Asian Philanthropy Forum

Asian philanthropy news digest - 03/10/10

2010-03-10T06:00:00-08:00

* Robert R. Calingo was named Interim Chief Executive of the Asian Pacific Philanthropy Consortium. Bobby was previously the Executive Director of TeamEnergy Foundation Philippines and served on APPC's board since 2005. Bobby will lead APPC while the organization determines their direction.

* The Arts and Culture Development Office of the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts in Singapore has set up a new portal, give2arts.sg, to promote cultural philanthropy and by enabling on-line donations and volunteerism. There are 78 arts and cultural organizations listed so far.

* Duan Yongping and his wife, Liu Xin raised $30 million for their alma mater, Renmin University of China. The billionaire created his empire in electronic appliances. In 2006, Duan donated $37 million to China's Zhejiang University, where he studied and in 2008, he contributed $3 million to the Sichuan earthquake for disaster relief. In 2006, Duan won the online auction run by eBay Inc for a chance to dine with Warren Buffett with the winning bid of $620,100.

* The English version of Charitarian is now available. The Chinese language edition has been around for three years in China, cultivating a circulation of over one million. The magazine aims to encourage Chinese enterprises to act responsibly as they globalize and to help foreign companies improve their social responsibility programs in China.

Forbes Asia names 48 heroes of philanthropy - 2010

2010-03-08T06:00:00-08:00

Forbes Asia released their list of 48 Heroes in Philanthropy for 2010. In its third year, the Forbes list features four individuals chosen from 12 markets in the region, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

John Koppisch, associate editor of Forbest Asia said the individuals chose are not the biggest givers but:

"Instead we aim to highlight a varied group of generous people, some holdovers from last year but mostly new names who deserve recognition. By calling attention to these 48 we hope to encourage more giving."

Many of the heroes named are business leaders, although modest donors such as Chen Shu-Chu, a 59-year old selling vegetables in Taiwan's Taitung market since 1963 was also recognized for her philanthropy. Her donations include US$32,000 for a children's fund and US$144,000 to help build a library at the school.

For more info:

Listing of heroes by country: Forbes 48 Heroes of Philanthropy, Straits Times

Indonesians Named in Forbes List of Region's Top Philanthropists, Jakarta Globe

Women of India outdo men in philanthropy, Yahoo! News India

4 Filipinos in Forbes Heroes of Philanthropy, Inquirer.net

Photo courtesy of Kevin Kelly: Asia Grace

Ingenuity Fund Challenge: Win Trip Abroad to Witness Grameen Foundation's Work

2010-03-06T14:44:55-08:00

by guest blogger, Seena Aras, Director of Online and Annual Giving at Grameen Foundation

Despite incredible economic progress over the past two decades, Asia remains home to the majority of the world’s poor people.

Grameen Foundation creates economic opportunities that help the world’s poorest, especially women, improve their lives and escape poverty. We focus on five core countries in Asia—China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines—where we have provided support for many years. Together, these countries are home to more than 60 percent of the world’s poor people, living on just $2.50/day, and more than 70 percent of the world’s poorest people, living on just $1.25/day.

Now, you and a guest can have the chance to take part in our innovative delivery of microfinance and technology services to the world’s poorest people—all by joining The Ingenuity Fund Challenge and competing for the grand prize trip.

The Ingenuity Fund Challenge is a way for you to tap into your own creativity and make an impact on ending the cycle of poverty endured by millions around the world. By joining the Challenge, you’ll have the opportunity to develop the most compelling ways to educate your friends, families, and networks about Grameen Foundation. Through March 31st, 2010, Challenge participants will develop compelling, creative personal Ingenuity Fund Challenge fundraising pages on Grameen Foundation’s website and raise awareness of and funds for Grameen Foundation’s work through personal networks, social media, and other offline activities. The participant with the most creative, ingenious web page and outreach effort will win the grand prize of an overseas field visit.

Our donors like Annie Chen and Raja Malkani have witnessed firsthand our work in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. During the trip, Annie visited Chifeng Zhaowuda Women’s Sustainable Development Association (CZWSDA), a microfinance institution, where she met microfinance clients and saw how their small enterprises improved their lives and those of their families. Raja met microfinance borrowers stitching and selling clothing, operating seed shops, and growing and selling crops. “It’s amazing what microfinance can do for such people,” Raja said. “The borrowers I met didn’t just gain financially; they gained self-esteem and a sense of independence, too.”

