Tag: Philanthropy

Articles

Does It Have To Be College?

This article is a sidebar to “The Old College Try,” Philanthropy, spring 2010.

The weight of philanthropic (and elite) opinion rests on the idea that college is necessary for success in modern American life—and for many, college means a four-year degree. The dialogue is changing somewhat—see, for example, the rise of the more inclusive goal of a “high-quality post-secondary credential” and more support for community colleges—but not enough for some. Critics of this ideal include Charles Murray (in his widely discussed Real Education) and Matthew Crawford (in his best-selling Shop Class as Soulcraft). Moreover, some donors are frustrated at the lingering bias toward four-year degrees and against vocational or career-focused training.

Andrew Grove, the former CEO of Intel, argues that to make the four-year degree the standard is to erect a “ladder to the sun,” when many people would be happy with “a ladder to a middle-class existence.”

Grove conducted an informal survey of philanthropic higher ed initiatives in the San Francisco Bay area. “Every single program . . . emphasizes four-year college,” he says. He took a different approach. Continue reading “Does It Have To Be College?”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

Two Big Foundations, Two Big Goals

This article is a sidebar to “The Old College Try,” Philanthropy, spring 2010.

After Warren Buffett pledged the lion’s share of his fortune (the gift was valued at $37 billion at the time) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006, the foundation had an opportunity to expand its portfolio. “After tons of research and meeting with policy experts, practitioners, and other foundations, we came back to what has been the foundation’s domestic focus for the past eight years . . . because the evidence spoke clearly,” said Hilary Pennington, the Gates Foundation’s director of education, post-secondary success, and special initiatives, in 2008. “The highest-leverage investment we can make—education. This time, post-secondary education. And even more specifically, post-secondary success.” Continue reading “Two Big Foundations, Two Big Goals”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

Something Wiki This Way Comes

Web 2.0: It’s a fast-paced, interactive free-for-all. On Web 2.0 platforms, Internet users generate their own content. They create massive virtual communities around shared interests. And it’s growing by leaps and bounds.

Many people have embraced Web 2.0. Many have not. But whatever they think of Web 2.0, donors should be aware of how social media affects their public image. And few things affect public image as much as Wikipedia, the free, online, interactive encyclopedia. Continue reading “Something Wiki This Way Comes”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

Foundations and Wikis

This is a sidebar to this article.

Wikipedia is just one example of a wiki—a collaborative website that allows users to modify its content. First created by programmer Ward Cunningham in 1994, wikis are named after the Hawaiian word for “fast.” Since then, thousands of other wikis have proliferated, far more than just the Wikimedia Foundation’s sites.

One of the most prominent wikis is the Encyclopedia of Life, available online at eol.org. It traces its origins to the 2007 TED conference, where biologist E. O. Wilson articulated the need for a comprehensive record of life on earth. “Human-forced climate change alone—again, if unabated—could eliminate a quarter of surviving species during the next five decades,” he explained. “What will we and all future generations lose if much of the living environment is thus degraded?” Continue reading “Foundations and Wikis”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Remarks

Being Young and On the Front in the Nonprofit Sector

On August 5, 2009, the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal held a panel discussion centered around a story. In Henri Barbusse’s 1918 short story “The Eleventh,” a young administrator at a luxurious high-end sanitarium is given with its most honored charitable duty, admitting ten and only ten “vagabonds” off the streets to enjoy its lavish accommodations for thirty days. He must turn the eleventh away. Is this task charitable at all, or is it part of some “evil deed,” the young man asks himself. What is it like to be young and on the front in the nonprofit sector? What should this young man do? The inestimable Amy Kass, in whose anthology of philanthropic readings Barbusse’s story is included, invited me to contribute, and what follows are my remarks.

There is a reading of this story that is trying to get through the moral blocks that Barbusse puts on it. He presents us with a striking tale of an odious task: turning down requests for aid from exceedingly needy people. With a few exceptions, these supplicants have lost even their dignity as they implore the young man’s aid. Continue reading “Being Young and On the Front in the Nonprofit Sector”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks
Articles

The “Great Commission” or Glorified Sightseeing?

This past summer, from evangelical churches nationwide, more than one million of the faithful departed for the mission field, taking up Jesus’ “Great Commission” to “go and make disciples of all nations.” The churchgoers hoped to convert souls, establish churches and meet other human needs. But they did not intend to serve for years or whole lifetimes, like such pioneers as Jim Elliott, who was killed in Ecuador in 1956 evangelizing to native people; or Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission; or even the awful fictional caricatures of African missionaries in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible. These new missionaries came home after only a week or two.

Short-term mission trips to Africa, South America and Southeast Asia have become very popular in the past few years. They are a keystone strategy of evangelical pastor Rick Warren’s plans to help Rwanda. These trips, like Christian missionary endeavors overall, encompass a wide variety of activities, from evangelization and “church planting” to health care and economic development. The billion-dollar question, however, is whether they’re worth the cost. Are short-term missions the best way to achieve the goals of Christians? Continue reading “The “Great Commission” or Glorified Sightseeing?”

Unknown's avatarEvan Sparks