News, Commentary and Opinions on Global Aid and Philanthropy
7/17/09
The Fresh Faces of Philanthropy
Kids are becoming high-profile CEOs of their own nonprofit groups.
Timothy Hwang and Minsoo Han, now seniors at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, started their organization, Operation Fly, when they were 14. They raise money through tutoring -- charging much less than the market rate -- and use the money to distribute blankets, clothing and soap to Washington's homeless people. Operation Fly has spread to five cities, with 800 volunteers, and is entirely student-run.
Brittany and Robbie Bergquist were 13 and 12 when they heard about a soldier overseas who couldn't pay the phone bill for his calls home. They quickly found that they could help, raising money by selling back old cellphones to be recycled. Since then, the Massachusetts siblings have sent more than 600,000 phone cards to troops and raised more than $5 million.
Young philanthropists devote hundreds of hours to their causes, making appeals many donors find irresistible even in tough economic times.
"When you see a kid, it seems more trustworthy, less jaundiced," said Andrew Hahn, a professor and director of the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University.
Bill Conley, dean of enrollment and academic services at Johns Hopkins University, said college admissions officials are seeing ever-more impressive philanthropic efforts from students trying to get into elite colleges. That is definitely a strong plus on an application, he said.
Students find giving away money not as easy as one might think
College students, many of whom spend the little extra cash they have on pizza and laundry, don’t fit the typical profile of a wealthy benefactor. But in a growing national movement, students enrolled in newly created philanthropy courses are steering thousands of dollars to local charities.
In the classes, students draw up mission statements for makeshift foundations, research nonprofits in their communities, and decide how to allocate the pot of money. The goal, say professors and donors, is to build upon surging interest in social responsibility among college students and make philanthropy part of the mainstream curriculum.
“Some of these kids will become very wealthy in the future,’’ said Paul Schervish, a sociology professor and director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, who will soon begin teaching experiential philanthropy classes. “The professors see that this is a way to teach financial morality in the realm of philanthropy.’’
But teaching students how to give away money responsibly is more complicated than one would think. At Tufts, where classes havedisbursed $30,000 in the past three years, students learn to be grant writers and discerning grant makers.
“The hands-on experience of writing a grant, evaluating a grant, and then giving real money away made the whole class feel like it had a tangible purpose,’’ said Laura McNulty, 22. “It made students feel more accountable for the work they were doing.’’
Her grant-writing experience and knowledge of what foundations look for when making funding decisions was invaluable in helping her secure a $10,000 grant to start her own nonprofit.
11-year-old recognized for his part fighting homelessness
11-year-old Zach Bonner started his own nonprofit organization four years ago after a hurricane hit Florida. He asked his mother if they could donate their water bottles, and he gathered more from neighbors, an earnest little redheaded boy pulling his red wagon behind him. By the end, they had 27 truckloads of aid.
It was such a simple, innocent symbol of kindness that lots of people wanted to help. The Little Red Wagon Foundation kept growing.
And it got less simple. Somewhere along the road, Zach's little red wagon turned into an 18-wheeler.
Now a Los Angeles publicist with Prada glasses promotes Zach's walks to the media. Zach has met three presidents. He was scheduled to visit Elton John at his concert at Nationals Park and accept a $25,000 check.
And an Emmy-award winning journalist, Michael Guillen, is making a $5 million film about the Little Red Wagon.
When Guillen told him that the Philanthropy Project was going to make a movie about him, Zach dropped his head and cried a little, Guillen said. "He said, 'But I'm so small.' "
When you think of disease in Africa, you probably think of HIV, malaria, and flies in the eyes.
However, people in developing countries are also now increasingly victims of heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes – the same chronic diseases that affect the developed world.
Unchecked, chronic disease is expected to grow rapidly, and cause an economic loss in low and middle income countries.
But most chronic diseases are not yet recognized as important in the developing world: in one study, 10% of children diagnosed with severe cerebral malaria actually had uncontrolled diabetes. That’s right: think HIV, malaria, and diabetes combined.
A child diagnosed with Type I diabetes in the developing world won’t survive long without insulin. The child can expect to live less than one year.
Astha Powar, 21, is a fundraiser with the charity Save the Children in India.
