Hauser Center Brown Bag Lunch Series Presents:

Does Global Philanthropy Really Make People’s Lives Better?
Insaan Group: A model for going beyond charity, for creating a legacy

Presented by
Farahnaz Karim

Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 12:30-1:45 pm
Hauser Center Conference Room
5 Bennett Street (Charles Hotel plaza)


Ms. Farahnaz Karim is the Founder & CEO of Insaan Group (www.insaangroup.org), a philanthropy fund whose mission is to make philanthropy more effective by applying sound investment management principles to global philanthropy. Insaan connects private wealth to small businesses and non-profit ventures which are innovative, potentially sustainable and impactful but lack the capital and active management support. Its areas of initial focus centre around Entrepreneurship and Education.

While established and registered in the United States as a tax-exempt entity, and initially focusing on India, Insaan’s vision is to address these two critical challenges of employment creation and relevant education in South Asia and the Middle East – two regions whose human security challenges are at the centre of our world’s security.

Ms. Karim secured the initial round of funding for Insaan in part from the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund.

Ms. Karim has over 10 years of development experience in management, humanitarian program design and implementation, fund raising and strategy. This experience includes practical field and policy exposure in several development contexts including Tajikistan, Palestine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and five years on the ground experience in Taliban and post-Taliban Afghanistan. Her last assignments included a management position within the World Bank and Afghan governmental structure and a Country Director assignment for one of the largest non-profits in Afghanistan. During this period, Ms. Karim focused on rural development, support to education, water and sanitation and cultural revitalization. Ms. Karim earned a Master’s in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she focused on development economics and social entrepreneurship; a Master’s Degree in International Relations at Hautes Etudes Internationales (HEI); and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Modern Languages at McGill University.