In the United States, the giving sector is up in arms about a proposal in President Obama’s budget bill to cut back the tax exemption for wealthy donors. In the United Kingdom, donors are complaining that the government’s desire to boost giving under its Big Society programme is not being backed up with new tax incentives. On both sides of […]
Last year we made a set of predictions for 2010. Some were satisfyingly prescient – the surge in mega-giving we predicted for 2010 became a reality through the Buffett-Gates Giving Pledge (even if we were off the mark in betting on Steve Jobs rather than Larry Ellison to be the Gates business rival who would step up to major philanthropy). […]
“[T]he call to social action needs to speak to individuals’ motivations and account for the obstacles to giving; to fit with people’s lifestyles and interests.” That this is the big idea in the British Government’s new Green Paper on Giving that was launched in London on Wednesday, shows the influence of so-called behavioural economists like Richard Thaler […]
Britain’s Coalition Government gave another hint today about its Big Society big idea that it hopes will win over the voters, with the launch of an £80 million ($130 million) match fund to get philanthropists to start giving to the arts. Though the fund is a good idea, the government is still tinkering at the edges and more major […]
Now here’s an interesting idea as we go into giving season – an Oxford University philosopher has pledged to give £1 million to charity over his lifetime and wants you to do the same. Not really headline news in a world of billion-dollar mega-gifts you might think, but there are two interesting things about Dr Toby […]