September 22, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
With the recession hobbling the world economy, there were questions if attendance would drop at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative.
“We were thinking we would throw a party and no one would come,” said former president Bill Clinton at the start of the four-day conference.
But despite the downturn, Mr. Clinton said that 1,200 people are attending the New York event, more participants than last year.
He did say the economy has taken a toll; some of the charitable commitments made in previous meetings may take more years to reach their goals than planned. Given the difficulties, Mr. Clinton urged participants to consider supporting already-made pledges instead of creating new ones.
Since the conference started in 2005, Mr. Clinton said that 1,400 commitments have been made, with about a quarter of them fulfilled. The former president said those commitments are worth $46-billion — though the businesses, philanthropists, and other donors at the conference are the ones who report how much their pledges are worth.
Read The Chronicle’s 2008 article that discusses how the Clinton Global Initiative estimates and measures the commitments. (A subscription or free, temporary pass is required to view the story.)
