Global Giving Matters Sept.-Nov. 2006 Issue 27

8/9/2019 Global Giving Matters Sept.-Nov. 2006 Issue 27

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Global Giving

MATTERS

Issue 27

SeptemberNovember 2006

2 Feature: Raymond Chambers Pioneering approaches in businesand philanthropy

5 Feature: Millennium Promise Alliance Mobilizing the private sectto meet the MDGs

8 Feature: Bottleneck in Mexican aid to Indonesia finally resolved

10 Global Giving Round-Up

Women migrants lead the way on remittances Developing Chinas nonprofit sector

Wellcome Trust first charity in UK to sell public bond

Gates and Rockefeller Foundations to help African farmers boost productivity

Soros gives $50 million to aid Africas poor via Millennium Village project

Foundation aids Gazan youth in move from joblessness to career track

Jordans Queen Rania joins board of United Nations Foundation

Two foundation leaders among worlds 100 most powerful women

Bush summit aims to mobilize private resources to fight malaria

New York City mayor/philanthropist to fund global anti-smoking effort

MacArthur Foundation inaugurates global award for creative small nonprofits

At Google.org, its not business as usual

Freeman Foundation honored for innovative aid to Asian students

Wheelchair Foundations Behring aims to keep the giving rolling across the glo

16 Resources & Links

Putting architecture to work for communities in need

Five generations of Rockefeller family philanthropy examined

Alliance explores the state of social capital markets

17 Your Ideas Wanted

In This IssueHow can a businessperson build

upon the experience and connec-

tions accumulated in the private

sector to protect vulnerable mem-

bers of society? This issue looks at

the approach that Ray Chambers

has taken to this challenge, not

only in his hometown of Newark,

Jersey and nationwide in the

United States, but also internation-

ally. In these efforts, a key element

of success has been a focus on

critical interventions that can have

a lasting effect on the life of a child

or the wellbeing of a community.

We also look at the outpouring of

support for victims of the Asian

tsunami from citizens of Mexico,

and the ways in which international

organizations helped facilitate thissupport.

2006 Synergos/World Economic Forum

www.globalgivingmatters.org [email protected]

Synergos

Global Giving Matters presents best

practices and innovations in philanthropy and

social investment around the world. It is an

initiative of The Synergos Institutes Global

Philanthropists Circle and the World

Economic Forum, under the direction of

Adele Simmons, Senior Advisor to the

Forum, and Beth Cohen, Acting Director,

Global Philanthropists Circle. Lynn Peebles is

the lead writer. Rockefeller Philanthropy

Advisors provides support for its distribution.

If you would like to subscribe to this

newsletter, to unsubscribe, or to designate

someone else in your organization to receive

it in your stead, contact us at

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Global Giving MATTERS


Raymond Chambers may be one of the best-known philanthropists youve never heard

of. While you arent likely to see his name in the media (he prefers to work quietly

behind the scenes), Chambers is often at the top of the must-call list when governors,presidents and other high-level movers and shakers want to get things done.

His philanthropic work over the past two decades has ranged from revitalizing the

ailing social and economic infrastructure of his hometown, Newark, New Jersey, to cre-

ating major national organizations to promote volunteering and mentoring of at-risk

youth.

Now Chambers has taken on his most ambitious project yet, as co-founder and

chairman of the Millennium Promise Alliance, which is mobilizing private partnerships

in support of the campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. (See related

story on page 5.) The move marks his first major entry into the arena of global philan-

thropy after two decades of engagement in local and national causes in the US.

The common denominator in these disparate activities is an approach that weds a

tough-minded business mentality with philanthropy to serve the most vulnerable

members of society.

Over the many years I have known Ray, I have often found him to be tough as nails,

yet consistently as compassionate as anyone I have ever known, said Barbara Bell

Coleman, former director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark and an early collaborator

with Chambers on expanding programs for at-risk youth in that city. Ray is a man of

enormous capacity who encourages all of us, to the extent possible, to partner with

others to maximize resources.

The evolution of a philanthropistA pioneer in the leveraged buyout industry, Chambers founded Wesray Capital

Corporation with former US Treasury Secretary William E. Simon in 1981 and led

the acquisition of dozens of major companies such as Avis Rent A Car, Outlet

Broadcasting, and Wilson Sporting Goods. Yet in the mid-1980s, in the prime of a suc-

cessful and highly lucrative career in finance, he realized that something was missing.

One day my partner Bill Simon came into my office and said, Were at the top of Wall

Street and have exceeded our best expectations, and you dont look happy, Chambers

recalls. I had always thought that if you had family and health and financial security,

youd be happy, and I wasnt feeling that way. Bill asked what it would take for me to

be happy, and I said, losing it all and starting over again. And he told me I needed a

vacation, Chambers said.

It was during this same period that Chambers was introduced to the Boys & Girls

Clubs of Newark and began to find in his work with young people in the community a

type of personal engagement and satisfaction that had eluded him in his professional

career.

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Feature: Raymond Chambers Pioneeringapproaches in business and philanthropy


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Born and raised in Newark, Chambers had been through the riots there in 1967 and

watched as urban flight devastated the city where he had grown up and attended col-

lege, at Rutgers University. Those who moved out were middle-class residents, leaving

the most challenged and impoverished behind.

