Buried deep within Facebook’s IPO documents, and largely ignored by media who are focused on the wealth that will be created by the IPO, is a startling letter from Mark Zuckerberg. It’s a letter that should make the entire corporate world stop and take note, and a letter that marks a major evolution in our modern understanding of philanthropy.

The letter says that Facebook “was built to accomplish a social mission” and goes on to say:

There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.
We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other.

Even if our mission sounds big, it starts small — with the relationship between two people.

Personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society. Relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-term happiness.

I have never met Mark, I’m not invested in Facebook, I don’t work with Facebook and I believe him 100 percent.

But I would argue that Facebook itself is a form of philanthropy.

Continue reading →

By BROOKS BARNES

Two philanthropic organizations are uniting to save celebrities like Hilary Swank and Beyoncé from the embarrassment of getting caught taking money from people or groups that abuse human rights.

Global Philanthropy Group, a celebrity-focused advisory firm, and Human Rights Watch on Thursday announced a free, confidential service to help stars and their handlers verify the records of people who want to hire them to appear at birthday parties and other private events. Continue reading →

Global Philanthropy Group announced today the launch of a free, confidential service aimed at providing leaders in the entertainment industry with information on the human rights records of people with whom they are considering doing business. Global Philanthropy Group will use information from Human Rights Watch, which works to end human rights abuses around the world, to inform artists about the records of potential employers.

Click here to read the full press release.

Today President Obama announced his intent to appoint Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Global Philanthropy Group would like to congratulate Shakira on her new role and commend President Obama for his decision to appoint her to the commission.

Shakira has been deeply engaged for over a decade in a number of global education efforts, including the Barefoot Foundation, which she founded in 1995 at the age of 18.  Since that time, she has not only built schools & created programs to support approximately 6,000 children in Colombia, South Africa and Haiti, but has also been an outspoken advocate for the power of education to create peace worldwide.

In short, we cannot think of a better person for the job and look forward to great things to come from the Advisory Commission, which will provide advice to President Obama on education issues related to Hispanics and address academic excellence and opportunities for the Hispanic community.

To read the full press release from the White House, click here.

To read “Education for Peace”, an editorial for the Huffington Post by Shakira, click here.

When it was first created in 2005 by President Bill Clinton and his top advisor Doug Band, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) announced that it would convene the world’s leaders to work collaboratively to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

A lot of people had their doubts; could Clinton still bring leaders together without the power of the White House? Would partisan acrimony hobble CGI’s ability to accomplish its lofty goals? Did the world need CGI? Continue reading →

Philanthropy is no longer just checkbooks and charity balls. Celebrities and CEOs looking to
make a real impact hire strategist Trevor Neilson and his partners at the Global Philanthropy Group.

Click here to read full article.

On Wednesday, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases co-hosted a seminar at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. We were joined by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation to discuss the current state of water and NTD programs within the Latin America and Caribbean region. In the blog post below, Ann Kelly, representative of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation’s Global Water Initiative and co-founder and Partner at Global Philanthropy Group provides an overview of the event, and her experience at Wednesday’s event at the 2011 World Water Week.

By Ann Kelly, representative of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation’s Global Water Initiative and co-founder of Partner at Global Philanthropy Group

As another World Water Week comes to an end here in Stockholm, we are reminded how central water is to so many of the world’s development issues. The other night I had the honor to sit on a panel entitled “Fighting Poverty in Latin America: Integrating Water and Health Initiatives” sponsored by FEMSA Foundation, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases  (Global Network) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). My co-panelists Vidal Garza Cantú, Director of the FEMSA Foundation; Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of the Global Network; and Carlos de Paco, Principal Partnerships Officer at the IDB are already collaborating with the Pan-American Health Organization, and the government of Chiapas to eliminate trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. This collaboration illustrates three things: (1) it is impossible to work on water without also working on health; (2) it takes creative partnerships to do things that are as transformational and sustainable like eliminating trachoma and other NTDs; (3) all of this is achievable relatively easily and inexpensively – it just requires focus and determination as illustrated by the efforts in Chiapas.

Continue reading →

If you aren’t paying attention yet, you should be.

Click here to read Global Philanthropy Group’s report on the situation – including ways you can help.

As a result of one of the worst droughts in 60 years caused by extremely poor rainfall in East Africa (also known as the Horn of Africa) an estimated 12.4 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance, with the number at risk growing daily. The countries affected include Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. Women and children are the most severely affected, with one U.S. source estimating that 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last 90 days from the famine.

According to the UN, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Northern Somalia are currently experiencing a Level 4 humanitarian crisis due to the drought, including severe lack of food access, death due to hunger, malnutrition and irreversible livestock asset stripping.  In Southern and Central Somalia, 5 regions have been declared as experiencing a Level 5 catastrophic famine – the most severe possible rating…

Read more.

GPG Partner Trevor Neilson writes:

In the spring of 2006 I went to New Orleans to see what I could do to help rebuild following the nightmare of hurricane Katrina. With a group of partners including Global Green, we began the process of developing a multi-family housing project by announcing a design competition which drew 3,000 registrants.

I can remember very clearly a line of questioning at the press conference announcing the project. Multiple reporters questioned why people who had lost their homes should care about green building. The questions went something like this:

• Isn’t green building for rich people?
• Instead of building green, shouldn’t we just build the cheapest houses we can build?
• Don’t these people have bigger things to worry about than climate change?
• Green-building is way too expensive; there is no way these people can afford it? Continue reading →

Check out this video from April 2009 – GPG Partner Trevor Neilson moderates a panel with Carol C. Adelman, Director, Center for Global Prosperity, Hudson Institute and Jane M. Wales, President and Chief Executive Officer, World Affairs Council of Northern California; Cofounder and President, Global Philanthropy Forum; Vice President, Philanthropy and Society, Aspen Institute.