TRENDS CHANGE AGENTS How Green is Yo u r Cash? Eco-Philanthropy Gains Currency r BY CHIP GILLER ILLUSTRATION BY CATHIE BLECK TRENDS CHANGE AGENTS With $49.6 million, you could buy a lot of good for the world. You could give new biology textbooks to 700,000 high school students or endow 75 university professorships. If you fret about dependence on foreign oil, you could sneak a Toyota Prius into the garages of more than 2,250 Hummer owners—perhaps into the Hummers themselves. Replacing eight million conventional light bulbs with compact “We’re moving toward a more conscientious capitalism. The cap- fluorescents would cut U.S. consumers’ energy bills by $76 mil- italist paradigm, the commercial paradigm, is becoming partly lion over one year and reduce America’s carbon-dioxide emis- imbued with the philanthropic ethos.” sions by nine million tons. And these examples do not account According to Giving USA, which parses private giving data each for bulk discounts. year, green philanthropy increased Or, if you are Stephen Bing, the 16.4 percent in 2005, to $8.86 billion, taciturn, tabloid-battered Hollywood “Contribute urgently giving a boost to environmental or- producer, you could bet all $49.6 ganizations of all sizes. This category million on a single California ballot and in a way that is is a single-digit fraction of the $260 Billy Parish, 26, heads up Campus Climate Challenge, which aims to organize students across the United States to push for clean-energy policies measure. Proposition 87, put before billion Americans gave to charitable to fight global warming. The nonprofit has garnered nationwide attention by galvanizing student activists at 500 colleges and universities. voters in November 2006, would unprecedented, causes in 2005, but a fraction expe- to climate change. And Branson isn’t the only one. Intel in Google.org, a new-fangled “for-profit have levied a $4 billion state produc- riencing a teenage growth spurt, But her most influential activism by- cofounder Gordon Moore—who’s donated philanthropy” that will form new compa- tion tax on oil companies over a because those are thanks in part to amped-up interest passed traditional green channels and hundreds of millions to Conservation nies, invest in cutting-edge technologies, decade, with proceeds going toward the characteristics of and activism in the climate sphere. went straight to the big screen. David pro- International and other green groups and lobby Congress in an effort to tackle research into clean, renewable ener- Of course, Stephen Bing’s massive duced An Inconvenient Truth, the surprise through his foundation—recently estab- the global challenges of climate change, gy sources that do not contribute to the threat.” gift—essentially a political contribu- hit documentary featuring former Vice lished a $6.5 million solar-energy research poverty, and disease. One of their aims is global warming. But even Bing’s —James Gustave Speth, dean, Yale School of tion—wouldn’t be tallied in such tra- President Al Gore that has done more than shop at Caltech. to develop a hyper-efficient hybrid car largesse, which amplified a spirited Forestry and Environmental Studies ditional measurements, nor would any other endeavor to implant climate that can run on electricity, ethanol, and “Yes on 87” campaign, could not out- many of the other largest and most change in the public consciousness. Pro- gasoline and get more than 100 miles to scream the oil industry and its friends, which spent about $90 influential investments intended to stave off global warming. This ceeds from the film and the book of the Green philanthropy the gallon. million to beat back the measure and convinced nearly 55 percent isn’t your father’s philanthropy. same name will become seed money for increased Vinod Khosla, a cofounder of Sun Mi- of voters to say “no thanks.” Whatever your opinion of Bing’s do- Gore’s new group, the Alliance for Climate crosystems and one of Silicon Valley’s most nation—noble or foolhardy, or both—it marked an escalation in For-Profit Players Protection, which aims to continue raising influential venture capitalists, speaks elo- the role private donors are playing in the battle against the very Laurie David is one high-profile activist pushing the envelope public awareness of the problem and % quently about the need for a clean energy public climate crisis. this way with her green giving, melding old approaches and pushing for solutions. revolution and is channeling millions into Growing concern over global warming is transforming the new. The Hollywood producer and environmental advocate is Other climate crusaders are even more 16.4 developing renewable fuels, but purely as realm of environmental giving, and hinting at how the larger focused on making global warming a hot