Mobilizing Wall Street skills for underserved youth of Newark

Working with Barbara Bell, then-director of the Boys & Girls Clubs, Chambers usedcapital and savvy gained from his financial career to revitalize the organizations run-

down facilities, assemble an influential board and expand services for Newarks at-risk

youth and their families.

Viewing education as a key to empowerment, Chambers and Bell set up scholarship

programs in local high schools and colleges but soon discovered that the majority of

children they sought to assist had stopped learning by the time they were 10 years old.

Thus was born the READY (Rigorous Education Assistance for Deserving Youth) pro-

gram, which combined provision of college tuition with a range of mentoring, tutoring,

cultural enrichment, and family assistance services for 1,000 low-income children from

five to seven years old. Funding for the READY program came from the AmeliorFoundation, established by Chambers to support social and economic welfare projects

in Newark.

Chambers continues to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark through theAmelior

Foundation and the MCJ Foundation, a family foundation that takes its name from the

first initials of his three children, Michael, Christine and Jennifer.

I found myself so engaged in the READY program that the next business transaction

at Wesray no longer had any allure for me, said Chambers, who closed the company

in 1989 and put all his assets in trust so he could devote himself full-time to philan-

thropy.

For the last 17 years, I have worked with children in different causes and found those

years more rewarding than the great days we had in the financial business, Chambers

said.

To see how he lives his life, Ray is a terrific role model for people whove acquired

wealth at an early age, said Jeff Flug, CEO and Executive Director of the Millennium

Promise Alliance.

When a President calls: fostering volunteerism nationwideIn 1990, Chambers was drawn into the national philanthropic arena when US President

George H.W. Bush asked him to become the founding chairman of the new Points ofLight Foundation and help him mount a national effort to engage more people and

resources in volunteer service to help solve serious social problems.

The same year, Chambers founded a sister entity, the National Mentoring Partnership,

which enabled him to put into practice at a national level the lessons learned in

Newark about the value of caring adults in the lives of young people. His cofounder in

the initiative was Geoff Boisi, a veteran of Goldman, Sachs & Co., who was inspired by

Chambers example to leave Wall Street and take up the cause of mentoring.

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Since the founding of the National Mentoring Partnership, the number of mentors in the

United States has increased from an estimated 250,000 to more than three million, in

large part through creative media campaigns informed by business marketing tech-

niques.

We learned that a youngster at risk who has a mentor for just 12 months is 50 percent

less likely to abuse drugs or to skip school. From a businessmans perspective, you can

see the benefit of going from 250,000 mentors to three million, and now we have atarget of six million in the next five years, said Chambers.

With General Colin L. Powell, Chambers foundedAmericas Promise The Alliance for

Youth, an outgrowth of a presidential volunteerism summit spearheaded by Chambers

in 1997 in Philadelphia. The aim of Americas Promise is to recruit volunteers and pri-

vate sector support sufficient to change the lives of an estimated 15 million American

young people. The largest US cross-sector alliance ever mounted on behalf of under-

served youth, Americas Promise has forged partnerships with mayors and governors,

businesses, nonprofits organizations, community leaders, faith groups and young

people.

The goals of Americas Promise are being advanced by the Points of Light Foundation

and the National Mentoring Partnership, as well as the Corporation for National

Service created by President Clinton. Mrs.Alma Powell took over as chairperson of

Americas Promise when her husband became Secretary of State in 2001.

The move toward global engagementFor Chambers, September 11, 2001 changed his thinking and work dramatically.

Colin (Powell) spoke in February 2002, at the World Economic Forum here in New

York, after September 11, and he said that we really didnt have a chance for global

peace unless we could level the economic playing field, recalls Chambers. I was

intrigued by that, so my family foundation and its staff started working on what

indeed we could do to respond to Secretary Powells call.

It came to a point where I had to reach out beyond Newark and the US and get

engaged globally or else my children and grandchildren wont have an opportunity to

have a vision for world peace, said Chambers. Every leader in business, the non-

profit world and government all want the same thing peace in our world.

In response to Powells call to action, Chambers decided to learn as much as possible

about the Millennium Development Goals. My first reaction was that they were too

ambitious to be realistic. But I kept coming back to them because they were quantifi-

able, he said.

Weve tried to structure all our philanthropy where we could use some of the great

skills learned in business, said Chambers, a member of The Synergos Institutes Global

Philanthropists Circle. Just as business partners look at the bottom line, measurable

results where there is a return on the philanthropic investment have always been very

important to me. If a child is 50% less likely to abuse drugs from having a mentor, for

example, we can actually calculate how much that saves taxpayers and what that

means to our society.

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And thats what kept me coming back to the Millennium Development Goals: cutting

poverty in half, cutting hunger in half, reducing infant mortality by two-thirds and

maternal mortality by three quarters, bringing malaria and AIDS under control all

measurable things. And 191 nations had signed on to them. But could you get them

done by 2015? That was the real daunting question, Chambers said.

