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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 Social Network of Giving

Cynicism abounded in September when Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, announced a $100m donation to improve education in Newark just in time for the launch of The Social Network, a movie about the networking website that does its best to portray him as a money-obsessed double-crosser. Whilst there is a long tradition of the […]

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Meg Whitman, Turkish Flotillas and the Limits of Philanthropy

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 […]

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Only the Super Rich Can Save Us

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 […]

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Philanthropy Fat Cats?

So, the new CEO of the Gates Foundation, Jeff Raikes, is pulling down nearly a million dollars a year, according to a report by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. This is bound to get a few people huffing and puffing, not least because Raikes is already apparently sitting on a pile of several hundred million dollars […]

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Secret Super Rich Friends

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 […]

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Waiting for Obama

“Possibly within the next month, President Obama will launch the White House Office of Social Innovation,” reports Andrew Wolk in his welcome new blog. Indeed, according to the White House website, the Office already exists. Wolk, chief executive of Root Cause, a non-profit that supports social innovators, notes that this initiative has the potential to […]