Altruism Today

Wikileaks on a Bitcoin Raising Campaign

June 15th, 2011 | Source: NPQ

Source: Forbes.com | Wikileaks has now declared that it will be raising Bitcoins to try to bypass some of the problems that it has had in dealing with donations online. As you might remember, Wikileaks has had problems with VISA, Mastercard, Bank of America, and Pay Pal – all of whom refused to transfer donations along to the group when it became embroiled in controversy for releasing documents – its raison d’etre. Bitcoins are so called “crypto-currency” or untraceable digital cash that is communicated without the use of banks. They are described here in another posting at Forbes.

Bitcoins are controversial. Senator Chuck Schumer recently referred to them as “an online form of money laundering.” Gavin Andresen, one of the developers of the Bitcoins said the charge was unfair and likened Bitcoins to other prepaid “pseudo- currencies” like gift cards.

Apparently another recipient of Bitcoin donations is the hacker group Lulzsec, which NPQ reported on when it covered their hacking of PBS.

Odd that Wikileaks, dedicated to transparency is in the position of inviting donations through a theoretically untraceable system though it has been backed into that particular corner. Sometimes, watching Wikileaks is like being in a Stieg Larsson novel.

Create a Small Business in honor of Dad with a Gift to Heifer International

June 13th, 2011 | Source: Heifer International

This Father's Day don't purchase your dad a tie or golf shirt to check off your Father's Day gift off your to-do list. Tell your Dad how thankful you are for all he has done and continues to do for you and let him know that you are passing on that gift around the world by helping another family provide for their children. Choose to make a donation in Dad's name to Heifer International.

A donation of a farm animal as a Father's Day gift provides food security and income for families across the globe. The family, which may be on the other side of the globe or right here in the U.S., receives a camel, water buffalo, cow, goat, sheep or other animal, along with training and environmentally sound agricultural maintenance practices. It's a gift that truly makes a difference-one that can actually save a life or provide for a hopeful future. For most of us in America, a cow is an animal we see in a field and that provides milk, but for many in other countries who live on less than $2 a day, a cow is a source of a secure future for their family.

Heifer's mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Since 1944, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 50 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant.

Nonprofit Sector Reduced by 17% This Week

June 10th, 2011 | Source: NPQ

Source: New York Times | This week, after extending the deadline and engaging in a national information campaign to raise awareness, the IRS finally made good on its promise to drop nonresponsive nonprofits from its rolls. The number of groups that were excommunicated per the 2006 Pension Protection Act was 275,000 – roughly 17 percent of the sector.

If, by the way, the IRS had stuck to its original deadline it would have been 25 percent. Most believe that the majority of the 275,000 do not exist, having gone out of business without letting the IRS know, but there will inevitably be some for whom the change in status will come as an unwelcome surprise. A list of those groups affected can be found here so you can all check for friends and colleagues.

The IRS intends to make re-filing for status as easy as possible, even reducing the filing fee to $100. All across the country on Thursday, local newspapers - just in case - were announcing the numbers and names of local groups that were dropped as here where it was announced that there were 1,500 in Hawaii alone and here where it was announced that the number is more than 3,000 in Kentucky.

Visit the Council of Nonprofits website for more information and guidance.

Goldman Sachs Undermines the Housing Markets, Kills the Economy, and Feels Bad for Qaddafi

June 8th, 2011 | Source: NPQ

Source: Wall Street Journal | If you turned on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC the other morning, you heard Joe Scarborough’s co-host Mika Brzezinski extol the Goldman Sachs program to create or assist 10,000 small businesses, a $500 million piece of the Goldman charitable commitment in 2009 after the firm’s embarrassment of riches in profits and bonuses during the recession.

Some may remember that Goldman Sachs hired former Clinton aide Mark Fabiani to think about charitable giving as part of the firm’s public relations response to public criticism, a “counter-narrative” strategy. The promotionals on MSNBC touting the 10,000 small businesses program, actually its first gathering of small business graduates at a fete with Warren Buffett joining Goldman’s Lloyd Blankenfein, may be part of the next phase of Goldman’s counter-narrative.

Despite Goldman’s PR-crafted philanthropic generosity, the firm has displayed some charitable instincts that may perplex NPQ Newswire readers. In April, a Senate subcommittee chaired by Carl Levin (D-MI) revealed that Goldman Sachs had been offloading its subprime mortgage exposure to clients as the market was beginning to tank, in other words, it was basically betting against the housing market including taking net short positions against the housing market of $10.6 billion on February 27, 2007 and $13.9 billion on June 25, 2007. In other words, philanthropy notwithstanding, Goldman played fast and loose with its own clients and the economy and played a major role in precipitating the national economic collapse. Curiously, it wasn’t the Obama Department of Justice or the Securities and Exchange Commission, but ratherthe Manhattan District Attorney that just issued subpoenas to get Goldman to come clean.