Forging partnerships to meet the MDGsChambers asked a mutual friend to introduce him to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, head of

the UN Millennium Project charged with oversight of progress toward achieving the

MDGs. After a series of meetings in which Sachs laid out his vision for meeting the

goals, Sachs invited Chambers to come on board and help develop a strategy for

enlisting the support of the private sector to achieve them.

To carry out this strategy, Chambers and Sachs created a separate 501(c)(3) organiza-

tion, the Millennium Promise Alliance, in March 2005 to raise awareness and financial

support for the fight against global poverty, disease and hunger. The campaign draws

on the support of all parts of society, including individuals, businesses, charitable

organizations, faith-based groups and government. To date, the Alliance has raisedmore than $100 million in private sector funding (see related story below).

Ray has played a really important role in shaping the Millennium Promise Alliance,

says Jeff Flug. With his network, his access, and his strategic thinking, he is really able

to create opportunities for us. He continues to think large about the Millennium

Development Goals and ways to achieve them, and he is always doing it in a collabora-

tive manner.

In tackling poverty, hunger and disease on a global scale, Chambers faces the biggest

challenge of his philanthropic career. Jeff said as of two months ago, we were not on a

trajectory to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. So that in the next nine years,

were going to have to double up in our energy and our efforts to get there, Chamberssaid.

Im personally convinced that without this type of cohesive plan and an all-inclusive

consortium and alliance, we wont reach the Millennium Development Goals. It will

take an enormous effort to achieve them, but what a price well pay if we dont.

The decision by financier and philanthropist George Soros to invest $50 million to

demonstrate that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be met in dozens of

African villages is a substantial vote of confidence, not only in the Africans struggling

to lift themselves out of poverty, but in the organization created to assist them in that

goal.

Soros gift, announced in September, is the largest single contribution to date in sup-

port of the Millennium Villages project. The initiative is based on the concept that

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Feature: Millennium Promise Alliance Mobilizingthe private sector to meet the MDGs


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impoverished communities can transform themselves and meet the MDGs if they are

empowered with practical technologies, implemented by villages in an integrated

manner.

The Millennium Villages project was developed by a team of experts guided by

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN Millennium Project and the Earth Institute at

Columbia University. Launched in two pilot communities in Sauri, Kenya, and Koraro,

Ethiopia, there are now 78 Millennium Villages in ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa.About 400,000 rural residents across Africa are benefiting from the project.

Building coordinated action to address global povertyThe contribution from Soros is being matched by other private sector

donors, according to Jeff Flug, a Wall Street veteran who joined the

Millennium Promise Alliance as CEO and Executive Director in

March. The Alliance was founded in 2005 by Sachs and Raymond

Chambers, a prominent US philanthropist and business leader (see

related story page 2). The campaign has raised more than $100 mil-

lion to support Millennium Villages, the flagship initiative of theMillennium Promise Alliance.

The funds are used to provide proven interventions such as bednets

to prevent malaria; fertilizers to replenish depleted soils; school

lunches for malnourished children; treatment for people living with

HIV/AIDS and other tried-and-true approaches to controlling the

symptoms and effects of extreme poverty.

Millennium Promise is building coordinated action among individuals, governments,

corporations and non-governmental organizations to address the root causes and

symptoms of extreme poverty. Its partners are contributing not only cash, but in-kind

donations. Sumitomo Chemical, for example, has donated over 330,000 Olyset anti-malaria bed nets worth around $2 million to the Millennium Villages effort,

enabling at least half a million people to be protected from exposure to malaria.

Tapping innovations in business and philanthropyMost businesses and philanthropists who are interested in working in the poorest

places do not have effective ways to do so right now, Sachs said. They want to fit

their efforts into an overall strategy and to bring innovative business thinking to bear.

Millennium Promise, building on the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project,

is working with private-sector leaders to help put that overall strategy in place.

We look to business and financial leaders for ideas, management, and technology.Theres going to be a tremendous amount of learning about best approaches, and the

creative leadership of the private sector will be invaluable, said Sachs.

In addition to the broad-based approach of Millennium Villages, Millennium Promise

is also supporting independent appeals targeting specific factors contributing to

extreme poverty, such as diseases like malaria.

One of the greatest tragedies is that a child dies from malaria every 30 seconds, and

the majority of those deaths could be prevented with a simple mosquito net, or

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UN Millennium Development Goals

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development


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bednet, said Chambers, co-founder and chairman of the board of Millennium Promise

Alliance.

Raising global awarenessMillennium Promise has mounted a campaign, called Malaria No More, to educate the

public about the disease and its solutions while raising funds to provide insecticide-

treated bednets to everyone at risk and support other prevention and treatment activi-ties.

As part of this effort, Chambers said, executives of the Internet serviceYahoo have

agreed to launch an appeal to Yahoo users to donate $10 for a bednet. Millennium

Promise has formed an alliance with the United Nations Foundation, Red Cross and

UNICEF focusing on bednets, and is reaching out to corporations in the media and

communications field to help raise public awareness on the issue.

Millennium Promise is also playing a key role helping to organize the December 2006

White House Summit on Malaria. The Summit aims to build on the momentum of the

Presidents Malaria Initiative, announced in June 2005. The $1.2 billion, five-year pro-

gram seeks to cut malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 countries in Africa.

