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Social Good News

There has been plenty to be gloomy about in New York, this gridlocked, rainy week of United Nations/Clinton Global Initiative summitry. Yet there have also been plenty of bright spots, especially at the Social Good Summit hosted by the 92nd St Y and Mashable. The final of the StartUps for Good Challenge was a case […]

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The Art of the Posse-able

If you want a model for how the world can solve its most pressing problems in the 21st Century, it is the posse. As governance systems go, the Wild West approach of rounding up a few available hands and driving the bad guy out of town is certainly messy, but, if our favourite westerns are […]

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Osama bin-Laden – Philanthropist?

The late and unlamented terror chief may not be anyone’s idea of a philanthropist, least of all ours. Yet, however offensive it may seem, the horrible thought does raise some important questions, so please bear with us on this one… First of all, Osama bin-Laden had plenty of cash – inheriting a pile from his […]

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What Is Commitment?

Britain’s coalition government will soon announce the results of its Comprehensive Spending Review, which is short-hand for a massive swathe of cuts in public spending. Though the axe will be swung with vigour, it is believed that David Cameron’s government will stick to an election pledge not only to protect the international aid budget but to continue ratcheting […]

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One is the Magic Number

For Britain’s politicians there seems to be a consensus, at least for now, that spending 0.7% of national income on government aid programmes would be the nation’s fair share of the global effort to eradicate poverty in the developing world. Indeed, aid charities and lobby groups have consistently pushed for all rich countries to hit the 0.7% target since it was endorsed by the […]

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Do it different in Haiti

We have had the impressive spontaneous outpouring of generosity in response to the crisis in Haiti and the fine words about building back the small Caribbean nation better than it was before. The question now is ‘how’? That is going to be one of the hot topics for the leading brains of government, business and […]

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Reasons to be Cheerful?

Despite the economic crisis, there is still reason to feel optimistic about making progress on some of the nastiest diseases affecting the world’s poorest people. That was the message of a special event on philanthropy and global public health hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council on February 23rd. The event was extremely […]

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Welcome

Welcome to Philanthrocapitalism week! As world leaders and corporate chiefs descend on New York, this is going to be a big week for philanthrocapitalism – not just because our book will finally be launched on the 30 September. Today, 120 of the world’s leading thinkers began three days of deliberation on global challenges such as […]