‘Time’: Fostering Innovation in Philanthropy

In its series on innovators, Time magazine focuses on four people in the nonprofit world who are pioneering new ways to give (March 7).

The magazine’s choices:

• Women for Women International, an organization that helps women in war-torn countries. The organization was founded by Zainab Salbi, who grew up in Iraq and started the organization in 1993 when she was a student at George Mason University. Today, the organization has an $8.7-million budget and 180 staff members. A third of the organization’s budget is raised from what the group calls “sister to sister” sponsorships, the magazine says. “Women in the U.S. and other countries contribute $27 a month for a year to women in a conflict zone. And they exchange letters.” Women in the program last year exchanged 44,000 letters, the magazine says. “You feel hopeless,” Ms. Salbi says. “Then a stranger writes to say, ‘I care. I am listening to you.’”
• DonorsChoose, an online charity that encourages teachers in needy school districts to post the educational resources and other items they need for classroom projects. Donors can search the listings and decide what they want to support. The organization, founded by Charles Best, a teacher in New York City, buys the products and ships them to teachers. The charity puts a disposable camera in each of its shipments so teachers and students can take pictures and send them along with thank-you notes to donors. Since the charity started operations in 2000, it has helped channel $3-million to 6,000 classroom projects nationwide.
• The Acumen Fund, a New York group that helps entrepreneurs in developing countries build businesses. Since it was created in 2001, the organization has raised more than $24-million and invested in 16 projects in Kenya, India, Pakistan, and other countries. The organization was founded by Jacqueline Novogratz, a former banker.
• Action Without Borders, a charity that runs the Web site Idealist.org, which links charities and volunteers, and posts full-time jobs in the nonprofit world. Ami Dar, the group’s founder, says as soon as he started using the Internet in the early 1990s, he thought it would be a powerful force for bringing together people who wanted to solve the world’s most difficult problems. The group makes a determined effort to work beyond the United States, the magazine notes, by translating everything on the site into English, French, and Spanish.

The articles are available to the magazine’s subscribers at http://www.time.com.