focus on: getting global giving going p 21

have drawn a great deal of attention to global Promoting global problems. The UN Millennium Development Goals, 1 announced in 2000, have also helped social investors giving an overview focus on problems in need of global attention. In addition to wealthy individuals, other relatively new global donors include multinational corpora- Adele Simmons and Dan Nielsen Global philanthropy, or tions. At times driven not by altruism but by the global social investing, desire for competitive advantage, they have donated is expanding rapidly, a byproduct of the world’s increasingly mobile money and products and adopted environmentally workforce, the explosion of wealth in the 1990s, and improvements and socially responsible business practices. Service or- in telecommunications. This new group of investors is not found ganizations have also had a big impact on the global solely in the upper class of industrialized nations. In Brazil, stage, sometimes by pooling resources. The Rotary India, the Philippines and Mexico, for example, individuals Club’s 20-year, $600 million campaign to eradicate po- are increasingly contributing to social causes within their own lio, for example, drew on millions of individual gifts. countries. According to a recent study by the Aga Khan Foundation, Support and development giving by Pakistanis is four times the amount of foreign aid that The recent increase in global philanthropy has been Pakistan receives.2 supported by new mechanisms for social investment Guest editor for the A ‘global philanthropy infrastructure’ is now in place Alliance special feature and improvements in infrastructure. Sensing the on ‘Getting global giving – organizations and networks that support and going’ potential to bring individual donors to the table, strengthen global giving. This article will examine various foundations, including Mott, Ford, Hewlett, that infrastructure, highlight recent trends and Rockefeller, Kellogg, Aga Khan, and Bertelsmann, developments, and discuss some of the issues that have invested in promoting global philanthropy. need to be addressed to significantly increase the They have established local organizations that sup- effectiveness and scale of global giving. port philanthropy, offered training programmes for For the purposes of this issue, we’ve defined global global donors, and funded research as well as confer- philanthropy as the use of financial and other ences designed to bring donors together. Adele Simmons is President of the Global resources to target underdevelopment around the Philanthropy Partnership The oldest donor support organization is the US- and Senior Adviser of the world. This includes investments travelling over World Economic Forum. based Council on Foundations, set up 55 years ago. She is also a member borders (donors in wealthier nations investing in of the Board of the The Council promotes global social investment by Synergos Institute. She poorer countries) and funds travelling within borders was President of the providing educational and informational resources MacArthur Foundation where the investors’ goal is increasing the prosperity from 1989 to 1999. (particularly on the legal issues involved in interna- She can be contacted at of an underdeveloped region or group of people. For adelesimmons@ tional grantmaking) and by lobbying for the reform mindspring.com several decades, this sort of philanthropy was the of US Treasury Department guidelines on interna- Dan Nielsen is Executive province of a small number of large foundations, but Director of the Global tional giving. Philanthropy today, thanks to the well-publicized commitments Partnership. He can be contacted at of Stephan Schmidheiny, George Soros, Ted Turner The European Foundation Centre (EFC), established dan.nielsen@global- philanthropy.org and Bill Gates, individual global giving is receiving a in 1989, supports a number of funders’ networks that great deal of attention. enable funders to exchange ideas and collaborate on projects in specific regions of the world and Schmidheiny created the AVINA Foundation in 1994 specific areas of work. Eighteen months ago, the EFC to support the work of civil society groups working on launched Europe in the World (EitW), a campaign to 1 This article draws sustainable development in Latin America. Soros has, heavily on Paula encourage European foundations to devote at least Johnson, Steve Johnson among other causes, supported education and civil and Andrew Kingman 5 per cent of their spending to initiatives outside (2004) Promoting society in Russia and Eastern Europe following the Philanthropy: Global Europe or programmes with a global dimension. challenges and approaches, end of the Cold War. Turner, through the United prepared for the Ninety foundations have already joined. The Mexi- International Network Nations Foundation, and Gates, through his founda- for Strategic can Center for Philanthropy (CEMEFI), established in Philanthropy. tion’s work to reduce AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, 1988, promotes social responsibility throughout 2 Aga Khan have filled gaps left by government and multilateral Development Network Mexican society, fostering partnerships between (2000) Philanthropy in organizations (the US Government and the World Pakistan: A report of the corporations, foundations and NGOs. It now has over Initiative on Indigenous Health Organization, to name two). With their focus Philanthropy Islamabad, 400 members. ୴ Pakistan. on global issues, the four men and their foundations

