The Big Thinkers of Giving

How philanthrocapitalists are reshaping the world of charity.

BY MATTHEW BISHOP, MICHAEL GREEN | DECEMBER 2009

By the looks of it, 2010 has all the makings of another annus horribilis for the poor. Households across the developing world face the triple whammy of a global economic slowdown, a re-emerging food crisis, and the ever-increasing threat of environmental catastrophe from climate change (think desertification, natural disasters, and coastal flooding). As if that weren't enough, aid critics such as Dambisa Moyo (author of Dead Aid) have had a banner year calling for an end to donor support -- a suggestion that cash-strapped rich countries might just be inclined to take. The poor, it seems, will have to go it alone.

Not quite, it turns out. Behind the critiques of traditional foreign aid, a revolutionary idea for how to remake charity in the 21st century is taking off: philanthrocapitalism.

Unlike their colleagues in government bureaucracies and tried-and-true NGOs, the philanthrocapitalists are a nimble, business-minded stock, and many of them are on this list. These billionaire donors think that the winners of capitalism have a duty to give back to society. Doing so means unashamedly redirecting the talents and techniques that made them rich toward doing good. Financier George Soros, for example, applies his eye for emerging- market venture capital to the hunt for up-and-coming democracy movements around the world that his Open Society Institute can support.

Look no further than the leader of the pack and the world's richest man, Bill Gates (No. 12), to see what the philanthrocapitalists bring to the table. Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he is funding research into diseases that have been neglected by the drug market for their zero-profit potential; conditions such as malaria, hiv/aids, and tuberculosis are prevalent in impoverished regions where few can afford drugs or vaccines. Now, Gates is moving into agricultural research, poised to take on the global food crisis. No wonder the world's second-richest man, super stock-picker Warren Buffett, pledged his fortune to the Gates Foundation as the way to get most philanthropic bang for his buck.

Not all philanthrocapitalists are billionaires. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), named for former U.S. President Bill Clinton (No. 6), is the world's premier marketplace for philanthropy, which this year saw a much bigger sign-up from businesses looking to find ways of doing well by doing good. Over the next five years, the CGI meetings should become just as important a date for the heads of government aid programs as the fall meetings of the World Bank.

Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images

 

Matthew Bishop and Michael Green are co-authors of Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World. They blog at www.philanthrocapitalism.net.

CHOPTLIVA

7:34 AM ET

December 2, 2009

KIVA does not really let you choose

I like this article a lot, but I should note that Kiva does not actually let us choose where the money goes to. Even though they show us a picture of people and all that, and even show us how much they need and how much more they need, the money we send is not necessarily directed to these people we think we are helping. We do not actually choose. I don't mind it so much, except that I am led to believe (as the writer of the article was too) that we are choosing. We have about as much choice as voters in communist China do.

 

MIKULASRING

4:41 AM ET

December 12, 2009

Unlike their colleagues in

Unlike their colleagues in government bureaucracies and tried-and-true NGOs, the philanthrocapitalists are a nimble, business-minded stock, and many of them are on this list. These people do not play xbox games. These billionaire donors think that the winners of capitalism have a duty to give back to society. Big thinkers are big thinkers, simple as that. James Dean aka Rrod.

 

ISTIKBAL

4:42 AM ET

December 24, 2009

evden eve nakliyat - evden

evden eve nakliyat -
evden eve nakliyat -
evden eve nakliyat -
reklam
- evden eve nakliyat

 

USAMA2

12:25 AM ET

December 28, 2009

American (false) gods of Charity?

What;s most notable about this story is how it reflects the obscene, nay criminal, disparity of wealth, power, resources, between American elite and the poorest peoples of the world. Those billions of people who lack clean running water, utilities, more than a few dollars a day, are what compared to the American elite who control 100s of billions of dollars and can shape their 'philanthropic world by giving to this village but not this one, or to help this woman, but not this man.

The disparity between the American oligarchial elite and the billions living under petty, corrupt, governments is not lost on the world. Knowing that Bill Gates controls more power than dozens of governments means the leaders that people elect, or are forced to submit to, will come begging to Gates and his ilk for them to dictate how governments can spend their money. This imbalance demostrates an injustice and an unacceptable criteria for any self respecting people.

As well, the recent economic crisis has exposed such a grotesque concern for the US govt in behalf of industries and corporations so that they recieve literally trillions in govt aid, while such a magnanimous, altruistic, and vital service as Headstart suffered from years of frozen funding and negligence. Its not lost on anyone that trillions goes to banks while the American people fall into bankruptcies, foreclosures, unemployment, destitute.