The Millennium Promise Alliance not only provides a mechanism to enlist new sup-

port for the campaign to eradicate global poverty but coordinates and supports

ongoing efforts by a diverse array of entities.

Creating a blueprint for collaboration on MDGsIve met with a number of NGOS and each of them talked about the Millennium

Development Goals, but they were not planning and executing together. Some of them

said, were all like musicians in need of a conductor of a symphony and we think

Millennium Promise could be that - the conductor of the symphony, said Chambers.

Millennium Promise retained strategic consultants McKinsey & Co. to help develop a

roadmap where each NGO, each corporation, each government, would have a role

toward a cohesive effort to achieve the MDGs, Chambers said. McKinsey and

Millennium Promise are in the midst of mapping the roles of various organizations

active in Africa to see where the overlaps are and to see how they could be helpful to

one another.

Meanwhile, the earliest Millennium Villages experiments have been yielding promising

results. In Sauri, Kenya, committees of elders have taken responsibility for the new

investments in health, food production, education, access to clean water, and essential

infrastructure. According to Glenn Denning of the Millennium Projects Nairobi office,

the incidence of malaria in Sauri has dropped by at least 50% since the distribution of

free bednets.

Millennium Villages: harvesting promising resultsChambers, who accompanied Sachs to Sauri earlier this year and met many of the local

residents, said the villages harvest was four times larger than the previous years. Jeff

has done so many things right for example, he made a deal with the farmers, that if

they had a bumper crop, theyd donate 10% of the harvest to a free lunch program, and

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school attendance went from less than 20% to 100%, he said. One woman summed it

up best - she said, two years ago we were starving, and now we are not.

The villages are the real-time, live demonstration that the Millennium Development

Goals work, said Chambers. The plan is to present the successful results of the

Millennium Villages to the G-8 Summit in Germany in 2007, and the NGOs with whom

Millennium Promise is working intend to build a significant media campaign around

the event to raise global awareness about the MDGs.

As a result of getting involved with Jeff Sachs and the Millennium Promise Alliance,

Ive learned a lot more about whats going on in other parts of the world and how

important the help from US philanthropy, US business, US government, really is, says

Chambers. Im fairly certain that the more the private sector is engaged, the more

likely government support will be to grow.

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Stuck in a bureaucratic no-mans-land for more than a year, $4 million in aid for Asian

tsunami victims raised in an unprecedented Mexican fundraising campaign has finally

found its way to its intended recipients in Indonesia.

The release of the entangled funds in early August means that nearly 2,000 new homes

can finally be built for Indonesians displaced by the December 2004 tsunami. The

happy ending is a tribute to the combined efforts of a Mexican entrepreneur and civic

leader who spearheaded the original campaign, and his philanthropic partners in the

United States.

Historic appeal in MexicoThe story begins in early 2005, when the three largest foundations in Mexico formed

Alianza por Asia (Alliance for Asia) and launched a major national appeal in support of

communities affected by the recent Indian Ocean tsunami. The effort was historic in

that it represented the first ever public fundraising opportunity for the people of

Mexico to contribute to humanitarian and development work outside their own

country.

Alianza por Asia was a joint initiative of 37 Mexican civil society organizations, foun-

dations, companies, financial institutions, and communications groups. The massivecampaign raised public awareness and more than $4 million in private donations from

700,000 Mexican citizens to support reconstruction of homes in Indonesia. The drive

was conducted via television programs, donation cards in more than 30,000 stores and

49 supermarket chains, public fundraising events, and giving opportunities via phone,

mobile text messaging, direct deposit and credit card donations.

While Alianza por Asia originally intended to contribute these funds directly to United

Nations Development Programme-Mexico (UNDP-Mexico), the organization ran into a

Feature: Bottleneck in Mexican aid to Indonesia

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roadblock when it discovered that in-country regulations required that the contribu-

tions be made only to a designated nonprofit entity such as those designated 501(c)(3)

in the United States.

Reaching out to global alliesDismayed that aid funding was being bottlenecked in the midst of a humanitarian

crisis in Indonesia, Jos Ignacio Avalos, a leader of the Alianza effort, decided to takeaction. At the annual meeting of The Synergos Institutes Global Philanthropists Circle

(GPC) last November, Avalos, who is a member of the circle, sought the advice of GPC

staff about the problem and was quickly introduced to several organizations in a posi-

tion to help.

The first was Mark Malloch Brown, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

(and former Administrator of UNDP), who was also attending the GPC annual

meeting. GPC staff next put Avalos in touch with the United Nations Foundation, a pri-

vate nonprofit organization created by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner to

facilitate partnerships by the United Nations with business and civil society and to

support UN programs by raising funds. In fact, the UN Foundation had providedmatching funds for other GPC members who gave to tsunami relief in 2005.

The Global Philanthropists Circle works to promote partnerships and alliances that

reduce poverty and increase equity. We are pleased that through our network we were

able to connect Jos Ignacio to the UN Foundation so the money raised by the Mexican

public can be used to rebuild houses destroyed by the tsunami in Indonesia, said

Melissa Durda, Senior Program Officer, Global Philanthropists Circle.

