By Steven Lawry In Part IV of this series I argued that large, conventional foundations, staffed by highly-qualified and increasingly specialized professional staff, are over-specifying the solutions to poverty in-house and, in the process, are increasing the possibility that potentially breakthrough ideas coming from outside of foundations get over-looked and go unfunded. New philanthropies, founded [...]

by Steven Lawry One of the principal criticisms proponents of so-called new philanthropy direct toward old, or traditional large philanthropies is that old philanthropies, in assessing the merits of grant proposals, don’t require prospective grantees to provide sufficiently rigorous estimates of the likely impact of their proposed work.  For instance, Paul Brest, Hal Harvey and [...]

Earlier this year Brookings released Making Poverty History? How Activists, Philanthropists, and the Public are Changing Global Development, a report based on the Brookings Blum Roundtable 2007.  While it contains much of interest, one item immediately catches the eye: in 2005, private philanthropic giving for international causes was roughly equal to official development assistance (ODA) [...]