“I like the fact that microfinance is built on a model that involves empowering individuals to explore and develop their own potentials and strengths, rather than on giving handouts,” Annie said.

If you are up to the challenge, please check out our resource page to read the full details and eligibility requirements in the contest rules.

Funding Opportunity: Seattle International Foundation

2010-03-02T09:32:33-08:00

The Seattle International Foundation is now accepting applications for its Global Program. The goal of the Global Program is to support and foster local organizations working internationally. The Foundation is interested in development projects in all regions of the world, although it has a special interest in Central America.

Preference will be given to organizations based in the greater Puget Sound region and organizations based outside of Washington State are not eligible. The program is open to 501(c)3 organizations, or those with fiscal sponsorship, with an annual organizational or project budget of less than $2 million.

The program seeks to support organizations launching new projects, or working to establish or expand an international project or program. Organizations may request general operating support or project support, and generally the maximum grant award is $15,000. The application deadline is March 15, 2010 and grant recipients will be announced by mid-May 2010.

SIF is a supporting organization of The Seattle Foundation. In 2009, SIF awarded $2.2 million in grants to 43 organizations (31 based in Pacific Northwest) working in over 40 countries.

SIF was founded by Bill and Paula Clapp, who have 15 years of experience in international development work. They co-founded Global Partnerships where Bill was formerly the CEO, and currently serves as Chairman. Bill also co-founded the Initiative for Global Development with other notable international philanthropists from the Pacific Northwest, where he currently serves as director.

Bill served as the CEO for 30 years of Matthew G. Norton Company, a Seattle based investment, real estate and management company. He has served on the board of Alaska Airlines and Weyerhaeuser Co. as well as numerous private companies and non-profit organizations. Paula Clapp has worked with numerous non profit organizations in the Seattle area in addition to Global Partnerships focusing primarily in education and social needs.

Social entrepreneur search widgets

2010-02-27T11:13:15-08:00

Social entrepreneurs that are doing great work can be difficult to find. After finding them, donors must complete a time consuming and, sometimes expensive, due diligence on the entrepreneur and social and business model before funding them. If a tool existed that allowed other donors and funders to search for vetted social entrepreneurs doing great work in a particular region and on a specific issue, it would save donors time and money. In addition, the listed social entrepreneurs would have greater exposure to funding sources and perhaps find other social entrepreneurs they could collaborate with.

Social Edge launched the Social Entrepreneur Search widgets this week. In collaboration with funders who are known for their successful efforts in finding, researching, and funding social entrepreneurs, they have populated an open source database that shares the information of social entrepreneurs that they have funded to anyone that wants to access it. The open source database allows anyone to query, syndicate, or republish the data on their websites.

There are many opportunities with this new tool: (1) emerging social entrepreneurs can find others to collaborate with; (2) donors or funders can feature their own grantees so others can help the social entrepreneur scale their work; (3) donors or funders can assume that the social entrepreneur must be doing something right if they have passed due diligence by another donor or funder; (4) the database reduces the time and cost of funders or donors completing their own due diligence efforts; and (5) journalists and writers can locate a social entrepreneur quickly if they wish to feature them in their work.

Since it is an open database, Social Edge also lists many opportunities to improve it, including possible expansion of the listing and encouraging other developers to add layers to the data.

While I believe in the sharing of information and investing in the "best of the best" social entrepreneurs, I am afraid a tool like this will continuously support those already doing great work and leave other emerging and new social entrepreneurs to struggle for funding and recognition. In addition, the database is populated with social entrepreneurs from five funders (Civic Ventures, Draper Richards Foundation, PopTech, Schwab Foundation for Entrepreneurship, and Skoll Foundation). All five funders have their own unique set of criteria and focus on selecting social entrepreneurs that they support. Their due diligence process is also unique to their own criteria. This inconsistency still requires prospective donors and funders to complete their own due diligence. Perhaps the idea is that if a large funder supported the social entrepreneur then the social entrepreneur is "endorsed" or "validated" to some degree.

There are many social entrepreneurs located in Asia in the database but certainly not enough. Perhaps we can encourage other donors and funders to join in the expansion of the database to include not just vetted social entrepreneurs but also unknown, vetted social entrepreneurs with promising social and business models.