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That old guard has now been joined by other organi- In addition, there are established players in the zations supporting global donors. In the US, South. Philippine Business for Social Progress has Grantmakers Without Borders, now four years old, been working since 1970 to promote business sector was established to help individual funders and small involvement in social development in the Philip- and mid-sized foundations support work leading to pines,3 while Partners in Change, spun off from social change in the developing world. Hispanics in ActionAid India in 1995, works with Indian compa- Philanthropy, also a youth in the field, works to in- nies. But one of the best known is Ethos Institute, crease resources for Latin American civil society and only six years old, the premier CSR organization in Latino groups in the US. GIFE (Group of Institutions, Brazil, with over 900 corporate members. As a group, Foundations and Enterprises) in Brazil and the South- they account for 30 per cent of Brazil’s GDP. Ethos, ern African Grantmakers Association, both of which which works on projects with institutions from all foster partnerships and provide information about over the globe, is in the process of developing a CSR best practices, will celebrate their tenth birthdays in self-appraisal toolkit for use by the corporate sector. 2005. The 11-year-old Asia Pacific Philanthropy Con- Networks and peer exchanges sortium (APPC) seeks to develop and strengthen Increasingly, global donors want to develop more philanthropy and the social sector in the Asia Pacific strategic and effective means of carrying out their region; it has supported projects that explore regula- philanthropic activities. In response, a number of tory and governance issues, resource mobilization, organizations have emerged that seek to provide and trends in contemporary Asian philanthropy. donors with a safe space to learn from each other, All these organizations are members of Worldwide where they can talk about their work as well as about Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS), a net- more personal issues related to family, wealth and work of grantmaker support organizations, currently giving. These networks are relatively new. The Global housed at the EFC in Brussels. Philanthropy Forum in northern California held its Corporate giving first annual conference, attended by over 300 donors, in 2002. The following year, the Chicago Global As already mentioned, corporate social responsibility Donors Network began hosting meetings and work- (CSR) comes in many forms. Merck, for example, has shops to educate and encourage local international made a commitment to donate mectizan, the drug donors. Also in 2003, the World Economic Forum set that prevents riverblindness, in perpetuity. The com- up a Foundation Leaders Advisory Group to provide pany hopes that the disease can be eradicated by 2007. advice about how the Forum can best support its PricewaterhouseCoopers is sending teams of em- members who are donors and increase effective ployees to developing countries to work with NGOs social investing. The World Economic Forum has on a pro bono basis on issues such as land mine erad- provided opportunities for donors to meet and share ication and the prevention of AIDS in Uganda. TPG, experiences at its last seven annual meetings. the Dutch express mail company, has formed a five- year partnership with the World Food Programme to Another type of peer network is the giving circle (see help get food to children. p50) where groups of donors pool funds to support action on a specific issue. The Synergos Institute’s Other corporations have established their own foun- Global Philanthropists Circle (GPC) gives individuals dations. The NIKE Foundation contributes to the and families the opportunity to network and find education of girls, Unilever is supporting work on partners for collaboration. Its members comprise 50 child nutrition in India, and Shell, among other families from 15 countries, who have travelled to- things, helps to finance small businesses that pro- gether to visit each other’s projects. Together with vide ‘energy services’ to households, businesses and the World Economic Forum, Synergos produces communities that lack them. Global Giving Matters, a bi-monthly newsletter that The infrastructure supporting CSR includes hun- focuses on global donors and the lessons they have dreds of organizations that encourage corporate learned (see box on p20). giving and identify best practices. The Prince of Wales 3 PBSP has provided In order to provide a structured education experi- International Business Leaders Forum in the UK and more than $80 million in support for over 5,000 ence to global donors, the Rockefeller Foundation Business for Social Responsibility in the US are well projects that have benefited almost 2.5 founded The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW) in 1995. known. million poor households. TPW brings together cohorts of 14 philanthropists

