Debate Over Gates Foundation’s Mobile-Banking Program; Plus More: Monday’s Roundup
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
June 14, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
- David Roodman, of the Center for Global Development, says a $10-million project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development to accelerate the use of mobile phones use for financial services is noteworthy, in part because of its prize model. But the anonymous author of the Gates Keepers blog says the investment could be a risky one.
- Lucy Bernholz, an advisor to foundations, discusses the scale of foundations’ involvement with the federal government on her blog Philanthropy 2173.
- Nathaniel Whittemore, who writes about social entrepreneurship on Change.org, discusses a proposal to create companies that raise money in behalf of small charities, giving nonprofit groups the benefit of top fund-raising talent without having to pay high salaries.
- Mark Austin, a reporter for the online edition of The Daily Mirror, writes that as South Africans embrace the extravagance of the World Cup, many continue to live in abject poverty. Mr. Austin says that he fails to see how spending billions on staging the biggest soccer tournament in the world will bring long-term benefit to the poor of this country.
- “Turning Passion Into Action: Giving While Living,” a new report published by Atlantic Philanthropies, profiles 11 donors — including Charles Feeney, the fund’s founder — who plan to do most of their charitable giving during their lifetimes and offers advice for other philanthropists who want to follow their example.
- Social media expert, Allison Fine, points to a Monitor Institute case study on KaBOOM! that discusses how the organization adopted a new online strategy to create greater impact in communities.
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