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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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The Rich Versus The Rest?

‘Toward a New Social Contract’ is the theme of this year’s Global Philanthropy Forum, currently taking place in Washington, DC. But the real hand-to-hand fighting on the role that philanthropy plays in the rich’s responsibilities to society is being played out in Britain, where a government initiative to cut the tax subsidy to giving has […]

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At Last! The Overdue Birth of Big Society Capital

Britain’s Prime Minister has cause for a small (nice cup of tea, rather than pop the champagne cork) celebration today, now that his Big Society idea has had its first positive headlines in quite some time, with the long-awaited launch of the £600 million Big Society Capital (BSC) social investment fund. BSC has cost the […]

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Did It Work?

‘The Year of Fighting Over What Works’ was our headline prediction for 2011. So how did we do? Let’s take a look at the 10 scenarios we saw when we peered into our philanthrocrystal ball back in January. 1) “A battle is going to rage over the relationship between profit and philanthropy.” And some. Within […]

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A Big Legacy?

A gaggle of notables from the arts philanthropy world (and Tracey Emin) gathered at London’s Tate Gallery last night to mark the launch of a new campaign, Legacy10, to get Brits to give more. The campaign, set up by “the most influential PR man in the country” Roland Rudd, wants to get people to take advantage […]

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The Secret (Big) Society

Whatever happened to the Big Society? Once British Prime Minister David Cameron’s flagship idea, it has been so conspicuous by its absence in recent weeks that Third Sector magazine argued last week that it was time to say ‘bye-bye’ to the idea. Such a judgement by the official organ of the UK charity sector, which yearns […]

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More A Whisper Than A Scream

When a group of British donors and charity chiefs announced at the end of last year their own independent review of how to make Brits give more to charity, we were excited at the possibility that the philanthropy community would come up with new ideas to promote giving. Indeed, since David Cameron’s government was engaged in […]

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Three Cheers for GAVI

The news that $4.3 billion of new money was pledged on June 13th to vaccinate children in the developing world against several deadly diseases is worth celebrating. The money was promised at the first ever pledging conference for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which exceeded its target of $3.7 billion. That means […]

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Saving the Big Society

Lately, the Big Society has seemed in danger of early consignment to the dustbin of history. Though it is David Cameron’s big political idea, the Big Society did not excite the voters at last year’s general election and has wobbled alarmingly between unpopularity and ridicule in recent weeks, as the British prime minister’s plans for […]

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The People’s Aid

Back in the day, before Britain was run by the David Cameron-led coalition, many of us assumed that, under the weight of the public spending axe, a Conservative government would wriggle out of its commitment to keep upping the UK government’s aid budget to 0.7% of national income. It seemed like a no-brainer that increasing spending […]