Development

Another former leader pleads not guilty to corruption.  ‘Tis the season.

Former French President Jacques Chirac has been placed under investigation for a potential set of new corruption charges, in addition to those he faced in October connected to abuse of power when he was mayor of Paris. His alleged misuse of public funds and staff for personal or political gain are perhaps no more than […]

Overview: Looking from both sides of the border, the state of the economy certainly stayed top of mind in the philanthropic sector.  In the U.S., there was great energy as the administration opened the Office of Social Innovation and set aside $50 million for a fund in the same name.  Yet, spirits were tempered as […]

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has struck down an amnesty that protected the president, among others, from corruption charges. While presidential immunity may shield President Zadari from criminal investigation, there are widespread calls for him to step down. Corruption is a convenient accusation against political opponents in many countries, Pakistan included, because it is so often true […]

The country perhaps most associated with corruption in the U.S. popular press today is Afghanistan. Coverage of corruption in Afghanistan has mushroomed since the August presidential election, which observers found to be riddled with fraud. While it is not necessarily a valid assumption that electoral fraud indicates systemic corruption, in this case the accusation is […]

I last asked, “Will the West let Asia rise?”  I was playing off a comment from Hans Rosling’s TED presentation – and was applying a similar notion to philanthropy and social innovation. Writing for Alliance, Olga Alexeeva turned my thesis around in her article “The Gucci bag of New Philanthropy” to ask: What if philanthropic […]

Returning from two weeks in India – with my mind full of thoughts, I came across Hans Rosling’s video from Ted India.  I adore how excited Rosling is about statistics (b/c I’m not), and think GapMinder is quite clever (b/c helps people like me to “get it”). Since my mind tends probe the non-Western experience, […]

As a side project to my day job, I’ve been exploring the world of Canadian public policy.  Given the opportunity to participate in a very smart program for non-profits called the Max Bell Public Policy Institute – I’ve been opening my eyes ( & brain) to the world of social enterprise and public policy. In […]

The increasing professionalization of (Western) Philanthropy has left most of us, the average check writer, in the dust.  Professionalization is not necessarily a bad thing, but it elicits a similar answer to questions of “why I am unable to do my husband’s treasury job” and “why I need a lawyer to help me buy a […]

When the FP Article,  A $9 Trillion Question: Did the World Get Muhammad Yunus Wrong?, came across my Twitter feed this morning my first thought was, blasphemy!  The praise and attention that Yunus and Soto have received over the past few years – collecting fans and converts of their teachings – make it hard to imagine […]

Much of what I’m reading these days – in blogs, in articles – seems to swirl around the idea of efficiency: measuring efficiency, metrics for efficiency, foundations granting to efficient non-profits…and on and on.  I don’t actually set out to look for these articles, they are just there – alongside the many discussing how to […]

Watching NBC’s premiere of The Philanthropist left me with more questions than answers.  Luckily, I’m not the only one with conflicted views on the effect the show will have on philanthropy.  Last night, we were saturated with quite a portrayal of white man’s guilt – where the most honest moment comes when our hero, Teddy […]