Invoking the name of Robin Hood (Britain’s famous bandit who, according to the legend, “robbed from the rich to give to the poor”) aid lobby groups, celebrities and philanthrocapitalists such as film maker Richard Curtis, have launched a high-profile campaign for a new tax on banks to fill the gaping hole in the public finances. Not […]
2009 showed that the philanthrocapitalism revolution is here to stay, as mega-giving by the likes of Bill Gates and the mass philanthrocapitalism of organisations like kiva.org and donorschoose surged ahead despite the economic downturn. So what does 2010 hold in store? Gazing into our crystal ball, we see philanthrocapitalism continuing to surge ahead as givers […]
So, we are philanthropy’s “dangerous and destructive” assailants, accuses Phil Buchanan in his recent blog at Philanthropy Central, a new site from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. It seems that celebrating the wave of successful entrepreneurs and big corporations that are getting into giving back, what we call philanthrocapitalism, is a threat to […]
Warren Buffett invites to Maui a group of his fellow elderly super rich, including Ted Turner, George Soros, Bill Gates Senior (father of the Microsoft billionaire), Bill Cosby, Barry Diller, and Yoko Ono. They decide to launch a movement using their money and connections to clean up America – not least by masterminding a campaign […]
Women, it seems, are more likely than men to give to overseas causes, says a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. According to the paper’s authors, Karen Page Winterich, Vikas Mittal and William T. Ross Jr., men prefer to give to causes closer to home, when offered the choice between donating to victims […]
Praise for Philanthrocapitalism as “extremely well written” from an unexpected source – our old sparring partners at Gates Keepers. True, they do also take us to task for being too soft on Bill Gates, but that’s not really a surprise. The really surprising thing about the review is that, having attacked the idea of philanthrocapitalism for several […]
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a philanthrocapitalist! “The rich are the new superheroes” was one of the “elevator pitches” we developed to promote Philanthrocapitalism. Now, Good Morning America has taken up the idea, even drawing cartoons of what it calls the “Super Rich Friends”, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Oprah […]
Capitalism is something of a dirty word at the moment, so the launch on March 24th of a new initiative to attract finance for capital-starved entrepreneurs in the developing world is a timely reminder that jobs and economic growth are the most powerful levers in ending poverty. The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) wants to create a […]
Bill Gates unleashed mosquitoes on the trendy techies gathered at the TED conference last week to highlight the dangers of malaria. But is he also unleashing dangerously misleading data about the deadly disease? Yes, according to an interesting post from aid sceptic Bill Easterly (author of White Man’s Burden) on his new blog, Aid Watch. (Thanks […]
The following post appeared on the Financial Times journalist John Gapper’s blog. We could not possibly comment: Matthew Bishop gets a philanthropic bail-out January 29, 2009 The latest recipient of a bail-out seems to be Matthew Bishop, the author with Michael Green, of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, a book about the […]