Opening doors to entrepreneurial initiatives for all

2010-02-19T06:00:00-08:00

Social entrepreneurs are tackling some of the most challenging issues in Asia. From poverty to the delivery of clean water and access to healthcare, entrepreneurs are coming up with ideas and solutions everyday. In order to access funding to implement the ideas, many social enterprises must register as a legal entity so they may conduct business in the country. Unfortunately, social entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs face many "barriers to entry."

My friend, Bruce Tolentino, is The Asia Foundation's Director of Economic Programs. Bruce explains in the video below some of the causes of inequality in Asia and how the Foundation's programs try to address these problems. Bruce says:

What prevents many entrepreneurs from thriving in a modern business environment has a lot to do with what we commonly refer to as "barriers to entry" - especially those rules, informal arrangements, policies and governance issues that raise the cost of doing business in ways that prevent the less-connected, or the poor from even starting a business.

Asian philanthropy news digest - 02/16/10

2010-02-16T06:00:00-08:00

Rockefeller Foundation to support Social Stock Exchange in Asia. The Foundation announced a $495,000 grant to support proof of concept analysis of Asia's first social stock exchange, which IIX hopes to create. IIX is working to launch a regulated trading platform for securities issued by for-profit or nonprofit entities in Asia with a sustainable social or environmental mission.

Indonesian Philanthropy Project. This is a new blog I found by Hilman Latief. The site contains "information about philanthropic activism held and promoted by Indonesians. Apart form discussing general issues on the interplay between religion, state, society and the market, it also consists of opinion and reports on cultural, political, economic and legal issues of humanitarian assistance and charitable works."

GFIA launches wealth management services. GFIA, a hedge fund consulting form in Asia has added a new wealth management service to its offerings. The service includes deal/acquisition due diligence to philanthropy.

Happy Lunar New Year - Year of the Tiger

2010-02-14T17:09:17-08:00

The Asian Philanthropy Forum team wishes our friends and their families a very happy Lunar New Year! Thank you for your support in the previous year. We look forward to your continuous engagement in the year of the tiger!

Channel News Asia has a beautiful gallery of photos of the new year celebrations in Asia that we encourage you to visit.

Being a chartered advisor in philanthropy (CAP)

2010-02-11T20:28:16-08:00

The philanthropic advising field is growing and there are many "philanthropic advisors" now. Some philanthropy advisors work in community foundations, financial and wealth management firms, and non-profits, helping clients or donors reach their philanthropic goals. Other advisors, like Sean Stannard-Stockton, started their own philanthropic advising firms to help philanthropists give more strategically. Unlike attorneys, accountants or doctors, philanthropic advising is not a licensed profession.

As the philanthropic advising field continues to grow and evolve, individuals wanting to learn the tools and strategies used in philanthropic planning can complete the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP) program. The CAP program is offered by The American College and consists of three graduate-level courses and six hours of examinations.

I hold the CAP designation and I think the certification is an important part of my work with donors and clients and in building the philanthropic field. The CAP program started in 2003 and there are about 350 of us now with the designation. Two of my Asian American friends are currently enrolled in the program. If you are interested in learning more about the program, please feel free to email me.

Professor Phil Cubeta, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CAP, is the Sallie B. and William B. Wallace Endowed Chair in Philanthropy and oversees the program. He writes on Gift Hub, What it Means to be a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy.

COF: 2010 Family Philanthropy Conference

2010-02-06T15:29:36-08:00

Last week, over 482 individuals participated in the Council on Foundation's Family Philanthropy Conference in San Diego. A majority of the participants were board members or trustees of family foundations in the U.S. The sessions were diverse and included basics such as Foundation Governance and Management Boot Camp to thought provoking sessions such as, What Would Google Do in Philanthropy? A group of participants blogged about the conference on RE: Philanthropy.

The breakfast plenary session, Catalytic Philanthropy was the most interesting for me. The session was based on Mark Kramer's article on Stanford Social Innovation Review that offered new approaches to grantmakers who want to help catalyze social change. The session included a family trustee who spoke about how they leveraged significant social change and expanded micro-finance 75-fold in a region. Philip Holmes of Blue State Digital spoke about crafting communication strategies and using social media to connect citizens to candidates, causes and issues. This is the same group that managed President Obama's presidential campaign.