issue. A major donor thoroughly blurring the line between busi- in 2005, to $8.86 billion, business investments, not as charitable world of social-focused spending might change in the coming to the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, she ness and philanthropy. Sir Richard Bran- giving a boost to environmental gifts. The logic of harnessing markets and organizations of all sizes. years. The problem is so vast, so unprecedented, so laden with inaugurated the David Family Environmental Action Center, son, entrepreneur and head of the Virgin Source: Giving USA technology to address energy-security both threats and opportunities that it is giving rise to a whole new a wing of NRDC, in January 2004. That spring she raised more Group empire, pledged $3 billion to clean- and climate issues was obvious to him: “I form of giving, period—namely, for-profit philanthropies, which than $3 million for the group at a Hollywood gala that brought N energy technologies at the 2006 Clinton looked, did my research, and found this E D are aimed at making change effective, and also profitable. out her husband, Larry David—the celebrated misanthrope L Global Initiative conference. But though was brain-dead simple to do,” he told NBC Y H C The threat of climate change is spurring much of this innova- and Seinfeld producer—as well as Tom Hanks and Leonardo I the funding is intended to fight climate Yet of the many tech tycoons channel- News last year. R E tion, but ultimately, the larger philanthropic and social-change DiCaprio, who sits on NRDC’s Board of Trustees with her. She : change, it’s no charitable contribution— ing wealth into climate and clean-energy But it’s a new approach and it’s chang- H P sectors will be affected by a blurring of lines between charitable has since launched the Stop Global Warming virtual march, a A rather, it’s an investment in Branson’s new causes, Moore is one of the more tradition- ing the face of philanthropy itself. Says R G giving and corporate profit-making. Says Paul Schervish, direc- project of the Tides Center, which is more than halfway toward O Virgin Fuels company, which aims to devel- al. Google founders Sergey Brin and Lar- Doug Bauer, senior vice president of T O H tor of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, its goal of enlisting a million Americans in a push for solutions P op and spread ethanol technologies. ry Page recently invested about $1 billion Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers: “New 42 : Contribute New York : February/March 2007 February/March 2007 : Contribute New York : 43 TRENDS CHANGE AGENTS wealth in the last 10 to 15 years be- Moguls and movie makers devis- longs to philanthropists far more in- ing new forms of philanthropy, This isn’t your father’s philanthropy. terested in the earth.” though, aren’t the only ones think- To be sure, these social entrepre- ing about new ways to tackle cli- Clean Air-Cool Planet’s income, for ex- large, lavishly funded advocacy groups. the best minds and money of the day. Af- neurs have changed the world as we mate change, of course. A new ample, has increased by 25 percent and 27 Each has its single-issue scorecard, rank- ter all, the causes and consequences of know it through technology, and generation of hard-charging, on- percent in the last two years, thanks al- ing its political allies. The result is what global climate change infuse virtually have gotten rich in the process. Now the-ground activists is making a most entirely to grants, says executive di- one commentator has called “checklist lib- every facet of our collective life—the very they want to use their wealth to splash with small nonprofits that rector Adam Markham. Only about eralism,” a sclerotic movement that—de- antithesis of a special interest. change the world in more profound are tightly focused on concrete solu- $35,000 of the group’s nearly $1.7 million spite the enormous sums of money Says James Gustave Speth, dean of the ways, harnessing technology and the tions and positive messages, in budget last year came from individual available to it—has lost its ability to grasp Yale School of Forestry and Environmen- power of markets to reshape the way contrast to big, Beltway-focused givers. Markham is hoping to build a and galvanize the culture. tal Studies, “My principal advice is to con- we consume energy and treat the en- green groups that are having a hard strong major donor program soon. “It’s The new generation of green groups tribute urgently and in a way that is vironment. “This is new in history,” time letting go of the Nixon-era, competitive, but it’s always been,” he says. “It and philanthropists have realized that this unprecedented, because those are the says Boston College’s Schervish of for- sue-the-bastards mentality.