All too often we see causes spread on social networks claiming that, for each Like received, some sort of a charitable contribution will be made. But today UNICEF Sweden launched a campaign reminding people that Facebook Likes do not equate to money, and people really looking to help out a… … Read More
Disarming American citizens, Obama style
Presently flying under the radar of the American people is the much misunderstood, deliberately mischaracterized and under-reported United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty. … Read More
Japanese ‘Skull Reaper’ banned from city council duty over wrestling mask
Campaigning on educational reform and improved social welfarefacilities, the 44-year-old won only 2,828 votes, but that wasenough for him to get a seat on the city council. He says peopleelected him as Skull Reaper and he wanted to do his part for thecity as this persona.But before his first council meeting, other councilors said itwas inappropriate for a member of the assembly to conceal hisidentity by wearing a mask. They referred to a rule of the councilstating that “hats, capes and the like” are not allowed in thechamber.Skull Reaper A-ji refused the request, and instead pointed tothe fact that he has done a lot of charitable work for thecommunity in the last decade, including visiting institutions forpeople with physical disabilities.“People find it easy to come up and talk to me because I havea mask on,” he told the Nishinippon Shimbun, a Japanesedaily.“My mask is my uniform, I even wear it to weddings, so I willnot remove it,” he added.“If I take my mask off, I’m an entirely different person. Iwill not take it off,” he told the newspaper Nikkan Sportsafter he was told of the decision.But all parties in the council agreed that Skull Reaper A-jicould use his ring name, as it was the name he used to be votedinto office.Other politicians in Japan who wear masks have been elected atlocal level, including a councilor with the nickname Super Delfinin Osaka and a former professional wrestler who was elected torepresent the Iwate Prefecture in the north of Japan in 2003. … Read More
Can Culture Accept Charities That Are Run Like For-Profits?
Dan Pallotta, founder of the California AIDS Ride
and the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, gave a recent TED Talk asking
whether nonprofits would be better off if they were allowed to
behave more like for-profit companies. He argues that our cultural
attitude toward charities – not allowing leaders to be paid
competitively, resisting as much overhead as possible, and not
allowing for risky charitable ventures that may take years to pay
off – holds charities back and ultimately resigns donations to
making up only two percent of our Gross Domestic Product.
Pallotta’s TED Talk can be watched
here. He goes through the mathematics of showing how
non-profits that invest in growth systems typically associated with
profitable companies may increase the total pool of charitable
giving.
Pallotta doesn’t talk about the difference in public versus
private spending on aid for the needy in his talk. I did wonder how
a change like he proposed would alter
the mathematics that show 70 percent of private donations
actually reaching the needy as compared to 30 percent of public aid
programs. So much government aid spending gets consumed by
bureaucratic “overhead.” Would it be acceptable for only 60 percent
of private donations reaching the needy if the end result also
improved charitable giving to 3 percent of GDP?
Pallotta’s argument is actually not new. His book,
Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine their
Potential, published in 2008, discussed these possible
reforms. ReasonTV interviewed
him in 2009. He discussed many of the same issues back then, which
means we’re way more in tune with innovation than those TED
people.
Below is ReasonTV’s interview with Pallotta from 2009:
What Hillary did next
Politico’s Mike Allen scooped the highly predictable news that Hillary Clinton would hit the paid speaking circuit having retired as secretary of state this month.
Clinton has chosen Harry Walker Agency (the same group who represent her husband to represent her) and is expected to command fees well within the six-figure range — making her among the best-paid speakers “in the history of the circuit,” Allen reported.
Via Allen:
Secretary Clinton will likely do some speeches for no fee for causes she champions, and expects to occasionally donate her fees for charitable purposes. Clinton, who will maintain her homes in Washington and Chappaqua, is also beginning to make decisions about the book she has said she will write, an account of her four years as secretary of State. Non-profit work will be another component of her new life, perhaps through her husband’s foundation or one of her own.
Mississippi, Alabama take last place in elections performance study
Mississippi, Alabama and Washington D.C. make it harder than any other states in the union for citizens to vote, according to a new study from the Pew Charitable Trust. To compile the list, researchers looked at 17 different factors for each state, ranging from the total number of rejected ballots…
Who Runs The World? Solid Proof That A Core Group Of Wealthy Elitists Is Pulling The Strings
Under this neo-feudalist system, all the rest of us are debt slaves, including our own governments. … Read More