Jason Rzepka, vice president of public affairs for MTV did a superb presentation on how MTV engaged and activated more than 200 million youth around the biggest social change facing their generation, digital abuse. A Thin Line is a campaign that MTV started to talk about the emerging issue of digital abuse and how it affects 80% of 14-24 year olds. Jason said that MTV accidentally practiced catalytic philanthropy with their campaign: MTV aims to build a coalition of best-in-class experts and empower America's youth to identify, respond to, and stop the spread of digital abuse. In the campaign, they mobilized other groups, including myspace, Family Violence Prevention Fund, AP Press, Frontline and DoSomething.org and created actionable knowledge.

50% have been the victims of digital abuse: spreading lies, pressured to send nude pics, impersonation, blackmail. 3 in 10 youth sent or received nude texts. 50% have thought digital behavior could come back to haunt them and 25% have considered it could have legal consequences.

The campaign included a website with action steps, empowering youth to take back control.

The COF Family Philanthropy Conference allowed for families to meet each other and explore best practices in the field. While the sessions were informative, it is during informal site visits, breaks, and networking sessions that many breakthrough conversations took place.

With the exception of small, by-invitation only events, there is no event in the Asia Pacific that allows family members of foundations or those interested in practicing philanthropy as a family unit to come together. The demand for family philanthropy resources and engagement is growing. When will a Family Philanthropy Conference in Asia take place?

U.S. - Vietnamese Social Networks

2010-02-04T08:04:49-08:00

James H. Bao, co-founder of the OneVietnam Network generated a list of US Vietnamese Social Networks on their blog, Vietnam Talking Points. James found five networks and he provides a summary of their work. Please visit their blog to learn more.

In particular, James writes:

Of the networks I've found, only two came out to be true social network by today's definitions: Viet Circle and Vietmee.com. The rest are better categorizes as community blogs or forums. Of the bunch, Viet Circle offers the most familiar social networking experience. Yet, the site tries to do too much (includes restaurant reviews, event planning), runs an outdated model (think MySpace), and is not actively developed.

The Vietnamese expat community still lacks a true network. With over 3 million people spread across 30 countries, there is a definite need for a network that can bring us together. I have reasons to believe that kind of network will be coming very soon (*wink).

James is talking about the exciting, highly anticipated, OneVietnam Network. The man behind the "network" is Paul Pham. Paul was part of the team that created the first web-based email service called Hotmail. After the company was acquired by Microsoft Corporation, he went on to work as a server architect for several years, developing the main revenue generating engine for Hotmail called WebCourier.

I can't wait to see the fully functional network because it will be the first of its kind - bringing non-profit groups, volunteers, donors and supporters together on an integrated platform that uses all the tools of social media. This is where the Asian American philanthropy field needs to be headed. The fact that none of them have a philanthropy background makes it even more impressive. I like the idea of a fresh perspective and a new approach.

Disclosure: I serve as an advisor to OneVietnam Network.

Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh, Indian American physician, philanthropist and publisher

2010-01-30T20:36:27-08:00

Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh, Indian American physician, philanthropist and publisher is named as a recipient of the 2010 Padma Shri Award. The Indian government grants this award to distinguished Indians and people of Indian origin for their contribution in various spheres of activity including the arts, education, industry, literature, science, sports, medicine, social service and public life. The award will be presented b President Pratibha Patil at a ceremony in New Delhi in March.

Dr. Parikh is a 59 year old native of Gujarat. He set up his private medical practice in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1980. His practice flourished and he is now a noted allergist and an acclaimed authority in the field of allergy, asthma, and immunology. Dr. Parikh is also Chairman and Publisher of New York based Parikh Worldwide Media, which publishes the News India Times, Desi Talk and The Indian American.

Dr. Parikh had donated more than $2 million to various charities and causes in the India and the U.S. over the years. Fifteen years ago, he set up the Parikh Foundation. He was part of the delegation that accompanied Former President Bill Clinton to the affected areas of the Gujarat earthquake. He has also helped tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu and supports the Art of Living Foundation in providing humanitarian relief. Dr. Parikh has helped raise funds towards AIDS awareness in India and healtcare-related programs in the country. In the U.S., Dr. Parikh gives to the Share & Care Foundation, Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation, and the American India Foundation.

We congratulate Dr. Parikh for his professional and philanthropic achievements!