"I am here on a noble cause," Powar begins, as she introduces herself to the president of a travel agency. Five minutes later, he has agreed to her request for a donation of about $25, money she says will be used to help a family in flood-afflicted West Bengal. After some further prodding, he agrees to hand over twice that amount, enough to provide support for two families.
This type ofpitch is a relatively new phenomenon in India and underlines the huge new economic force India has become. With the world's second-fastest-growing economy after China, India is full of companies battling to connect with its 300 million middle-class consumers.
Now charitable institutions are angling for business, too: Save the Children, World Vision, Oxfam, Plan India and Care India are looking for donations and, in turn, trying to provide donors with a tax credit, just as in the West. And they are doing well.
Thomas Chandy, who oversees Save the Children's operations in India, says India now has 17 million households that earn at least $17,400 a year – considered middle class there. Individual charitable contributions have climbed to roughly $927 million, from $580 million three years ago. In three or four years, individual giving in India could reach $4.6 billion, Chandy said.
After U.S. drone attacks have killed more than 600 Pakistanis (since 2006)—most of them civilians—The New York Times reports that “the Pakistani authorities have refused to allow American workers or planes to distribute the aid in the camps for displaced people.” The paper reports:
Islamist charities and the United States are competing for the allegiance of the two million people displaced by the fight against the Taliban in Swat and other parts of Pakistan — and so far, the Islamists are in the lead.
Top US officials (and the Times) make no apologies for the fact that the aid is intended primarily as a counter-insurgency program:
The inconspicuous back seat is not what American officials had hoped for. At first, the huge exodus of people from Swat, many of whom had suffered from the brutality of the Taliban, seemed to present an opportunity for Washington to improve its image in Pakistan.
“There is an opportunity actually to provide services, much as we did with the earthquake relief, which had a profound impact on the perception of America,” Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who serves as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Most philanthropic money goes to institutions that are already wealthy (universities with large endowments, for instance) or arts organizations with largely affluent "clients."
Only a relatively small fraction goes to organizations that provide social services to the needy.
And of that tiny fraction, only 2% goes to help the needy outside our borders.
International Charities Say Donations Could Drop by 15% a Year
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that charities that provide aid overseas could lose as much as $1-billion in donations per year as a result of the economic collapse.
Samuel A. Worthington, president of InterAction a coalition that represents international organizations, said that private donations to international-aid groups, which now total just shy of $6-billion annually, could drop from 5 to 15 percent annually during the downturn. “And those billions of dollars would translate into significant hardship,” he said.
If the crisis persists beyond the next 16 months, said Charlie MacCormack, president of Save the Children, in Westport, Conn., that could spell disaster for many international charities. “If jobs are still going away, and equity is still going away, and people say I don’t have a lifeline myself any longer, then it will be tough,” he said.
That said, the charity leaders expressed optimism that the long-term outlook for international-development fund raising was bright, as more Americans are showing an interest in the plight of people outside of the United States.
“People are much more aware of how interconnected we are and how our well-being depends on that of others,” said Mr. MacCormack. “The long-term trends are positive for our cause.”
Jon Ven Johnson is a Texan working in Laos, where he helps disadvantaged young people build a career. But Ven Johnson isn't an aid worker. He's an MBA with a background in management consultancy and what he's offering isn't charity -- it's years of business experience.
Ven Johnson works with a non-profit, MBAs Without Borders, that trains disadvantaged youths in Cambodia and Laos and gives them jobs carrying out IT services for international clients. The idea is that MBAs can help small businesses and not-for-profits by providing the know-how and experience needed to help them grow.
Founder Tal Dehtiar says, "I really believe that business might be the one way we can alleviate poverty. I don't believe the answer is handouts, but in developing and supporting businesses that can grow and hire 100 or 500 people. Think about all the families they affect."
Ven Johnson adds, "I bring the knowledge of how a business should run according to Western standards -- specifically, how finance departments are structured, the typical financial reports that should be produced each month and what measurements they should be watching to help them gauge their success."
After years of working as a management consultant in Houston, Texas, Ven Johnson and his wife, who also works for DDD, decided to use their skills to give something back. "I loved being a management consultant but I asked myself, 'How am I making the world a better place?' I was putting money in shareholders pockets and helping a company create a good product -- that's alright, but I thought, 'What if I used the same skills to really make an impact on the lives of people who really need it?'"
