Update: Fighting over (meaning of) Philanthropy
Two of my favorite writers or “thought leaders” on economics and philanthropy, Felix Salmon of Reuters and Matthew “Philanthrocapitalist” Bishop of the Economist, continue their war of words here and...
View ArticleMagazine shines a (sometimes harsh) spotlight on the Gates Foundation
Alliance magazine, a London-based publication focused on philanthropy and social investing, has published a series of articles giving special attention to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The...
View ArticleWorries about for-profit and policy-making philanthropy
First off, you should know that philanthropy in the United States is a growth market. As the New York Times noted recently in an analysis piece on philanthropists using their foundations to push policy...
View ArticleMore Fighting Over (the meaning and purpose of) Philanthropy
Question: Is philanthropy a means for reducing inequity in the world or just another vehicle used by the super-rich to justify the inequity? Answer: It depends upon what you mean by philanthropy. Oddly...
View ArticleEnd of the year question for you, humanosphere
Happy Holidays. Humanosphere is taking the week off since so is much of the rest of the humanosphere. I feel compelled to close out 2011 with a reminder that humanosphere is, in fact, a real word —...
View ArticleBBC looks at “secretive” and powerful Gates Foundation
News analysis The BBC has done an extensive (40 min) report on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation titled “Fortress Bill.” It is available for six more days online and will be rebroadcast on...
View ArticleChina: Philanthropy on the rise but human rights on the decline?
Two stories out of China: Bill Gates lauds the Chinese for becoming more philanthropic, though many might say they could hardly have become less so. In Xinhua, Gates says: Many people he met in China...
View ArticleUpdate on Greg Mortenson and ‘Three Cups of Deceit’
Author and philanthropist Greg “Three Cups of Tea” Mortenson is back in the news with his attorneys asking a judge to toss out a lawsuit that accuses him of defrauding readers and donors. For a quick...
View ArticleSeattle talk: Philanthro-capitalism and the politics behind the global health...
On Friday, 3:30-6 pm, UW Health Sciences Hogness Auditorium, historian Anne-Emanuelle Birn gave the Stephen Stewart Gloyd endowed lecture, “Philanthrocapitalism, Cooption and the Politics of Global...
View ArticleNathan Myhrvold: Patent Troll, Inventor and now Global Do-Gooder
When folks talk about Nathan Myhrvold, they seldom use muted terms. The former chief technologist for Microsoft is a close associate of Bill Gates and now CEO of a business, Intellectual Ventures,...
View ArticleCharity is a broken concept, says Warren Buffett’s Son
Peter Buffett, son to billionaire Warren Buffett, describes how he came to understand the nature of and the problems with philanthropy and charity. He describes in the a New York Times OpEd how he was...
View ArticleCharity Navigator CEO battles for the soul of the nonprofit world
"Why are there are so many [charity] CEOs who are ripoff artists?" Continue reading →
View ArticleForbes champions philanthropists and markets, then helps Liberia
Forbes, the news source for all things wealth, released its first ever list of fifty biggest givers in the US. Bill and Melinda Gates top the list after giving away $1.9 billion in 2012. They are...
View ArticleA history of failed philanthropy in Africa?
World Economic Forum, 2005. (L to R) Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Thabo Mbeki, Tony Blair, Bono, Olusegun Obasango. WEF Philanthropic efforts have existed for centuries in order to improve Africa. Has it...
View ArticleThe growth of American philanthropy and inequality: A chat with Pablo Eisenberg
America is both the most charitable nation on the planet and the most unequal, in terms of the wealth gap between rich and poor, in the developed world. An expert who studies the philanthropic sector,...
View ArticleNathan Myhrvold: Patent Troll, Inventor and now Global Do-Gooder
When folks talk about Nathan Myhrvold, they seldom use muted terms. The former chief technologist for Microsoft is a close associate of Bill Gates and now CEO of a business, Intellectual Ventures,...
View ArticleOp-ed: Open letter to Max Chan Zuckerberg
By Akhtar Badshah, special to Humanosphere Max, welcome to the world. You are indeed one of the few very fortunate babies to be born in an environment of so much love, caring and unlimited...
View ArticleKanye’s misrepresentation of Africa and Development
Kanye West finally dropped his new album, The Life of Pablo, over the weekend. Since it came out following his performance on Saturday Night Live, the musician has taken to Twitter to talk about music,...
View ArticleStill little known about Melinda Gates’ outside project Pivotal Ventures
More than a year ago, Melinda Gates quietly created an independent organization called Pivotal Ventures. Gates never really explained its purpose other than to say she was creating it to pursue...
View ArticleDonors are wary, but not of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest philanthropic organization in the world, and is by no means short on funds. But it has been flooded by enough inspired donors to warrant a newly...
View Article
