In her book last year, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”, Diane Ravitch dismissively described the wealthy philanthropists who are bankrolling various efforts to improve the otherwise taxpayer funded school system as the “billionaire boys club”. She argues that the likes of Bill Gates, the Walton family (heirs of the founder […]
A new book called The Trouble With Billionaires, by the “feisty social critic” Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, is getting a lot of play in Canada at the moment. We have not seen a copy yet, but an excerpt in the The Star contains an attack on the philanthropy of the rich that is worth examining. McQuaig and Brooks report […]
What do the victory of billionaire Meg Whitman in the recent primary to be the Republican candidate for governor of California, and the controversial Gaza aid flotilla have in common? Both these recent new stories highlight the difficult questions that arise when philanthropy merges into politics. At first glance this is a bit of non-question. Doing good for […]
It was good to see Barron’s magazine’s cover feature about the world’s 25 best givers, which rightly observed that “the name of the game in philanthropy this year is to make your dollars go far – very far.” The article, prepared in partnership with the excellent Trevor and Maggie Nielson at Global Philanthropy Group, focuses […]
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 […]
If you are in New York this Sunday evening, come to a discussion of philanthropy during the downturn at the 92nd Street Y. Matthew will be in conversation with two of the most thoughtful philanthropy leaders in America, Paul Brest, who runs the Hewlett Foundation, and Vartan Gregorian, who has long presided at the Carnegie […]