philanthropy

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Gates Urges Companies to Get Creative to Improve Lives

He ruminates on how to tweak market forces to help more people

(Newser) - Bill Gates tweaks his corporate colleagues with an essay in Time urging businesses to look harder for ways to extend the benefits of capitalism to a greater portion of the global population. As a philanthropist, he says, he recognizes the need for nonprofit work, but as a businessman, he knows...

Bloomberg, Gates Take On Smoking
Bloomberg, Gates Take On Smoking
Jul 23, 2008 1:20 PM CDT

Bloomberg, Gates Take On Smoking

Billionaires donate $375M to global anti-tobacco campaign

(Newser) - Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are pooling their piles of money and pouring $375 million into a global effort to cut smoking. The two philanthropists—who have a combined worth of more than $70 billion—say the new effort will target developing countries where tobacco...

Investor Templeton Dies at 95

He founded huge investment firm, awards for spiritual research

(Newser) - Influential investor and philanthropist John Marks Templeton has died at age 95. The founder of Templeton Mutual Funds, one of the biggest investment funds in the world, died in the Bahamas, the Washington Post reports. In 1999, Money magazine called him "arguably the greatest global stock picker of the...

Teary Farewell for Gates
 Teary Farewell for Gates 
Jun 27, 2008 4:18 PM CDT

Teary Farewell for Gates

Microsoft CEO salutes founder, leaving after 33 years, for 'enormous opportunity'

(Newser) - Microsoft celebrated Bill Gates’ last day as a full-time employee today, the Seattle Times reports. More than 800 employees, family members and friends shared memories at the company’s corporate conference center in Redmond, Wash. CEO Steve Ballmer bid a tearful farewell to his longtime friend: "We've been given...

Prize Philanthropy: A Winning Concept

Donors make innovators compete for cash

(Newser) - When the X-Prize foundation offered $10 million to anyone who could develop a viable commercial spacecraft, it didn’t just send innovators scurrying, and it didn’t just grab headlines. It also began the next big trend in philanthropy. Donors are in love with prize philanthropy, Portfolio reports, and causes...

Make Dams and Food, Not War and Ethanol
 Make Dams and Food,
 Not War and Ethanol 
OPINION
May 22, 2008 4:55 PM CDT

Make Dams and Food, Not War and Ethanol

A dollar of prevention is worth many times that in cure, researcher pleads

(Newser) - Ethanol is among the "poor solutions to high-profile problems" researcher Bjorn Lomborg blasts in the Wall Street Journal. According to calculations by his Copenhagen Consensus, “carbon mitigation policies” return only 90 cents for every dollar spent; in contrast, he writes, $1 billion spent on tuberculosis would result in...

Shakira Shakes Cash Loose for Charity
Shakira Shakes Cash Loose
for Charity
May 18, 2008 11:30 AM CDT

Shakira Shakes Cash Loose for Charity

Pair of star-studded shows take on Latin American poverty

(Newser) - Shakira, Ricky Martin, and dozens of other Spanish-speaking pop stars performed at simultaneous fundraising concerts in Mexico City and Buenos Aires yesterday, reports the LA Times. “It is doable, we can really eradicate poverty,” said the Colombian singer, whose shows benefited Alas, a charity that helps Latin America's...

Harvard Gets $100M From Rockefeller

Gift will fund study-abroad and arts programs

(Newser) - Harvard fund managers rejoice! The university will get to stock its coffers, already $35 billion strong, with a $100 million gift from David Rockefeller, the largest ever by an alumnus, the New York Times reports. The money will be used to expand the university's arts program and help more students...

Peru Distributes '$100 Laptop'
 Peru Distributes '$100 Laptop' 
Apr 24, 2008 3:18 PM CDT

Peru Distributes '$100 Laptop'

One Laptop per Child effort faces on-the-ground test

(Newser) - One Laptop per Child got a bumpy start, with the “$100 laptop” soaring to $188, for-profit competitors snatching customers, and developing countries hesitating to buy. But the true test for the nonprofit comes now, as Peru prepares to send 486,500 computers to its poorest schoolchildren. The country faces...

Bill's Charity Linked to Tibet Crackdown

'Philanthropic dynamo' took '05 donation from shady Internet firm

(Newser) - Hillary Clinton's strong public stance against the crackdown in Tibet flies in the face of her husband's past fundraising ties in China, reports the LA Times. At the crux is a 2005 speech the former president gave for which he received an undisclosed donation to his charitable foundation—from Internet...

