Blogs and Stories
Recession-Proof Philanthropy
In the past few years, a new movement has taken hold in America and around the world: social entrepreneurship, which draws its inspiration from the start-ups of Silicon Valley to create new organizations with innovative solutions to society’s problems. Many of the most innovative social entrepreneurs have been funded by businesslike philanthropists. One of the best-known examples is Wendy Kopp’s Teach for America, which started with seed money from Echoing Green, a fund set up to support social entrepreneurs by partners of the private-equity firm General Atlantic.
To sidestep a laborious budget process and risk-averse bureaucracies, Mayor Bloomberg in New York has used philanthropists to fund innovative experiments – from training school principals in management to helping the poor open bank accounts – that, if they work, can more easily be incorporated in the budget. Already, Bloomberg’s approach has been copied by Cory Booker, one of America’s leading urban-reform mayors, in Newark, New Jersey.
Bill Gates and other donors understand that they have to leverage their money by persuading governments, big business, and others to partner with them in backing socially-entrepreneurial ideas, because even Gates’ huge donations are tiny compared with the money that governments spend. By 2007, Gates had given around $2 billion, spread over nearly a decade, to improve America’s failing public schools. The annual schools budget of New York City, one of the main beneficiaries of this philanthropy, was more than $15 billion that year.
So it is particularly heartening that President-elect Barack Obama appears to have embraced social entrepreneurship, and some of the philanthrocapitalists who support it. He has promised to establish a fund to support social innovation, and is rumored to be considering a special office for this in the executive branch. Several philanthropists, including the current head of Echoing Green, a grandson of Warren Buffett, and a director of Google.org, the philanthropy division of Google, have been recruited to the transition team.
So be of good cheer. For now, at least, it appears that the spirit of giving, and, better still, giving effectively, is surviving these tough times.
Matthew Bishop is New York Bureau Chief of The Economist and co-author of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World. More about the book: www.philanthrocapitalism.net
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Amateur Hour at the White House
Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
Start at the Top
Matthew Bishop and Michael Green are co-authors of Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World, which is out in paperback next month. Bishop is NewYork bureau chief of The Economist and on Twitter @mattbish. Green is a writer and consultant. They blog at www.philanthrocapitalism.net.
Michael Green is a writer, consultant and co-author of Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World, which is out in paperback next month. He blogs at www.philanthrocapitalism.net.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.