Foundations and poverty

Philanthropy has taken a bit of heat lately for not doing enough about poverty. First came the Google report that only a small percentage of philanthropic giving goes to poverty alleviation, either domestically or internationally. Then comes a rejuvenated public discussion (I’d call it a debate but I don’t think its happening broadly enough yet) [...]

on Data and Philanthropy GPF April 13

Once again, my wireless access disappeared mid-day at Google, so I am posting these thoughts from notes scribbled the old fashioned way – pen and paper. The breakout sessions were off limits to the press and bloggers. I attended one on measuring development impact, and had a helpful talk afterward with Rachel Glennerster of the [...]

Counter intuitive counter-incentives

Why don’t governments and philanthropists support programs that work? This is the underlying question in a January New Yorker profile on Amory Lovins and a paragraph in the March issue of The Atlantic on the study, “The Economic Lives of the Poor.” The study on poverty was produced by economists at MIT’s Poverty Action Lab. [...]

Mobile remittances

This post from Foreign Policy‘s Passport Blog outlines the potential of mobile phones as tools for immigrant remittances. Most of the world’s poor don’t have access to banks – as the microfinance movement has been making very clear for decades. But more and more of them have access to phones – some of this access [...]

Its more than just selling to the poor

A new volume out from Harvard Business Press, Business Solutions and the Global Poor, makes the case that selling to the “bottom of the pyramid” is not the endgame – building financial and social resources with the poor should be an integral part of doing this work. The big mind shift (big for corporations, at [...]

More on social entrepreneurs and public policy

I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersections of the market, public policy and philanthropy. This has been going on for a long time, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking in the last few days. These posts from yesterday and December 2006 show one line of my thinking – on the dangers of [...]

Talk to the Council on Foundations

Yesterday I wrote about beating expectations. Given the typical inaccessibility of foundations, any outreach for public input is a bit above expectations. The Council on Foundations is certainly not the “Apple, Inc.” of philanthropy and this latest move is no iPhone – but the Council on Foundations deserves a little credit for slightly opening its [...]

On the value of human lives, goals, and excuses

Peter Singer, a notably challenging philosopher (he has been described as the world’s most “controversial ethicist”), takes on the question of the value of a human life in assessing the philanthropy of the world’s wealthiest individuals. The article is in the upcoming NY Times Sunday Magazine (subscription required) The article shows several things. First, that [...]