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who meet throughout the year to develop the skills grantees – something that is particularly important and relationships that will help them become effec- for donors trying to reach small, grassroots groups in tive donors. During its first years, cohorts consisted another country. Some intermediaries are defined mostly of US donors, but recently there have been by a geographic focus, such as the American India more non-US participants. In 2001, the Rockefeller Foundation and Give2Asia, while others have a topi- Foundation helped launch TPW/Argentina. TPW cal focus. The Global Fund for Women, for example, West, located in Silicon Valley, started in 2002. The which just celebrated its 15th anniversary, has a TPW donor education programme is now being budget of over $9 million. Last year it made grants to adopted and adapted by groups outside the US, such 400 women’s groups in over 100 countries. GFW has as the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany. served as a model for the Global Fund for Children Professional advisers and the Fund for Global Human Rights. Professional advisers, including private bankers, Community foundations are another means of estate and financial planners, investment profes- providing support to local organizations, particularly sionals and insurance advisers, all wield significant from the rich to the poor within developing coun- influence on their clients’ charitable giving. In re- tries. According to the 2004 Community Foundation cent years a number of organizations that promote Global Status Report, produced by WINGS, the number philanthropy have engaged these advisers with the of community foundations outside of the US, Canada aim of increasing giving. Those individuals typically and the UK increased by 137 per cent in the years know little about global giving, though there are 2000–2004. The report estimates that there are over exceptions, notably wealth managers at large banks. 367 community foundations in 37 countries. (Mexico alone has 25.) Many have significant endowments. The Citigroup Private Bank and the UN recently The WINGS study observes that community founda- formed a joint venture to promote strategic global tions, often formed in relative isolation, ‘are now philanthropy. In April, Bank clients spent two weeks increasingly connected – within countries, across in Mozambique and South Africa touring agricul- regions and internationally’. tural cooperatives, visiting orphanages and meeting with government officials, including the prime min- While donors to regranting organizations can specify ister and the president of Mozambique. According preferred geographic and topical areas but not to Claire Costello, head of the Bank’s Philanthropic particular NGOs, ‘pass-thru’ organizations connect Advisory Service, the trip was designed ‘to help donors directly with NGOs. They often perform a clients discover what is important to them as they measure of due diligence to assure the credibility of give both domestically and globally’. the group, and facilitate payments. Such organiza- tions include the Virtual Foundation, GlobalGiving, Donor advisers, a profession which scarcely existed a GiveWorld, GiveIndia and GivingGlobal, the last of decade ago, now flourish. They work directly with in- which also connects volunteers to groups in dev- dividuals, families and corporations to help develop eloping countries. These groups usually use the and implement strategic approaches to giving. A few internet to connect donors with groups seeking donor advisers, such as The Philanthropic Initiative, funding. Want to help street children in Delhi? the Bertelsmann Foundation, Rockefeller Philan- Donors can now go to the GiveWorld website thropy Advisors, and New Philanthropy Capital in (www.giveworld.org), find an organization working the UK, have international expertise. Community with street kids, make a modest contribution with a Foundation Silicon Valley (CFSV) sponsors pro- credit card, and arrange for a report and photograph grammes and workshops, and distributes a quarterly to be mailed, all within five minutes, from anywhere newsletter, specifically for donor advisers. in the world. Intermediaries Some intermediaries have adopted a business strat- In recent years, a number of intermediary or ‘re- egy and market principles to deliver needed goods in granting’ organizations have been established that a financially sustainable way. The Acumen Fund, for allow donors to channel funds to NGOs operating in example, is a venture philanthropy fund investing other countries. These intermediaries simplify giv- for social return instead of financial profit. It was ing, ensure that the gift is tax-deductible, at least in formed in 2001 with help from the Rockefeller Foun- the US, and take responsibility for finding effective dation. One of its investments has been in a firm that

