Online marketplace for social business launched

Rod Schwartz, founder of Catalyst, which specializes in social, environmental and ethical investments, has launched ClearlySo.com, an online marketplace for social business which brings together social businesses and enterprises with investors and suppliers. The site enables social businesses to find investors online, and conversely provides investors with the data to make informed investments in the sustainable business sector.

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www.clearlyso.com

Latin American media company initiative on HIV/AIDS

Leading Latin American media companies announced the establishment of the Iniciativa de Medios Latinoamericanos sobre el SIDA (IMLAS) in February. It is the first Latin American Media Partnership on the pandemic. Organized in response to the Global Media AIDS Initiative, launched in 2004 by UNAIDS and the US-based Kaiser Family Foundation, the new partnership promotes collaboration and leverages resources among media across the region to increase knowledge and reduce stigma. According to UNAIDS, an estimated 1.7 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America, giving it the third highest incidence of the disease of the world’s regions. In 2007, an estimated 60,000 died as a result of HIV/AIDS.
 
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Chinese glass magnate to give fortune to charity

Chinese tycoon Cao Dewang plans to give away CNY4.1 billion (US$599 million), according to Chinese sources. Cao has told the Chinese authorities that he intends to set up a foundation and give it 70 per cent of his shares in Fuyao Glass Industry Group Company. If approval is given for the foundation, Cao would become China's most charitable entrepreneur, replacing Yu Pengnian, who has donated CNY3 billion from his real estate fortune to charity since 2003.

Source
CNNmoney.com

Slim to give away to 7.9 billion pesos to healthcare and education

Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has announced plans to spend 7.9 billion pesos ($512 million) through his charities to improve health and education in Mexico this year. The contributions of the Carlos Slim Foundation and the Telmex Foundation will fund neonatal care, scholarships and sports programmes, among other projects, according to a statement from Slim’s Grupo Carso SAB in March. The programmes will benefit almost 400,000 families, the company said.

Source
Bloomberg.com, 10 March 2009

Study finds snob value of charitable events a stimulus to giving

Appealing to donors’ sense of status may provide a stimulus to fundraising, according to new research conducted in Pittsburgh by the Tepper School of Business at the US’s Carnegie Mellon University. The study, The Joys of Giving and Receiving, analysed data for ten of Pittsburgh's largest cultural and environmental organizations, and found that exclusive or high-profile benefits, such as invitations to dinner parties and other special events where they can rub shoulders with other high-status individuals, are by far the strongest incentives for donors to support charities, above and beyond the pleasure of giving. Among other things, the study found that the numbers of donors who support several charities would decline significantly if high-value private benefits were eliminated.