Recent Successes Point Out New Opportunities for Global Philanthropy

Philanthropy can play a critical role in preventing violence and promoting human rights around the globe, despite the size and scope of the problems, speakers said at a conference here in April.

“This isn’t rocket science,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in New York, told participants. “You can make a difference.”

Mr. Roth was one of many nonprofit leaders and foreign-policy experts who spoke at the Global Philanthropy Forum, an annual meeting designed to help donors identify effective ways to support international causes.

The event was started seven years ago by Jane Wales, president of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, to propel Silicon Valley’s wealthy residents to give overseas.

At the time, the United States was facing an economic downturn, and Ms. Wales worried that gifts to global causes would be the first to go.

This year’s meeting focused on security issues, human rights, and the responsibility of governments to protect civilians from mass atrocities.

Ms. Wales said she worried at first that she was taking a risk in making advocacy and peace building a key focus of the conference, but that the event filled up more quickly than in past years.

“We’re finding in the field that nongovernmental actors are making a profound difference in averting conflict and resolving conflict,” she said.

“They have an all-important role to play in postconflict reconstruction and reconciliation,” Ms. Wales added.

Applying Pressure

Speakers at the conference outlined ways in which charitable donations can promote security and peace.

Samantha Power, founding executive director of Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, in Cambridge, Mass., described how nonprofit groups have helped put pressure on politicians to respond to ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Young charity leaders, for example, designed scorecards rating politicians on their efforts to stop violence in Darfur, Sudan. “We now have congressmen scrambling around asking 21-year-olds how they can go from having a D-minus to a C around election time,” she said.

Paul van Zyl, executive vice president of the International Center for Transitional Justice, in New York, discussed how his organization helps countries recover from conflict.

Its employees work to bring perpetrators to justice and cultivate local human-rights leaders, with the aim of preventing future violence.

“We have to change the structure of societies in which we work to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Stephen B. Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, in New York, discussed his foundation’s efforts to improve relations with Iran.

Mr. Heintz emphasized that such work doesn’t have to be costly. “Often you’re paying essentially for airfare and hotels,” he said.

Kenya’s Lessons

Many speakers highlighted the recent example of Kenya, where fighting that broke out after a disputed election in December has calmed.

Nonprofit organizations and nongovernmental leaders played an important role in brokering peace, conference speakers said, and are now working to reduce ethnic tensions that drove the fighting.

Others described how fighting poverty, improving health, and reducing gender inequity are key to creating peaceful societies.

“You can’t build strong nations without having strong women in it,” said Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, in Washington.

Yet women’s groups are “among the most underfunded activities in the world,” said Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland. Just $100-million goes to women’s organizations and causes a year, she said.

Throughout the conference, participants emphasized the importance of charitable giving not just to provide services but also to ensure that the government lives up to its responsibilities and adopts smart policies.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t invest in delivery,” said Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, in Johannesburg. “But if you fail to invest in other areas, you’re fooling yourself and not really contributing to change.”