The Goldman charitable pledge to small business looks pretty paltry, especially considering one odd potential recipient of the firm’s generosity. In 2008, the sovereign-wealth fund of Libya invested $1.3 billion with Goldman Sachs. Goldman helped the Qaddafi regime just about as much as it helped the U.S. housing market – it lost 98 percent of the value of the Libyan investment within two years. The Libyans weren’t happy, they went berserk. Goldman decided to try to mollify the Libyans by selling Qaddafi a $3.7 billion ownership stake in Goldman Sachs, which would have made Libya (or Qaddafi) one of the company’s top owners.

Blankenfein once characterized investment banking as “doing God’s work”, a characterization most people reserve for charity and philanthropy. Which part would God have blessed? Screwing investors and homeowners by shorting the housing market? Playing PR games with self-interested philanthropic commitments? Or harboring a charitable soft spot for the Qaddafi regime?

World Resources Institute Launches Project to Measure Water Risk

June 7th, 2011 | Source: Social Funds

The New York Times reported on China's $62 billion plan to divert at least six trillion gallons of water each year from the Yangtze River to cities located hundreds of miles to the north. The South-North Water Diversion Plan has already resulted in the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people in the south.

Yet the Yangtze River itself is already experiencing severe water scarcity issues of its own, as the recently launched Aqueduct project of the World Resources Institute (WRI) indicates. WRI describes the Aqueduct project as "a database and a suite of practical tools that measure, map, and explain water-related risks facing companies and their investors. The objective of the project is to provide companies and their investors with the actionable information they need to effectively manage and reduce their exposure to water risk."

The project has already finished its analysis of the Yellow River in China, into which the water of the Yangtze will be diverted under China's plan. The analysis reveals that of the ten access and growth constraints, five exceed the critical threshold, indicating areas of concern for companies and investors.

An analysis of the Yangtze River is currently underway, where, as WRI Senior Program Coordinator Rob Kimball told SocialFunds.com, "Over a billion tons of cargo are transported every year. It's an incredibly important shipping corridor, but water levels are so low in certain parts of the river that it's impassable. The entire supply chain is being disrupted."

As evidenced by such recently launched high-profile initiatives as CDP Water Disclosure, water scarcity is rapidly becoming a significant issue for businesses. Driven by such factors as climate change and population growth, water scarcity threatens to disrupt corporate operations and supply chains as well as add regulatory and reputational risks to those operations.

In the US this year, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) have submitted at least four shareowner resolutions addressing the human right to water.

Three arrested, accused of illegally feeding homeless

June 5th, 2011 | Source: Orlando Sentinel

Orlando police say they violated a city ordinance restricting the feedings.

Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park.

Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan "Keith" McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s.

The group lost a court battle in April, clearing the way for the city to enforce the ordinance. It requires groups to obtain a permit and limits each group to two permits per year for each park within a 2-mile radius of City Hall.

Arrest papers state that Cross, Markeson and McHenry helped feed 40 people Wednesday night. The ordinance applies to feedings of more than 25 people.

"They intentionally violated the statute," said Lt. Barbara Jones, an Orlando police spokeswoman.

Police waited until everyone was served to make the arrests, said Douglas Coleman, speaking for Orlando Food Not Bombs.

"They basically carted them off to jail for feeding hungry people," said Coleman, who was not present. "For them to regulate a time and place for free speech and to share food, that is unacceptable."

Orlando Food Not Bombs has been feeding the homeless breakfast on Mondays for several years and dinner on Wednesdays for five years.

Police had not enforced the ordinance while the court battle continued. The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruled that city rules regulating how often large groups of people can be fed in a park do not violate the Constitution.

The penalty for violating Orlando's ordinance is 60 days in jail, a $500 fine or both.

More here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-homeless-feedings-arrests-20110601,0,7226362.story

Did you know that Sunday June 5, 2011 is National Cancer Survivors Day?

June 3rd, 2011 | Source: Livestrong Stand Up 2 Cancer

There are 28 million people living with cancer right now across the globe. And each day, in the United States alone, there are more than 4,000 more people diagnosed. In recognition of the bravery of those in the fight and those who have won the battle, Stand Up To Cancer and LIVESTRONG are joining forces on Facebook. In the days leading up to June 5, we are calling for survivors to step up and declare themselves to inspire everyone living with cancer to continue their fight.

