September 16th, 2006
“The ambitious founders of Google, the popular search engine company, have set up a philanthropy, giving it seed money of about $1 billion and a mandate to tackle poverty, disease and global warming,” according to The New York Times.
“But unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up companies, form partnerships with venture capitalists and even lobby Congress. It will also pay taxes.
“One of its maiden projects reflects the philanthropy’s nontraditional approach. According to people briefed on the program, the organization, called Google.org, plans to develop an ultra-fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid car engine that runs on ethanol, electricity and gasoline …”
Read on here
[and the comments are interesting here]
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September 11th, 2006
“U2 and Green Day are set to make a charity record together to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“The two super groups will record a cover of minor 1978 punk hit The Saints Are Coming by British group The Skids.
“All proceeds from the song will go to the Music Rising charity, which was set up by U2 guitarist The Edge to replace musical instruments lost when the natural disaster struck America’s Gulf Coast last year.
“A statement from Green Day reads: ‘New Orleans has always been a special city to us, being a hotbed of music and creativity, and it’s hard to believe parts of the Gulf region still remain devastated.’
“‘We feel that it’s important to continue to raise awareness’.”
Source
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September 10th, 2006
“The tears failed to flow yesterday as Michael Schumacher, the world’s most successful racing driver, announced his retirement and then faced up to how to spend the rest of his life.
“The man the world believes has the hardest heart in sport refused to let slip what his future holds. Only his closest friends and confidants know what awaits him after a motor racing career that has raised millions of pounds for charity.
“The son of a builder from Kerpen, near Cologne, has donated almost £30 million to projects around the world in the past four years alone and, if motor racing fails to hold its allure when he hangs up his helmet at the end of the Formula One season, it is thought that he might plough his considerable wealth into a full-time foundation.
“If the public perception of Schumacher for the past 15 years has been one of snarling arrogance, the private Schumacher, 37, is a warm family man whose tastes are as mundane as a Bacardi and Coke and a cigar, and who wants to know that his vast earnings are not all being stashed in offshore accounts.
“Unlike like many famous sportsmen or showbusiness stars, he has kept celebrity magazines at arm’s length and his donations would have gone almost unnoticed but for research by BusinessF1 magazine, which checked records in Germany. They found that Schumacher had contributed to the building of hospitals, orphan-ages and schools in areas such as Peru and Senegal.
“He was the biggest private donor to the Asian Tsunami Appeal, giving about £6 million, and works tirelessly for Unesco, the United Nations’ body that works with children.
“But so secretive is he about his giving, few, even in his Ferrari team, knew the extent of his charitable work …”
Continue at The Times
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September 10th, 2006
Elton John says that guilt about a self-indulgent past provoked him to get involved in the fight against AIDS. He believes that philanthropy is more rewarding than all of his musical achievements.
The rocker founded the Elton John Aids Foundation just months after abandoning his hedonist lifestyle in 1990, and he has since gone out of his way to raise millions for medical research into the killer disease. He says, “In the 80s I didn’t really do much for Aids. I was too unreliable at that time in my life, with drugs and drink involved, to actually come to the fore and be accountable. “When I got sober in 1990, then I realised that my life was just so out of whack, so self-absorbed, so self-obsessed and six months after that I did get sober and I thought, ‘Right, I’m gonna do something now.’” The British star admits his charity work is now more rewarding than all his musical achievements and accolades - especially when he gets the chance to meet the people his efforts have helped. He adds, “It’s really, really satisfying. I am doing something decent with my life, I’m not wasting it. I’m not putting it up my nose, I’m not drinking it, I’m not putting it down my throat, I’m actually doing something that is worthwhile and I wish I had come to my senses much earlier.”
Source
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September 10th, 2006
“United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today [8 September] told more than 2,500 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gathered in New York for their last annual meeting before his term ends in December that the support of civil society groups has been critical to his accomplishments.
“Mr. Annan, who is widely viewed as having broken new ground in terms of NGO involvement in the UN’s work, also stressed the vital role these groups have played in achieving progress on a number of political and social issues.
“‘Much of my daily work involves contacts with Governments. Yet, much of what I have achieved as Secretary-General was made possible by your support and involvement’, he told the closing session of the annual conference, which is organized by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
“‘That is why, as I approach my own transition from public civil servant to a private life, I am particularly delighted to be amongst so many civil society representatives from all over of the world who have gathered here to learn, exchange ideas and build ties’, Mr. Annan said.
“The Secretary-General, whose second and final five year term expires at the end of this year, looked back ‘with some pride and satisfaction on a decade in which UN-civil society interactions have both widened and deepened’.
“‘From debt relief and the fight against disease to good governance, human rights, the global NGO revolution has helped move the global agenda and given new life and new meaning to the idea of an international community’, he said. ‘More and more, the initiative in taking action to improve the human conditions comes from voluntary groups such as yours’.”
Full text
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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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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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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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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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August 15th, 2006
“
Charities related to Africa have seen in (sic) surge in donations, reports The New York Times. Partly because of the influence of celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Bono, and partly, as some experts contend, because of controversial American foreign policy, African causes are experiencing an unprecedented momentum.
“Previous charitable campaigns for African causes usually concentrated on only a single country or issue. But current efforts take on a variety of problems, including HIV/AIDS, genocide, and poverty, and encompass multiple nations.
“The effect is not only philanthropic: Several African countries have experienced sharp increases in tourism, and more students are choosing to study and volunteer in Africa.”
Source
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