Warren Buffett’s son Peter is a decent musician and a fine fellow. He has written a useful book about the personal challenges of being born into a wealthy family, and how to escape unrealistic life expectations to find fulfillment. If only his op-ed in the New York Times on July 27th had been so well […]
Category: Archive
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Philanthro-intern Wanted
We are looking for an intern to help in the next 2-3 months with a couple of philanthrocapitalism-related projects. Ideally based in New York. Contact [email protected]
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Launching the Social Progress Index
“Visions without metrics are hallucinations”, said one speaker at this year’s Skoll World Forum, which hosted the launch of the beta version of the Social Progress Index on April 11th. The importance of rigorously measuring social impact is one of the key themes of our writing about philanthrocapitalism. That is why we have been enthusiastic supporters […]
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Conservatives Against the Koch Brothers
The Wall Street Journal, it seems, has issues with philanthropy. Just the other day it ran a piece called “The Folly of Philanthropy”, reviewing a new book called The Good Rich by Robert Dalzell, that raised a familiar conservative argument against philanthropy that we find rather peculiar. “Charity is a sideshow”, concludes the reviewer, Amity Shlaes. […]
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The Year of Philanthrowoman
The start of the New Year means that it is time, yet again, to gaze into our philanthrocrystal ball and make our annual predictions. We did OK last year but are hoping to do even better in 2013. Our top theme among our 20 predictions is that 2013 will be a breakthrough year for women […]
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Books of the Year
There has been plenty of relevant new material for philanthrocapitalists to read in 2012. Here, in no particular order, are our top philanthrocapitalism books of the year: 1. Abundance: the Future is Better Than You Think, by Peter Diamandis. The founder of the X Prize has written a much needed dose of optimism at a […]
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Review of the Year
This time last year we stuck out our necks and made ten predictions for philanthrocapitalism in 2012. So how did we do? 1. Greater scrutiny of the 1%. We were right that the US presidential election would focus attention on the role of wealthy donors in shaping the political agenda through their cash donations to […]
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Shorting for Good?
“It’s gonna be a big number,” predicted hedge fund boss Bill Ackman on Thursday December 20th, as he launched one of the more innovative examples of philanthrocapitalism we have seen. He had spent the previous three hours making the case that Herbalife, a vitamin supplements company which a day earlier boasted a stock market value […]
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A ‘Bloomberg’ for Impact Investors
Can the new trend of impact, or social, investing live up to the hype? That question was debated earlier this week in the New York Times, on the back of a report by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation about its, largely positive, experience of investing for social good as well as financial returns. Matthew is quoted […]
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Making a success of #givingtuesday
So, after many months of growing anticipation, #givingtuesday has arrived. All around America, people will be making their personal giving pledges to support their favourite good causes with time and/or money. Many will write the pledge down on a sheet of paper, photo themselves, and post the picture on facebook and twitter, to encourage their […]