Ruth checked her email and there was only one note. A dear friend who she hadn’t been in contact with for awhile had written:
I'm going to be in your neighborhood this evening and I'd like to stop by for a visit.
With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. "Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner." She reached for her purse and counted out its meager contents. "Well, I can get some bread and cheese, at least."
She threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of French bread, some cheese, and a bottle of wine, leaving Ruth with only some change to last her until Monday. Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm.
"Hey, can you help us?"
Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags. "Look lady, I ain't got a job, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, we'd really appreciate it."
Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to. "I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor student myself. All I have is some bread and cheese, and I'm having an old friend for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to him."
"Well, okay, I understand. Thanks anyway." The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley.
As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a twinge in her heart. "Wait! Look, why don't you take this food. I'll figure out something else to serve my guest." She handed the man her grocery bag.
"Thank you. Thank you very much!" echoed both the man and woman. Ruth could now see that the woman was shivering.
"You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one." Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street, without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest.
When she got home, she checked her email, and saw she’d gotten another note from her friend:
It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal. And thank you, too, for the beautiful coat.
Love always, Jesus
*
The Lord said, ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
The Lord will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
"As a rule, people who have money don't know people in need," saId Tanya Davis, 40, a laid-off security guard and single mother.
"I believe that the more I give, the more I receive, and that God loves a cheerful giver," Davis said. "Plus I've been in their position, and someday I might be again."
Pastor Coletta Jones, who ministers to a largely low-income tithing congregation in southeast Washington thinks that poor people give more because they ask for less for themselves.
"When you have just a little, you're thankful for what you have," Jones said, "but with every step you take up the ladder of success, the money clouds your mind and gets you into a state of never being satisfied."
"Have you ever looked into the face of someone you're being generous to?" Emel Sweeney, 73, a retired bookkeeper, asks with the trace of a Jamaican lilt. She says that giving lights up her life.
That brought to mind her encounter with a young woman who was struggling to manage four small, tired children on a bus.
They staggered and straggled at a transfer stop, along with Sweeney, who urged the mother to take a nearby cab the rest of the way. When the mother said she had no money, Sweeney gave her $20, she said. The mother, as she piled her brood into the cab, waved and mouthed a thank-you.
"Those words just rested in my chest," Sweeney said, "and as I rode home I was so happy."
This morning, one billion people around the world woke up hungry and tonight, they will go to sleep hungry.
Hunger is not only a physical condition. It is a drain on economic development, a threat to global security, a barrier to health and education reform, and a trap for the millions of people worldwide who work from sun-up to sun-down every day to produce a harvest that often doesn't meet their needs.
We have the resources to give every person in the world the tools they need to feed themselves and their children. So the question is not whether we can end hunger. It's whether we will.
The Obama Administration is committed to providing leadership in developing a new global approach to hunger. We will look to 7 guiding principles to support the creation of effective, sustainable farming systems in regions around the world where the current methods aren't working.
Obama to ease post-9/11 scrutiny of American Muslim charities
Tucked away in President Obama's historic speech in Cairo last Thursday was a promise to American Muslims to ease the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny of their charities.
"Rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That's why I'm committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat," said Obama, referring to the Muslim obligation to be charitable.
Ever since the WorldTradeCenter attacks, fund-raising by American Muslims has come under repeated federal investigations for possible support of terrorism. Just last week, a federal judge in Dallas sentenced five leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to between 15 and 65 years in prison after they were convicted of providing material support to Hamas.
"It's created a tremendous climate of fear," she Kay Guinane, who is leading an effort on the issue for OMB Watch. "Donors are afraid they may be prosecuted for giving to an organization now that may be declared a supporter of terrorism two years from now."
American Muslims complain legitimate philanthropy has been hampered because the rules are ill-defined.
"The perception that giving to charities is financing terrorism has to be debunked," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. "It hurts America. …That's why I was so happy to hear that that the President recognizes that there is a problem and is committed to doing something about it."
An article in “The Times” makes a novel statement: “Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.”
Matthew Parris, a former British Foreign Office employee and Conservative MP goes on to explain: “I returned, after 45 years, to the [African] country that I knew as a boy. A small British charity working there, Pump Aid, helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities.
“It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts.
“These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. … I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it.”
The global recession is hurting developing countries' economies and societies more than it's damaging the developed world.
