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Philanthropy News Digest invites opinion and commentary on topics of importance to the philanthropic sector. For more information on this feature, contact Mitch Nauffts, PND's publisher/editorial director, at mfn@foundationcenter.org.
Social Entrepreneurs: Friends or Foes?
by
Julie
Chapman,
Co-Founder,
YesKidzCan
Earlier this year, Lisa Novick and I launched a social entrepreneurial company together. Our online company provides tools and resources that help parents, schools, and community and faith groups promote volunteerism among young kids. We thought it was a way to do good while building a sustainable company.
Posted on February 8, 2010
Peace, Prosperity, and Profit: Finding the Missing Middle in Microfinance
by
Chris
Sale,
Vice President of Development Finance,
CHF International
Microfinance has become a household word in recent years. Known to most people as small loans to individual entrepreneurs and microbusinesses in the developing world, microfinance — as perhaps most famously practiced by Muhammed Yunus's Grameen Bank — has proven to be an effective way to help the poor.
Posted on January 22, 2010
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Commentary & Opinion From Other Sources
Editorial: Hunger: Food Stamps Exist For a Reason (Boston Globe 2/5/10)
As the lines get longer at food banks from coast to coast, it's vital to ensure that American families get the nutrition they need even if they've fallen on hard times. Charities cannot shoulder this responsibility alone. Nonprofits and public officials alike should encourage those who are eligible for federal food stamps to sign up and use them.
The need is evident. The number of people using food pantries is up 46 percent nationally since 2006, according to the anti-hunger charity Feeding America, and up 23 percent in Massachusetts since 2005, according to the Greater Boston Food Bank and the Boston Foundation. An estimated 571,000 Massachusetts residents visited a food bank sometime last year. Tellingly, the percentage of clients with college educations has surged. Yet while charities are helping a broader cross-section of people, many recipients are getting help only on a sporadic basis....
Opinion: Foundation is a Model of Charitable Competence (Spokesman Review 2/3/10)
We're used to seeing "billions" in association with "Gates," so the announcement that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $10 billion for vaccines in developing countries might not generate much applause.
It should, because the commitment is astounding. Even before this contribution, the Gates Foundation had doled out more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the Rockefeller Foundation, which was established in 1913....
Op-Ed: Is the American Red Cross Worthy of our Donations? (CNN 2/2/10)
Haiti's catastrophe has triggered an outpouring of support for the American Red Cross, which has raised more than $203 million for its Haiti Relief and Development fund in just three weeks, far more than any other charitable organization.
But, is the American Red Cross worthy of such generosity given its mixed record of performance during the past decade?....
Op-Ed: Microfinance is a Solid Investment in Economic Growth (Boston Globe 2/1/10)
"Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010," President Obama said last week in his State of the Union address. "We should start where most new jobs do — in small businesses, companies that begin when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides its time she became her own boss."
We couldn't agree more. After a year of major efforts to jumpstart the economy, unemployment remains stubbornly high. Its effects gnaw at every American's well-being, employed or not....
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