Interesting interview in the Straits Times with Willie Cheng, a former Accenture executive, who was apparently a whisleblower in a scandal surrounding the National Kidney Foundation Singapore. He has just launched a book called Doing Good Well. Cheng praises Warren Buffett and draws the lesson for his rich friends that: “… if they want to […]
We were honoured to see that the former Mayor of Los Angeles Richard J. Riordan reviewed Philanthrocapitalism in the Wall Street Journal. He rightly asks why more billionaires aren’t giving and muses that it’s not greed but that “…they don’t know how to get started”. He suggests that they might “…take a look at this […]
Philanthrocapitalism was reviewed by John Gapper in the Financial Times today, who found it "thoroughly researched and enjoyable". John agrees that the new philanthropists have the potential to achieve their ambition of revolutionising philanthropy: "Institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation", he writes "achieve big things not only because they are rich but […]
To read more about Philanthrocapitalism, there are interviews with us on the websites of Alliance Magazine and the Chronicle of Philanthropy (subscription required). You can also watch Matthew’s discussion with Bill Clinton at the 92nd Street Y on Youtube .
In Philanthrocapitalism we wanted to highlight that the current boom in philanthropy is not just an American phenomenon, even if the most prominent philanthrocapitalists are people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The new wave of giving is reaching Asia and Latin America, the Former Soviet Union, Britain and, even, Europe. A recent article by Bhekinkosi Moyo, first published […]
Story on the BBC website today that the English Charity Commission has started looking in to the charitable status of a number of private schools. This raises questions of how tightly the state should regulate the charity sector – some say ‘not at all’, others point to the generous tax breaks that charities receive as […]
We talked to Bill Easterly today – author of The White Man’s Burden and leading sceptic about aid to poor countries. Easterly’s main argument is that top down aid processes don’t work, whereas bottom up processes driven by people on the ground have a much better chance of succeeding. Hence his scepticism about grand strategies like […]
One of the questions we get asked a lot is ‘Ok, so the super-rich can do great things, but what can ordinary people do to make the world a better place?’ Our answer is ‘lots’. First of all, consumers have already had a huge influence on corporations. Smart CEOs who believe that their companies can […]
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has just published an interview with us by Ian Wilhelm. The hot topic, of course, was the financial market meltdown and the impact on philanthropy, which was the subject of an article in the New York Times yesterday. We argued that, with a few exceptions, the rich are likely to come […]
Just back from an interview with publishing guru Judith Regan on Sirius Satellite radio, going out on Wednesday 1 October throughout the day. Listen here. Judith’s big question was whether global financial meltdown would cause philanthropy to dry up. We argued that there are still plenty of rich people out there, some of […]