Having said this, the surge in global philanthropy, remittances and private investments that has been building over the past several years is easing the pain. As of 2007, global private philanthropy, remittances and private investments account for 83 percent, compared to 17 percent provided by government aid..
In the case of aid sent by the United States, government aid accounted for $21.8 billion, while $213.4 billion flowed to the developed world from the following sources: Private capital ($97.5 billion), remittances that migrants and immigrants in developed countries send back to their home countries ($79 billion), and philanthropy ($36.9 billion).
An interesting trend is the use of cell phones for money transfers. Considering that out of 3.6 billion cell-phone users worldwide, 2.45 billion live in developing countries, it is not surprising that "cell phones are being used to make it faster and easier for migrants to send money, and even goods, home and to link poor people to formal banking networks," says the Hudson Institute's Yulya Spantchack.
When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald's recently, he bought the man a cheeseburger. There's nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsized chunk of the $9.50 he'd earned that day from panhandling.
In fact, America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.
"The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity," said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. "The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give."
[Excerpted from an article by Frank Greve, McClatchy]
Remittances from U.S. immigrants totaled more than $100 billion in 2007. By comparison, individual giving to tax-deductible U.S. charities totaled about $220 billion that same year.
Much of the money remitted comes from struggling U.S. immigrants such as Zenaida Araviza, 42, a single mother. Araviza, who earns $1,300 a month, goes carless, cable-less and cell phone-less in order to send an aunt in the Philippines $200 a month to care for Araviza's mother, who has Alzheimer's.
Carmen De Jesus, the chief financial officer and treasurer of Forex Inc., a remittance agency based in Springfield, Va., said low-income Filipino-Americans such as Araviza were her most generous customers. "The domestic helpers send very, very frequently," she said. "The doctors, less so."
Why are they so generous? Christie Zerrudo, a cashier who handles Filipino remittances at a grocery/restaurant/remittance agency in Arlington, offered this explanation:
"It gives the heart comfort when you sit down at the end of the day, and you know that you did your part," Zerrudo said. "You took care of your family. If you eat here, they eat there, too. It would give you stress if they couldn't. But you love them, they are your family, and your love has had an expression."
The Wall Street Journal reports that a growing number of philanthropists are adopting spending deadlines and sunset provisions to ensure urgent global needs are addressed in a timely way. By granting the entirety of funds within a certain period of time, these charitable efforts are looking to have a bigger immediate impact.
Sadly, traditional foundations, which are typically set up to "last forever", only pay out roughly a mere 5% of their assets a year, and that a mandated figure.
The economic meltdown, an increased awareness of pressing environmental issues and a political climate ripe for policy change are all feeding the sense of urgency. Jennifer and Peter Buffett, the son and daughter-in-law of billionaire investor Warren Buffett; Charles Feeney, co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers Group; and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates are among prominent philanthropists who have implemented so-called spend-down or sunset provisions in recent years.
"There are such pressing needs now, from climate change to the escalating economic challenges facing our communities; we need to get focused and step up in a big way now," said Jennifer Buffett, president of the NoVo Foundation, which aims to empower women and girls.
Limited-life foundations represent slightly more than 10% of active family foundations, according to a recent study by the FoundationCenter, a nonprofit U.S. research firm. Those who choose to spend down are saying, "Let the next generation create new philanthropic capital for their own priorities and mission."
America's Top Philanthropists Discuss Global Problems
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that in a quiet meeting closed to the news media and the public, Bill Gates, David Rockefeller Sr., Oprah Winfrey, and other leading philanthropists met in New York on May 5th to discuss ways to promote charitable giving and make their philanthropy more effective in fighting problems at home and abroad.
Among the high-profile participants were Ted Turner, Warren E. Buffett, George Soros, Peter G. Peterson, Eli Broad, and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
The unusual event was an unprecedented gathering of the world’s wealthiest — and most generous — people. Together, the philanthropists in the room have committed a total of more than $72.5-billion to charitable causes since 1996, according to Chronicle of Philanthropy tallies.
While the meeting and its hush-hush nature has triggered intense speculation by the news media about what was discussed, Patricia Q. Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said it was simply a gathering of people who have a common passion for helping others.
“It was a wide-ranging conversation,” she said, “but they each shared what motivates their giving, their areas of focus of their work, the lessons learned, and thoughts on how we might increase giving.”
