New foundation one of Germany’s ten biggest

Following the death of Joachim Herz, a 66-year-old Hamburg businessman and one of the heirs to Germany’s biggest coffee roaster and retailer Tchibo, in a tragic swimming accident in the US in May, a new charitable foundation has been established. With an endowment of more than €1 billion, the Joachim Herz Stiftung will be one of Germany’s ten biggest charitable foundations. Herz, who died childless, appointed in his will that a charitable foundation be set up as his sole beneficiary. Click here to read ...

Some tainted money better than others?

Many non-profits have long refused money from funders who do not pass ideological muster. Many won't take money from tobacco companies, Nestlé or Wal-Mart for instance. With the global finance crash laid largely at the feet of bad mortgage loans in the US, will the people who made billions from creating and selling those loans join the tainted money list? Click here to read ...

Bertelsmann Stiftung offers new publications for donors

Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung has teamed up with the UK’s New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), bringing together Bertelsmann’s experiences in providing consultancy to foundations with NPC’s approach to measuring the effectiveness of charities. The resulting project, Orientation for Social Investors, will offer a wide range of information material to donors.

The German foundation sector is booming. While in 1990 the number of foundations was estimated to be slightly over 5,500, more than 1,000 foundations were established in 2007 alone. In order to give support to newly established foundations and their founders, Bertelsmann Stiftung has offered consultancy, promoted legal changes, and collected relevant statistical data since 1996. Click here to read ...

Mobile phones before charity, say respondents to UK survey on spending, but no decrease in planned giving among Europe’s rich

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Index reveals US’s most generous

It’s a truism that the wealthiest people are not always the most generous, and one that seems to apply even to the small world of the very wealthy. Conde Nast Portfolio has published what it calls a Generosity Index, an effort to assess the philanthropy of the US’s wealthiest citizens by taking into account recent giving, family foundations and political donations. Of the top 10 donors according to the Index, seven rank higher in generosity than in wealth. Examples include Pierre Omidyar (8th in the Index but, 32nd in terms of personal wealth), Eli Broad (3rd and 46th) and Michael Bloomberg (6th and 25th).
 
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More advice needed for European wealthy but not yet available

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CEE private equity community rallies to support region’s social enterprises

Private equity professionals and firms and their advisers in Central and Eastern Europe have committed nearly €300,000 to NESsT’s 2008 Private Equity Shares Campaign, the proceeds of which will help the organization to support social enterprises across the CEE region. Formed in early 2008 when representatives of six firms active in the region came together, the original goal of the Private Equity Shares campaign was to raise a modest €125,000. The Campaign has over 20 contributors to date. It will run until later this month.

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www.nesst.org/privateequityshares/supporters.asp Click here to read ...

Wealthy Briton leaves bulk of fortune to charity

British businessman and conservative party deputy chairman Lord Michael Ashcroft is establishing a foundation that will receive 80 per cent of his estimated £1.1 billion ($1.8 billion) fortune when he dies. Ashcroft, who established the non-profit Crimestoppers which, according to its website, helps find criminals and solve crimes, and has made large donations to the UK’s Imperial War Museum and anti-whaling campaigns, said the money would be spent on causes close to his heart, although the foundation's trustees would have the final say.

Source
Daily Telegraph, 19 October 2008 Click here to read ...

Kumudini Welfare Trust - an unusual model

Established in the early 1940s by Rajiv Prasad Shaha, Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal focuses on the welfare of women and poor people in Bangladesh. The Trust is named after Shaha's mother, who died when he was a child. He gave his entire fortune, amassed through business ventures including transportation and the supply of coal, to the Trust. Click here to read ...

Philanthropy's go-betweens

In 2006 Warren Buffett decided to pass on US$30 billion of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation because, as he told newspapers at the time, he saw in the Foundation the intermediary that could produce as much impact for his social investment as possible. Click here to read ...