Hockney Donates 40-Footer to Tate

Enormous work would have fetched millions on open market

(Newser) - David Hockney has donated his largest-ever painting to London's Tate museum rather than sell it for a presumed price of several million dollars, reports the Times of London. Hockney, one of the world's foremost figurative painters, said donating the 40-foot-long Bigger Trees Near Warter was a "duty," and...

Robin Williams, Wife Divorcing
 Robin Williams, Wife Divorcing
Mar 27, 2008 7:19 AM CDT

Robin Williams, Wife Divorcing

Comedian's wife files to end 19-year marriage

(Newser) - Funnyman Robin Williams and his wife are splitting up after 19 years of marriage, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The divorce petition, filed by Marsha Williams in San Francisco, cited irreconcilable differences. The pair met when Marsha worked as a nanny for Williams' son from a previous marriage. She later...

With Big Give , Oprah Shows Smaller Side
With Big Give, Oprah Shows Smaller Side
TV REVIEW
Mar 21, 2008 6:26 PM CDT

With Big Give, Oprah Shows Smaller Side

Reality charity show provokes sniffles, but writer calls it vain

(Newser) - The new ABC show Oprah’s Big Give might be exactly what it claims—an epically scaled, nurturing-obsessed cult of personality—but the format is old and unsuitable, Nancy Franklin writes in the New Yorker, and the star is self-obsessed. The competition charity program sometimes reduced to her tears, Franklin...

Oprah Makes Giving Competitive
Oprah Makes Giving Competitive
Mar 2, 2008 12:42 PM CST

Oprah Makes Giving Competitive

New show's contestants will compete to be the best philanthropist

(Newser) - Heavyweight philanthropist Oprah Winfrey will outsource giving to a whole new level tonight: Her new ABC reality show, “Oprah’s Big Give,” makes charity a competition. Contestants compete to raise money for needy folks and causes, and each week the lowest-earner is given the boot, reports the New ...

The House of Mirthlessness
The House of Mirthlessness
Feb 28, 2008 12:19 PM CST

The House of Mirthlessness

Drowning in debt, Edith Wharton's Mass. estate faces foreclosure

(Newser) - Edith Wharton's masterpieces include The House of Mirth, but the story of her own house is much less joyous. Her estate in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, currently a museum called the Mount that chronicles her life and career, is drowning under some $9 million in debt. Now, writes the Berkshire ...

Microsoft Pioneer Leaves $65M to Gay Rights Groups

Gates' high school pal leaves a record gift

(Newser) - One of the first five Microsoft employees has left $65 million of his estate to gay rights groups, the Seattle Times reports. Ric Weiland, who helped high school friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen launch Microsoft, committed suicide in 2006 at age 53. His donation is believed to be the...

New Breed of Billionaire Rises in Third World

Moguls turn into philanthropists to fund education, health care

(Newser) - A new type of billionaire with a philanthropic bent for social causes is emerging from once-poor nations such as Turkey, India, and Mexico, the New York Times reports. The billionaires, who generally made their money through investment in surging local markets, draw comparison to American titans of old such as...

You, Too, Can Donate Online
You, Too, Can Donate Online
Dec 13, 2007 10:07 AM CST

You, Too, Can Donate Online

AOL founder Steve Case hopes web will democratize philanthropy

(Newser) - AOL founder Steve Case’s foundation is launching a major online charity drive today, aimed at using social networks and encouraging small-scale donors to join the ranks of millionaires. The drive consists of a new app, “causes” on Facebook, and a spread in this Sunday’s Parade Magazine. Facebook...

Ditka Versus Da Charity
Ditka Versus Da Charity
Dec 11, 2007 11:45 PM CST

Ditka Versus Da Charity

Dissolves fund he established for ex-players

(Newser) - Hall of Fame Assistance Trust was little more than friends "just mailing out checks to Hall of Famers we knew were having problems," according to the legendary player, coach and founder of the organization, Mike Ditka. Ditka announced yesterday that he will dissolve the charity, which gave away...

Gates Aims $100M at Polio
Gates Aims $100M at Polio
Nov 27, 2007 4:30 AM CST

Gates Aims $100M at Polio

Foundation aims to eradicate disease

(Newser) - The world stands at the brink of eradicating polio, Bill Gates says, and his foundation yesterday awarded $100 million toward that end. One of the foundation's largest challenge grants will fund programs in four countries where the disease is still epidemic, notably Nigeria. The Rotary Foundation received the grant and...

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