Despite expectations that the Obama administration would financially pressure Israel to accept a two-state solution and implement practical measures, the U.S. administration has indicated that aid to Israel will, in fact, be raised. At the same time, the budget also imposes harsh conditions on the Palestinian Authority in order to receive aid.
According to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, the budget proposed to Congress for 2010 is more than a 10% increase in total U.S. aid to Israel.
The Israeli government is already the largest recipient of US financial aid in the world, receiving one-third of total US aid to foreign countries, even though Israel’s population comprises just .001% of the world’s population, and it also has one the world’s higher per capita incomes.
The United States provides direct and indirect military aid to Israel – totaling more than it gives to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean put together, whose combined total population is well over a billion.
While the focus of this blog is international aid, clearly conditions for some in relatively wealthy western countries are beginning to mirror conditions that, unfortunately, have been a way of life for the many in developing nations for far too long.
Well before the brunt of the foreclosure crisis, 3.5 million people in the U.S. were experiencing homelessness at some point during the course of a given year.
Reflecting on her struggles over the last few years, one single mother who is now homeless in America calls it "eye-opening." "It's like they say you never know [someone] until you walk in their shoes, so truly I know now and if I ever get out [of] this situation, I will always give back to people less fortunate than I am because I know their struggles," she said.
School officials where the children of this particular family go to school, say a day doesn't go by without the need to enroll another child as homeless. "Some of them are embarrassed, some of them are scared, some of them are sad. They're just not sure what's going to happen next," the supervisor says. "Students who are displaced or homeless students feel that school is a safe haven. They really want to come to school."
For better or for worse, this emotional mixture of angst and anticipation, hopelessness and hope, so prevalent in developing nations, is an emotion that many in the west now share.
It's come to light that exorbitant sums of international aid designated to help alleviate the poverty in war-torn Afghanistan are being lavished by Western aid agencies on their own officials in the conflict-stricken country.
When international aid "comes to Afghanistan, it's spent on those people who have cars costing USD 60,000 and who live in houses with a USD 15,000 monthly rent. This money goes to these expenses -- 90 percent logistics and administration," says Ramazan Bashardost, an Afghan parliament member and former planning minister.
"I have just rented out this building for USD 30,000 a month to an aid organization. It was so expensive because it has 24 rooms with en-suite bathrooms as well as armored doors and bullet-proof windows," Torialai Bahadery, the director of Property Consulting Afghanistan said.
Meanwhile 77 percent of Afghans lack access to clean water.
Speakers at the Council on Foundations meeting in Atlanta dissected the Bernard Madoff investment scandal, which resulted in the dissolving of 51 foundations, and left 143 others seriously injured.
At a previous global philanthropic gathering, Muhammad Yunus, the “father of microfinance” and founder of the Grameen Bank, urged those in economic development to think of the current financial crisis as an opportunity for sweeping change. Rather than simply extricating ourselves from the crisis, we also should be asking about the new systems that would best serve humanity going forward, such as: "Do we really want to return to the pre-crises status quo?"
He suggested that any new system should be based on the fact that “human beings are multi-dimensional, not simply profit-making machines…The current financial system does a remarkable job of tapping into the selfishness that human beings share. Let us re-orient our thinking to also tap into the selflessness of human beings; why not tap that commonality to pave the way for social businesses that create opportunities for others?”
We have all read a great deal about Swine Flu lately, which has killed an unconfirmed 150 people.
Globally every year there are at least 300 million acute cases of Malaria, resulting in more than one million deaths.
Malaria and tuberculosis together kill nearly as many people each year as AIDS, and represent a severe drain on national economies, especially in Africa, where it causes up to $100bn a year in lost productivity, five times more than annual development aid received. And malaria is a slow death.
The distribution of mosquito nets with insecticide is a very effective method of malaria prevention, and it is also one of the most cost-effective methods. These nets can often be obtained for around $3. Medecins Sans Frontieres estimates that the cost of treating a malaria-infected person in an endemic country (2002) was only $0.25 to $2.40 per dose.
So malaria is a disease that is preventable, treatable and curable for relatively very little.
And for much, much less than what is being considered to be spent on Swine Flu efforts. (Sounds strangely similar to efforts to thwart the deadly Avian Flu pandemic of 2005.)
