“NEW DELHI – Internet giant Google Inc. said Monday it will give $5 million to upgrade and support 50 elementary schools run by India’s Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic unit of Bharti Enterprises Ltd.”
Can an enormous business-based philanthropic venture like Google fulfill its mission to save the world?
“There’s a coffee machine in the corridor. There’s no cafeteria, although students and staff can order food delivered to the office pantry one floor down.
‘I’m thrilled and proud to attend Hamburger University,’ said Zhou, who in 2007 started as a management trainee in the central Chinese city of Changsha, a job for which she and seven others were among 1,000 applicants. That’s a selection rate of less than 1 percent, lower than Harvard University’s record low acceptance rate last year of about 7 percent, according to the school’s official newspaper.”
“Now my father has stopped trying to persuade me to work in banking.” – Sun Ying, McDonald’s Shanghai Store Manager
With college graduates fighting to get into Hamburger University, can a Chinese obesity crisis be far behind?
Welcome to our new series, showing you how the changes you want to see in the world actually happen.
Check out our other SfC shorts:
Strategies for Change: Introduction
Strategies for Change, Part 2: Advocacy
Strategies for Change, Part 3: Direct Service
Strategies for Change, Part 4: Education
“Another perspective on the “american education is better than you think” is that many countries test young and track kids into special schools and into specific skill sets. For say, in Germany, one kid may go into a trade skill job and the other may go to school to prep for college. The USA treats every. single. kid. like he or she is college track, and we’re actually KILLING OFF vocational/trade programs. It’s senseless.”
What do you think? Should we be preparing every child in America for college instead of investing in vocational schools for students that are interested in them?
In Pakistan, women are beginning to leave the confines of their homes to enter the labor force for the first time. You can meet some of them and hear their stories by clicking play.
Unfortunately, it’s not all progress and economic prosperity – Pakistan has an entrenched culture of male dominance that says women shouldn’t be seen OR heard. Women who work in public are routinely harassed and even beaten up by their male family members and strangers.
But how awesome would it be if Pakistan opened up its economy to the other half of the population? Talk about doubling your productivity and improving millions of lives.
How can you help? Try donating to organizations that promote education for girls, or get involved in microfinance projects that focus on giving female entrepreneurs a chance.
We wonder if “maths” includes personal finance?
Daily chart: which country has the cleverest kids? Since 2000 the OECD has tested school pupils in rich countries every three years on reading, mathematics and science. This year, students in Shanghai topped the chart in each discipline.
Weak economy, lots of debt, high unemployment. Up next: fewer universities!
Read the original to see students handing books to riot police in Rome:
BBC News, 12/22/10: Italian students demonstrate against education reforms
It’s holiday giving time! People who – oops – forgot to donate to charity all throughout 2010 are now scrambling to give away enough money to score some sweet tax breaks before the end of the year. But according to some lady at the Wall Street Journal, there are a lot of stupid things you can do when you engage in last-minute philanthropy.
credit: howard dickens
Let us count the things you should not do, according to Ms. Shelly Banjo:
1. Give impulsively. Newsflash: Charities are falling over themselves trying to get your attention. Good for them, but don’t be a philanthropic sucker. Think about what’s really most important to you, decide how much you want to donate, and engage in some thoughtful charity.
2. Donate stock you’ve held for less than a year. Did you know you can donate stock to some organizations? Did you also know that you can only get a tax deduction for doing it if you’ve owned the stock for more than a year? Now you know.
3. Donate stock that’s lost a lot of value. You can actually claim the money you lost on that stock as a tax deduction, which might lower the taxes you have to pay on the investments that did make you money. If you hold onto the stock and donate cash instead, you get double the deductions!
4. Think you can claim the cost of a fundraiser ticket as a charitable donation. Okay, actually you can do this. But you can only claim the cost above what the ticket is actually worth. (So if you bought $1,000 Knicks tickets to benefit a charity, but the tickets are actually worth $200, you only get to claim the $800 as a donation.)
5. Donate stuff (instead of money) to an organization that won’t use it. This is something only your accountant understands. Basically, the amount you can write off on stuff donations depends on the mission of the organization you’re donating it to.
6. Donate something called a “gift annuity” when interest rates are really low (i.e. right now). Gift annuities are basically donations to charities that earn you a little money on the side. The charity keeps the money you’ve given them, but they pay you interest every year on the amount you donated. So low interest rates mean your payments will also be low.
7. Obsessively stick to charity ratings. Rating sites like CharityNavigator.org and GuideStar.org are helpful when it comes to sorting through the jillions of charities out there. But they can basically only give you numbers. (And numbers liiiiie!) It’s up to you to get the full picture before you shell out for a particular organization.
8. Give to a charity that rents or sells your personal information. (duh)
9. Donate to the wrong donor-advised fund. Donor-advised funds are a complicated way of pooling your money with other investors so that you all save big on taxes while your money or investments go to organizations you all believe in. You don’t have much control over where the money goes after you put it in the fund, so make sure you’re a believer before you join a specific donor-advised fund.
10. Don’t get insurance if you’re on the board of an organization. Congratulations! You’re on the board of an organization. Now you’re partially responsible if that organization does something stupid. Directors and officers insurance exist for a reason.
Now that you’re paying attention, here’s a picture of two Christmas cats hugging to get you in the philanthropic mood:
credit: tuija2005
Aww.
Why wait until you’re dead to make your mark on the world?
“Wealth is an advantage, but it also is frankly a responsibility.” – Nicolas Berggruen, Investor, recently signed on to The Giving Pledge