Participation only takes 10 seconds: go to http://livestrong.standup2cancer.org// to donate your status and tell cancer exactly what you think. Whether you are a survivor, fighting the battle, supporting a loved one, or just hate cancer, everybody has something to say.

New treatments for nine neglected tropical diseases

May 30th, 2011 | Source: Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative

Paris and Geneva May 30, - Sanofi and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative announced today a three-year agreement for the research of new treatments for nine neglected tropical diseases, listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for which new, adapted, and efficient tools are urgently needed to treat patients in endemic countries. This agreement is built upon a history of successful collaboration between Sanofi and DNDi.

In this agreement, Sanofi will initially bring molecules from its libraries into the partnership, while DNDi and Sanofi collaborate in research activities on innovative molecular scaffolds.

The core of the agreement lies in the innovative management of intellectual property generated through the collaboration. The rights to results produced by this partnership will be co-owned by Sanofi and DNDi. The partners will facilitate publication of the results to ensure access to the wider community of researchers focusing on NTDs. The public sector will benefit from the drugs developed through this agreement under the best possible conditions to ease access for patients in all endemic countries, irrespective of their level of economic development.

For-profit Colleges Grow Faster than Nonprofits despite Criticism and Investigations

May 27th, 2011 | Source: NPQ

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education | The U.S. Department of Education has issued its "Condition of Education 2011" compendium, not exciting bedtime reading, but containing important information about where people, young and older, are going for higher education services. Some key points from the report:

The proportion of undergraduate students enrolled in for-profit institutions nearly tripled from 3.1 percent in 1999 to 9 percent in 2009.
The proportion of bachelor degrees awarded by for-profit colleges nearly tripled during that period, growing from1 percent in 1999 to 5 percent in 2009.
Surprising probably to many people, the average net price (basically tuition) for full-time undergraduates in 2007-2008 was $15,600 for public universities, $26,600 for private nonprofit colleges, and $30,900 for four-year for-profit institutions.
But the for-profits don't spend nearly as much on educating their students, averaging $2,659 in instructional expenditures compared to $9,418 for public universities and $15,289 spent by private nonprofit colleges per student.
Explain how it is that of students enrolled at for-profit two-year colleges in 2002, 58 percent had graduated by 2005 compared to only 21 percent for comparable two-year public colleges (try the fact that two-year students who transfer to four-year colleges are counted as not having graduated from their two-year programs).
Bad news: the average inflation-adjusted salary of young adults, aged 25 to 34, declined from $39,000 in 1980 to $38,000 in 2009.
"Among young adults employed full time with only a bachelor's degree, but no higher degree, average salaries fell from $48,600 in 2000 to $45,000 in 2009.The only group of young adults whose salaries grew during that decade were those with a master's degree or higher. Their average salary went from $56,100 to $60,000.

With all of the investigations by federal and state authorities regarding the post-college indebtedness of students from for-profit institutions, not to mention attention to their sometimes questionable academic content, it still appears that students are flocking to the for-profit colleges for something they think they aren't getting or can't get from nonprofit colleges and universities.

Thiel Foundation Encourages Talented Students to Drop Out

May 26th, 2011 | Source: NPQ

Source: Huffington Post | Today 24 entrepreneurs under twenty were named winners in the 20 under 20 fellowship competition run by Peter Thiel’s foundation. Thiel is, of course, a co-founder of Pay-Pal and an early investor in Facebook. Each winner will receive $100,000 and mentoring on the condition that they stay out of school to focus on building their businesses – all of which are technology-based.

More than 400 applied for the awards and the foundation had planned to pick only twenty but found they could not whittle the group down less than two dozen. And a more remarkable group would be hard to find.

There are skeptics who warn that the strategy is akin to the NBA luring students into a professional career, leaving them high and dry in terms of education when their time runs out. But Jim O’Neil, who runs the foundation, points out that coming out of school in the usual way with mounds of debt does not set young people up well to take on the risks of entrepreneurship.

Others criticize the program as an “act of self indulgence” – Thiel is not a great believer in the value of a formal education. And still others think that the program supports elitism, choosing a favored few to succeed with little regard for the many who will still be struggling against the constraining barriers of a highly inequitable education system.

James Altucher, a venture capitalist who himself has been critical of the high price of higher education sees it as a smart business move on Thiel’s part as he will be creating relationships with promising up and coming businesses in which he could later invest.