A collaborative approach to problem solvingFrom November 2005 through July 2006, Avalos and his Alianza partners worked with

GPC staff and Simon Isaacs, a program officer of the UN Foundation, to negotiate aresolution to the funding problem with UNDP. Ultimately, a solution was hammered

out by which the money raised by Alianza was donated to the UN Foundation, which

agreed to administer the funds in support of the UNDPs emergency shelter reconstruc-

tion program in Indonesia. On August 2, the funding logjam was officially cleared

when UN Foundation received a wire transfer of $4.087 million from Fomento Social

Banamex on behalf of Alianza.

The funding will be employed by UNDP Indonesia for reconstruction of 1,969 homes

in coastline communities of Aceh. In recognition of Mexicos historic outpouring of

compassionate aid for the citizens of Aceh, each home will bear a plaque featuring a

Mexican flag and the words:

This house was built thanks to the support of the Mexican people to the

Indonesian people Alliance for Asia, February 2005.

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Women migrants lead the way on remittancesWomen migrants play a disproportionate role in determining the level of remittances

sent home to developing countries, a report by the United Nations Population Fund

(UNFPA www.unfpa.org) concludes, but international policymakers have largely

ignored their contributions. The State of World Population 2006 A Passage to Hope:

Women and International Migration examines the scope and breadth of female migra-

tion, the impact of the funds they send home to support families and communities, and

their vulnerability to trafficking, exploitation and abuse. The report reveals that

although migrant women contribute billions of dollars in cash and services, policy-

makers continue to disregard both their contributions and their vulnerability even

though female migrants tend to send a much higher proportion of their earnings back

home than their male counterparts. Half of the worlds migrants are women num-

bering 95 million but only recently have policymakers begun to address their specific

challenges, according to the UNPFA, including the exploitation of female domestic

workers, and the sex trade. Despite a paucity of data, one thing is clear, the reportsays, The money that female migrants send back home can raise families and even

entire communities out of poverty. Remittance flows are estimated to make up the

second largest source of external financing in developing countries after foreign direct

investment. A copy of the report is available on UNFPAs website. (Financial Times,

September 7, 2006)

Developing Chinas nonprofit sectorAs Chinese nonprofit organizations grow and diversify, they are finding themselves

stretched by the rising demand for their services, according to a recent McKinsey &

Company study. The analysis revealed that gaps in management skills and program

expertise, as well as an underdeveloped domestic funding base, have hindered non-profits ability to respond. McKinsey pointed to the role that corporations can play in

filling these gaps by offering more flexible financial support, along with hands-on

efforts to teach nonprofits skills critical to running effective organizations. To date, cor-

porations have made little progress in understanding Chinas nonprofit sector, despite

an interest in establishing a philanthropic track record. To help determine the causes

for this problem, McKinsey examined more than 100 nonprofit organizations in China

and interviewed hundreds of stakeholders, including donor and nonprofit leaders, as

well as current and former officials. In addition to increased corporate involvement, a

combination of government policies and strengthened nonprofit infrastructure, such as

development of a network of domestic foundations, will be necessary to develop the

sector and ensure that it gets needed resources, the study concluded. The August 2006report, Developing Chinas Nonprofit Sector, is available at www.mckinseyquarterly.com.

Wellcome Trust first charity in UK to sell public bondThe UKs Wellcome Trust (www.wellcome.ac.uk) the worlds second-biggest foundation

funding biomedical research, announced plans in July to sell a debut sterling bond.

Proceeds will be channeled into the Trusts investment portfolio and used to fund

research that spans the human genome, bird flu and malaria. In offering the first public

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Global Giving Roundup

Overviews of best

practices around

the world and

inks to learn moreabout them

Links to websites with

more details are available

at the online edition of

Global Giving Matters at

www.globalgivingmatters.org


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bond from a UK charity, the Trust is following the example of US philanthropic foun-

dations such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the J. Paul Getty Trust,

which have sold dollar bonds. Britains largest charitable trust plans to take advantage

of low-cost, long-term funding in the sterling bond market to raise 300 to 500 million,

selling a bond with a maturity of about 30 years. The Wellcome Trusts funding of bio-

medical research is topped only by that of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Wellcome Trust-funded researchers have sequenced one-third of the human genome.(Reuters, July 3, 2006)

Gates and Rockefeller Foundations to help African farmers boostproductivityThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation have launched a

$150 million campaign to ease hunger across Africa by making farming more produc-

tive and profitable. The goal is to repeat the success in Africa of an earlier Rockefeller

program known as the Green Revolution that transformed agricultural practices in

Latin America and Southeast Asia from the 1940s through the 1980s, increasing food

production at a time of widespread hunger. The newAlliance for a Green Revolution in

Africa will focus on development of improved seeds, soil fertility, irrigation, and accessto markets and financing. The venture is one of the first financed by the Gates

Foundations new Global Development program, and provides an opportunity to begin

spending some of the $31 billion gift pledged by investor Warren Buffett in June. The