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is producing a new generation of insecticide-treated enough, that if philanthropy is to make a difference, bednets to protect against malaria-transmitting funds must be invested wisely – a message that is re- mosquitoes. By ensuring product quality, consumer inforced by the comments of Ezra Mbogori from demand, sufficient delivery channels, and appropri- MWENGO in Zimbabwe (see p39). Giving globally – ate pricing, Acumen’s investment has helped a and effectively – is not easy. company in Tanzania produce 160,000 bednets an- Research on global giving is beginning to take place. nually and employ over 105 workers at above-average To give just a few examples, APPC has just finished re- wages. search on individual donors in six countries (see p33). Other financial intermediaries specialize in ‘blended CAF India has produced a wealth of information on value’ investing, promising investors both financial diaspora giving. Papers on global giving produced by and social return (see p42). a group of academics and practitioners who partici- Increasing global giving pate in the International Network for Strategic Philanthropy will be appearing in 2005. Several uni- The participants in the Roundtable discussion (see versities house centres that support research on p25) identify a number of ways of increasing global philanthropy and civil society, though few focus on philanthropy. In the long term, they suggest that global philanthropy. Continued systematic research increasing the number of young people who have in- about new approaches to global giving, about impact ternational experience will eventually increase the and how to measure it, and about what motivates number of adults who will commit resources to donors, will help to expand effective and strategic global giving. In the short term, they suggest certain global philanthropy. government interventions as well as quality assur- ance, impact research, and increasing the social Innovative approaches and good information can cachet of global donors. spark interest, even passions, in some philan- thropists, but what is really needed is to create a While there is debate about the extent to which tax culture of giving. Global philanthropy should be spo- incentives stimulate philanthropy, overall the regu- ken about at cocktail parties and on golf courses, the latory and tax policies that support and encourage same places where business deals are struck. Among philanthropy do make a difference. In some coun- the wealthy, it should be awkward or embarrassing tries government regulations severely limit the not to be involved in social investment. Forbes maga- growth of civil society, which in turn limits the num- zine seems to have embraced this idea. Its October ber and types of organizations donors can give to. issue now lists not just the wealthiest people in the Some nations have strict laws relating to trans- world, but also the most generous.4 parency and accountability, which increase a donor’s trust in civil society. Certainly it helps to have a In building social cachet for global philanthropists, it government that signals through its rhetoric and helps to have well-known and respected figures like policies that philanthropy is important. Bill Gates and Gordon Moore, highlighted by Forbes, to set an example. In Mexico, Manuel Arango founded Donors might also be encouraged if it were easier to CEMEFI, and he did so in such a public way that other match their interests with effective projects and cer- donors were informed and encouraged (see interview tifiably reliable organizations. The internet projects on p17). Oded Grajew of the Abrinq Foundation was described earlier are a start. The Schwab Foundation one of several business leaders to play this role in and Bain took another approach when they started Brazil, and in the Philippines the Ayala and Lopez the Global Exchange for Social Investment (GEXSI) in families have provided visible national leadership 2001. Among other things, GEXSI in effect serves as a through their philanthropic activities. broker between investors and social entrepreneurs, while newly formed ACCESS, currently based at Ac- In the future, public encouragement of social in- countability in the UK, is in the process of developing vestors of more modest means will further stimulate a reporting standard for civil society organizations 4 Bill Gates has given global philanthropy, which is increasingly losing its away the largest sum that will enable donors to have greater confidence in ($28.3 billion), elitist image. More and more individuals, both in though Gordon organizations they are considering funding. Moore of Intel fame industrialized and developing countries, are giving has given away a larger percentage of back, and doing so in a strategic, developmental and The article by Peter Laugharn of the Bernard van Leer his wealth (64 per cent). often innovative way. @ Foundation (p36) makes clear that money is not

Alliance Volume 9 Number 4 December 2004