hezbollah remains the best equipped group to distribute aid, and relief organizations recognize that some of their assistance may be traveling through the group already, the paper reports.”

Source

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Australian Christian charities exit “immoral” Federal program

August 23rd, 2006

Australian Catholic social services such as St Vincent de Paul (’Vinnies’), and Anglican charity Anglicare join a growing number of Christian charities that are refusing to be part of the Federal Government’s new case-management program for ‘breached’ welfare recipients. 

In an unusually strong stand, almost all Christian charities have either refused to join up or have exited the conservative government’s scheme, under which recipients of social security will face a new regime of penalties for not meeting certain requirements.

The Uniting Church, the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Mission Australia have also refused to be involved, and the Salvation Army is reported to be considering its position. Meanwhile, conservative fundamentalist Christian church Hillsong has signed up with the John Howard government.

Stephen Crittenden: You were saying that if Vinnies accepted the government’s funding to help the people the government breached, that Vinnies would be accepting the breaching regime, and that the breaching regime was immoral. Why is it immoral?

John Falzon [from St Vincent de Paul Society]: Frederic Ozanam the founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society, put this so beautifully. Even though we’re talking about a quote that comes from more than a century ago, it’s so fitting to the current events. He said, ‘Charity is the Samaritan who pours oil on the wounds of the traveller who has been attacked. It is justice’s role however, to prevent the attack.’ Now as far as we’re concerned, in 2006 in Australia it is the role of the St Vincent de Paul Society to do everything we can to prevent the attack, not to go into partnership with the attacker. … We’ll provide the charity but it is justice more than anything else, that these people have a right to, and we will not cease to clamour for justice.

Source, with audio

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Turf wars ‘mar disaster effort’

August 22nd, 2006

Members of the public often express doubts as to whether their (often very generous) donations for disaster victims actually reach the intended recipients. They have concerns about e.g. administrative costs, or integrity of local officials in the afflicted area.

This item from the BBC talks about a very different issue, one which creates conflict for the aid workers themselves:

Emergency aid efforts can be marred by “turf wars” between medical relief groups and development agencies, a leading medical charity figure says.

Medecins Sans Frontieres executive director Gorik Ooms said differing priorities could lead to clashes.

Writing in the Public Library of Science journal, he said development agencies and governments often insisted on long-term sustainable measures.

This sometimes meant they tried to block short-term health aid in crises.

He said: “The problem is that there is a conflict with what we are trying to achieve with health care.

 ”Development agencies want their interventions to be sustainable. That is to say, the host country has to be able to maintain the programme” …

During the flooding in Mozambique in February 2000, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) officials involved in the helicopter rescue wanted to provide antiretroviral drugs to help people with HIV/Aids but development agencies initially opposed it.

Full text 

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What Kids Can Do and Adobe partner on Adobe Youth Voices

August 22nd, 2006

Adobe announces:

Adobe Youth Voices is Adobe’s a global philanthropic initiative that empowers youth worldwide to comment on their world using multimedia and digital tools to communicate and share their ideas, demonstrate their potential, and take action in their communities. Adobe Youth Voices employs an integrated approach in and out of the classroom to show the power technology brings to learning and enable middle- and high-school aged youth to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively—critical 21st century skills.

Adobe has organized a unique collaborative of leading youth media nonprofit organizations with strong track records, global experience, and a common vision, including What Kids Can Do, Listen Up, Arts Engine, Inc., Educational Video Center, and iEARN.

Read more and read the press release about Adobe’s foray into the world of philanthropy.

Posted 05:47am by Pip Wilson | Uncategorized | no comments

Helping displaced persons in Lebanon and Israel

August 21st, 2006

The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the following list of charities helping ‘refugees’ in Lebanon and Israel. (These people should perhaps more properly be called ‘displaced persons’ because the great majority have not left their country of origin — see the UNHCR definition of refugee. The number of such people in Lebanon ranges from between half a million and one million.)

The list is American and therefore contains US phone numbers:

· American Jewish Committee
  1-212-751-4000

· American Near East Refugee Aid
  1-202-347-2558

· American Refugee Committee
  1-612-872-7060

· Catholic Relief Services
  1-410-625-2220

· Direct Relief International
  1-800-676-1638

· Doctors Without Borders, USA
  1-888-392-0392

More contacts at American Institute of Philanthropy and all the latest about the Lebanon crisis at UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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