5th Annual Global Philanthropy Forum

As Global Philanthropy Forum (GPF) founder Jane Wales explained at the start of the Forum, held in Washington DC in early April, GPF participants are people committed to solving big problems. The Forum therefore aimed to answer the question ‘where are the ideas?’ and to highlight the opportunities for donors and social investors to ‘make a difference’.

Several speakers had stories to tell about their own involvement in philanthropy. Ed Scott, business entrepreneur turned philanthropist, started by funding a discrete project in a very hands-on way but came to realize the need for aggressive advocacy for money to go to macro-level solutions. He described the work of his own Center for Global Development and DATA, which he helped found in 2001 with Bill Gates and George Soros.

Bill Clinton saw philanthropy as the next activity after being president of the United States. He described how the Clinton Foundation had been able to reach an agreement with five suppliers of generic ARV medications to cut prices drastically, thus vastly increasing the numbers treated.

In a session looking at instruments for social change, Tim Wirth of the UN Foundation advocated funding social movements, while Bill Drayton of Ashoka spoke of the value of funding social entrepreneurs – GPC participants got a chance to see what they can do at the ‘Meet the Social Entrepreneurs’ session hosted by the International Finance Corporation. Alan Patricof of venture capital firm Apax Partners pointed to the need for high-risk equity capital to create jobs in Africa and other developing countries.

Other ideas described were the Nuclear Threat Initiative, whose goal is to limit the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; Jeff Skoll’s Participant Productions, which uses film-making to raise awareness of the need for social change; and the Shell Foundation’s work to bring clean public transport to Mexico City.

Why was the Forum in Washington this year instead of in California as previously? The answer lies in the Forum title: ‘Policy, Philanthropy, and Social Entrepreneurship: Advancing Social Change’. With the focus on policy, it seemed apt to bring the conference to the home of the policymakers.

‘Philanthropy, policy and politics: where is the line?’ was the title of the final panel. Conservative foundations have successfully set the policy agenda in recent years, but the general view of panellists, CEOs of five major foundations, was that, although foundations should promote debate they should not engage in a ‘war of ideas’.