Alliances first initiative is a $43 million program to develop 100 varieties of crops

capable of thriving in Africas highly diverse agricultural environments. Another $20

million will go to African universities to train graduate level crop breeders and scien-

tists, and an additional $24 million will help develop public and private distribution

channels for improved seeds. $37 million will be available for training, credit and other

financial assistance to at least 10,000 small shops that supply seeds and other supplies

to farmers. A $26 million nonprofit center in Nairobi, Kenya will be established by the

Alliance to oversee grantmaking and evaluate progress. (Wall Street Journal, September13, 2006; New York Times, September 13, 2006)

Soros gives $50 million to aid Africas poor via Millennium Village projectAnother major boost for Africa came from philanthropist and financier George Soros,

who pledged $50 million to help demonstrate that poverty can be ended in dozens of

African villages through small, focused investments that give communities the tools to

tackle a variety of pressing problems poverty, health, education, and food production

in an integrated and sustainable way. The donation represents a substantial vote of

confidence in the work of the Millennium Villages project established in 2004 by Jeffrey

Sachs, the antipoverty expert who heads up the United Nations effort to achieve theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs). The donation by Soros, chairman of the Open

Society Institute, is being matched by other donors to bring in $100 million for the

project. Millennium Promise Alliance (www.millenniumpromise.org) the nonprofit cre-

ated to work with the private sector in support of the villages and the wider effort to

achieve the MDGs, has reached out to its network of partners to raise the $50 million in

matching funds. (See related story page 5.) Funding from Soros and other private

donors is being used in the projects 78 villages to provide practical and proven inter-

ventions aimed at meeting the MDGs, such as bednets to prevent malaria, fertilizers to

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replenish depleted soils, school lunches for malnourished children, treatment for

people living with HIV/AIDS and other well-established measures to combat extreme

poverty. (Associated Press, September 13, 2006)

Foundation aids Gazan youth in move from joblessness to career trackAmid recent uncertainty in the Middle East, the first graduates of the Education For

Employment Foundations new Mini MBA Accounting Training and Job-PlacementProgram started work as accountants in United Arab Emirates and the Republic of

Guinea. The new accountants all were university graduates under age 25 who had

been jobless for more than a year in Gaza, where unemployment has soared beyond 40

percent. The Education For Employment Foundation (EFE www.efefoundation.org) is

a nonprofit organization founded in December 2002 by US entrepreneur and philan-

thropist Ronald Bruder, a member of Synergos Global Philanthropists Circle. Working

with local business leaders in the Middle East and the Islamic world, EFE helps iden-

tify educational shortfalls in market sectors with a need for trained workers, bridging

the gap between academia and the private sector. EFEs Mini-MBA Program was cre-

ated in partnership with Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), the largest engi-

neering and construction company in the Middle East. In cooperation with CCC, theUniversity of Marylands School of Business developed the programs curriculum and

trained participating professors from the Islamic University of Gaza, which hosts the

Mini-MBA initiative. The program has attracted additional funding from the United

Nations Development Programme and United Palestinian Appeal, Inc. With offices in

New York and Washington, EFE operates programs in Gaza, Egypt, Jordan and

Morocco. (EFE News Release, September 18, 2006)

Jordans Queen Rania joins board of United Nations FoundationQueen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan (www.queenrania.jo) has joined the board of direc-

tors of the United Nations Foundation (www.unfoundation.org), an organization thatsupports UN programs through fundraising and partnership building. The Queens

priorities are expected to include childrens health care and promoting the role of tech-

nology in helping relief workers respond to disasters and humanitarian crisis. In wel-

coming her to the new post, Ted Turner, Founder and Chairman of the UN Foundation,

noted that Queen Rania is a tireless advocate for improving the lives of the worlds

children, young adults and women through better access to health care, literacy and

economic empowerment opportunities, and said these qualities would be a great

complement to the work being done here at the Foundation. As First Lady of Jordan,

Queen Ranias special interests include development of income-generating projects and

the advancement of best practices in the field of microfinance. She has also focused on

family life, including child protection and early childhood development, and the inte-gration of information technology into the countrys educational system. (UN

Foundation News Release, September 13, 2006)

Two foundation leaders among worlds 100 most powerful womenWhile corporate executives, media luminaries and political figures from the global

North dominated Forbes magazines annual ranking of the Worlds Most Powerful

Women, several representatives of the philanthropic sector made the list this year. The

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top 100 included nonprofit leaders Melinda Gates, cofounder and director of the Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation (#12 on the list), and Susan Berresford, outgoing President

of the Ford Foundation (#77). The ranking is based on a composite of visibility (meas-

ured by press reports) and economic impact. In issuing its 2006 ranking, Forbes noted

that it takes more accomplishment than ever to get on this list because more and

more women are taking over corporations, nonprofits, and whole governments. In

the latter category, leaders from developing nations were sprinkled throughout the list,including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, and the first woman elected head

of state in Africa (#51), and Luisa Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique (#83). The

complete list can be viewed at www.forbes.com. (Forbes, September 18, 2006)

