Philanthropy can bridge the gap between trumped-up fears and real threats
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking recently predicted that the human race has 1,000 years before we will have to vacate planet Earth. These days, that passes for optimism.
Funding gun violence prevention: A Q&A with Nina Vinik of the Joyce Foundation
Gun violence is one of our nation’s most urgent public health and safety challenges, with more than 100,000 Americans killed or injured by guns every year. Notwithstanding overwhelming popular support for common-sense gun laws that would greatly reduce this carnage, reforming gun policy is difficult work.
A key task for grantmakers: Enhance the freedom of journalists around the world
In his eighth and final speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama called on world leaders to embrace the idea of open society as the only way for nations to prosper. “Entrepreneurs need to access information in order to invent; young people need a global education in order to thrive; independent media needs […]
'The Web belongs to all of us': Q&A with the Web’s inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee
This post originally appeared on the Ford Foundation’s Equals Change blog on Sept. 21, 2016. Not everyone knows the name Sir Tim Berners-Lee, but they certainly know his invention: the World Wide Web. And if being responsible for one of the most important innovations in human history wasn’t enough, early on Berners-Lee made the generous […]
"Fractured Lands" pioneers ambitious new media partnership model
By Nathalie Applewhite | managing director, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Last month, Ellen Laipson, president emeritus of the Stimson Center and an expert in global policymaking, wrote an essay about a special issue of the New York Times Magazine called “Fractured Lands,” a manifestation of 18 months of reporting into why and how the Arab […]
Using television and film to advance your cause (no ad budget required)
Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared Aug. 8, 2016, on PhilanTopic, the blog of Philanthropy News Digest. By Neill Coleman | Vice President of Global Communications, Rockefeller Foundation
The need for a new era of storytelling
By Maria Teresa Ronderos | Program Director for Independent Journalism, Open Society Foundations Probably most people sort of knew off-shore havens were being used to hide taxable fortunes, to pillage national treasuries, or to receive bribes for sold consciences. However, when the Panama Papers stories connected names to bank accounts, and provided the hard evidence, […]
Knight Foundation report explores early insights from Philadelphia’s new journalism model
Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared on KnightBlog, the blog of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, on June 15, 2016.
After the conventions, time for foundations to focus on change
When a political convention rolls through your neighborhood, it’s easy to believe that anything is possible. In Philadelphia, where I live, we’ve just witnessed an event that had the fervor and optimism of a Taylor Swift concert for four days but the precision and orchestration of a military convoy taking over an entire city. No […]
Technology delivers hope to refugees around the world
According to the United Nations, every minute, 24 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. Worldwide, there are 65 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. It’s overwhelming to think about how much violence in the world there is to have that many refugees. To that end, the U.N. has recognized June […]
The role of philanthropy in changing police culture
Editor’s note: Last week, following the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and then five police officers at the tail end of a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration, Grant Oliphant, president of The Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh, wrote a poignant piece about the responsibility we have in our field to bear witness to these unspeakably tragic events. […]