Bush summit aims to mobilize private resources to fight malariaUS President George W. Bush will host a summit on malaria in December with an eye

toward boosting private donations to fight the disease. The summit will convene inter-

national experts, NGOs, religious groups and service organizations to discuss ways to

battle the illness. In June 2005, Bush announced a $1.2 billion, five-year Presidents

Malaria Initiative (PMI) to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in target coun-

tries in Africa. The summit will call on the private sector, foundations, voluntaryorganizations and school groups to complement the PMI by matching the US govern-

ments financial commitment and educating the public about malaria, according to a

statement from the White House. So far, Bush has picked Angola, Malawi,

Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda to receive PMI aid, while eight

other countries are to be added in fiscal year 2008. The assistance includes spraying

against mosquitoes that transmit the disease and handing out bednets to protect

humans from the insects. (AFP, August 25, 2006)

New York City mayor/philanthropist to fund global anti-smoking effort

As part of his plan to become a full-time philanthropist after leaving office, New YorkMayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged to spend $125 million of his own money to

build a global anti-smoking campaign. The donation, to be funneled to existing organi-

zations over two years, is considered by public health advocates to be the largest single

contribution to global tobacco-control efforts. Bloomberg successfully pushed a ban on

smoking in New York bars and restaurants in his first term as mayor. At a news confer-

ence in August, Bloomberg called smoking one of the worlds biggest killers and it has

sadly been overlooked by the philanthropic community. Bloomberg plans to spend

the money to create and support programs aimed at helping the world become

tobacco-free. The campaign will include advocacy for adoption of high tobacco taxes

and smoking bans, and creation of a system to track tobacco use and efforts to stop it

worldwide. One of the wealthiest individuals in the US, Bloomberg has said he plansto give away the bulk of his fortune, estimated at $5.1 billion, and he has steadily

increased his philanthropic giving in recent years. In 2005, he ranked seventh among

US philanthropists in a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. When he

leaves office, Bloomberg intends to create his own private foundation, which is likely

to focus on education, the arts and public health. (New York Times, August 16, 2006)

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MacArthur Foundation inaugurates global award for creative smallnonprofit organizationsExpanding on its tradition of encouraging individual creativity and building effective

institutions to help address some of the worlds most challenging problems, the John

D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (www.macfound.org ) announced in August

that nine organizations in five countries will receive the first annual MacArthur Award

for Creative and Effective Institutions. The missions of these small nonprofit organiza-tions, all with annual budgets under $2.5 million, are diverse from finding permanent

jobs for ex-offenders in Chicago to promoting police reform in Nigeria, to saving the

lives of mothers and their babies in India. Each organization will receive up to

$500,000. As the challenges facing our country and world grow even more complex,

we look to trusted institutions to help us think about public issues and to galvanize

action, said MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton. Building and

strengthening nonprofit organizations has never been more important. Winners will

be honored at an awards ceremony in Chicago on October 5, 2006. In conjunction with

this ceremony, a series of seminars on the work of these organizations will be open to

other non-profit institutions, providing an opportunity for mutual learning.

(MacArthur Foundation News Release August 24, 2006)

At Google.org, its not business as usualUnlike most corporate foundations, Google.org, the philanthropic organization created

in 2004 by Google, the popular search engine company, was set up to make a profit.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brinbelieve for-profit status will greatly

increase their philanthropys range and flexibility. By all accounts, Dr. Larry Brilliant,

hired six months ago as executive director, is every bit as iconoclastic as the philan-

thropic organization he directs. A 61-year old physician and public health expert,

Brilliant has studied under a Hindu guru in the foothills of the Himalayas and worked

as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Projects on the Google.org drawing board reportedly

include an ultra-fuel-efficient hybrid car engine that could help tackle dependence onforeign oil and the effects of global warming. Although Google is a high-tech company,

Brilliant said that doesnt necessarily mean it will focus exclusively on high-tech phil-

anthropic solutions. Why would we put Wi-Fi in a place where what they need is

food and clean water? he said. (New York Times, September 13, 2006)

Freeman Foundation honored for innovative aid to Asian studentsOn September 19, the Freeman Foundation, which works to improve understanding

between the US and Asia, was honored in New York by its philanthropic partner, the

Institute of International Education, for its role in developing a flexible and efficient

funding program to provide Asian students with emergency educational assistance.The program,ASIA-HELP, was created in the late 1990s with an initial grant of $7.75

million and provided zero-interest loans to 1,000 students from South Korea, Malaysia,

Thailand and Indonesia who were affected by the economic downturn in their home

countries. In 2004 and 2005, in the wake of the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, the

Freeman Foundation and IIE (www.iie.org), a leading global education and training

organization, put repaid loan funds from the ASIA-HELP program to work in pro-

viding emergency aid to undergraduate Asian students in the US affected by these dis-

asters. The Freemans represent a new breed of visionary philanthropists,said

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Thomas S. Johnson, chairman and CEO of GreenPoint Bank, NY, and chairman of IIEs

board. The ASIA-HELP loan program was a creative solution to the problems created

by the Asian currency crisis, and the real payoff was when the repaid loansallowed

for timely disaster assistance later. The Freeman Foundation was established in 1993

through the bequest of the businessman and benefactor Mansfield Freeman, a co-

founder of the international insurance and financial conglomerate American

International Group, Inc. (AIG). It is chaired by business leader and philanthropistHoughton Freeman. His wife, Doreen, serves as one of the trustees and his son, Graeme

Freeman, is Executive Director.

Wheelchair Foundations Behring aims to keep the giving rolling acrossthe globeEvery time Ken Behring, 78, delivers wheelchairs to disabled individuals around the

world through his Wheelchair Foundation (www.wheelchairfoundation.org), its a life-

altering occasion. For Behring, a real-estate developer who is one of the worlds richest

men, a friend of world leaders, a business innovator and a former owner of a profes-

sional football team, his own transformative moment came more than a decade ago.

The globe-trotting Behring, who routinely transported school and medical supplies onhis jet as a favor to nonprofit organizations, agreed to drop off a shipment of wheel-

chairs in Romania. Introduced to a stroke-immobilized elderly widower who was to

receive one of the chairs, lifted the man from a pile of rags into his new wheelchair.

The seated man, sobbing, understood his life was changing, and so was Behrings.

He went on to launch the Wheelchair Foundation on June 13, 2000 his 72nd birthday.

I spent too much of my life pursuing things money can buy, says Behring, a member

of Synergos Global Philanthropists Circle. Ive always given money to charity, but in

the past I didnt give myself with it. When you actually get an opportunity to person-

ally help somebody, it changes your life. Many of the estimated 100 to 150 million

people around the world in need of a wheelchair have lost limbs to land mines, war oraccidents; others are disabled by disease, birth defects or old age. The California-based

foundation has donated 500,000 wheelchairs in 140 countries, free to anyone who cant

afford one, thanks to matching funds from donors. Its allies include corporations, gov-

ernments, individuals, nonprofit organizations, and small groups like the Knights of

Columbus and Rotary Clubs. More than 2,000 Rotary clubs worldwide have donated

funds to the foundation and helped with the distribution of some 150,000 wheelchairs.

King Juan Carlos of Spain, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev serve on the foun-

dations board of advisors. Behrings newest charitable focus is health, including the

development of water-purification technology for residents of developing countries.

(Sky Magazine, September 2006)

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Putting architecture to work for communities in needA new photo book, Design Like You Give a Damn, showcases some of the contemporary

design worlds most visionary responses to homelessness, poverty and unsafe housing

around the globe. Edited byArchitecture for Humanity, a grassroots nonprofit organiza-tion that provides design services to communities in need, the book offers a history of

the movement toward socially conscious design and includes more than 80 initiatives

from across the globe. Architecture for Humanity partners with community develop-

ment and relief organizations to create opportunities for architects and designers to

help communities address urgent needs such as basic shelter, health care, education

and access to energy, clean water, and sanitation. The organization is currently pro-

viding design services and funding for post-tsunami reconstruction in India and Sri

Lanka, and for the US Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It has also con-

sulted on mine clearance in the Balkans, earthquake resistant structures in Turkey and

Iran, refugee housing in Afghanistan and school building in Calcutta. See Architecture

for Humanitys website www.architectureforhumanity.orgfor information on bookorders. (Alternet, August 31, 2006)

Five generations of Rockefeller family philanthropy examinedAn Entrepreneurial Spirit: Three Centuries of Rockefeller Family Philanthropy, explores

how the Rockefellers have sustained their giving over 120 years, passing down philan-

thropic values through five generations while allowing for individual interests and per-

spectives. Published by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the monograph offers a brief

history of John D. Rockefeller and his charitable beginnings and concludes with

thoughts from David Rockefeller, Sr. and David Rockefeller, Jr. on personal engagement

and passion in philanthropy. The report is available at the Rockefeller Philanthropy

Advisors website www.rockpa.org.

Alliance explores the state of social capital marketsFollowing the 2006 Skoll World Forum, which focused on social capital markets, the

September 2006 issue ofAlliance (www.allavida.org/alliance) takes forward debates

from the Forum and looks at the full spectrum of funds available for social change,

from grant funding to fully commercial financial instruments. It is produced in con-

junction with Postings, the new magazine of the Skoll Centre for Social

Entrepreneurship.

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Activities, web-

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Global Giving Matters aims to present information on best practices and innovations in

philanthropy and social investment around the world. We encourage you to send us:

Ideas about issues or people you would like to learn more about

Examples of your own philanthropy

Comments about this issue.

Write to us at [email protected].

Global Giving Matters does not present solicitations of support for particular

initiatives or organizations.

Your Ideas Wanted

The World Economic Forum91-93 route de la CapiteCH-1223 Cologny/GenevaSwitzerlandtel +41 (22) 869-1212

fax +41 (22) 786-2744www.weforum.org

The Synergos Institute51 Madison Avenue21st FloorNew York, NY 10010USA

tel +1 212-447-8111fax +1 212-447-8119www.synergos.org

Rockefeller Philanthropy Adviso437 Madison AvenueNew York, NY 10022-7001USAtel +1 212-812-4330

fax + 1 -212-812-4335www.rockpa.org

Global Giving Matters Sept.-Nov. 2006 Issue 27

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