The digital revolution: How technology is changing charity December 18, 2014 How technology is changing the face of the charitable sector, one bucket of ice at a time. Go back in time a few months and you’ll see millions of people, including hundreds of the world’s richest, most powerful men and women, drenching themselves with buckets of ice. From Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates; Anna Wintour [...]
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – No. 1 December 18, 2014 USA – £2.169bn In a game of word association, most people on hearing the name Bill Gates would immediately say Microsoft. Yet with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation having already given away a staggering £20bn since its 2000 foundation, it’s a safe bet that in a couple of decades time, the charity will be [...]
Wellcome Trust – No.2 December 18, 2014 UK – £581.5m Victorian masturbation manuals and copulating bull elephants may seem unlikely items for philanthropic support, but both feature in the latest exhibition put on by the Wellcome Trust. Its exhibition space – the Wellcome Collection – is currently showing The Institute of Sexology, which looks at the science of sex and the [...]
Novamedia / Postcode Lotteries – No.3 December 18, 2014 Netherlands – £470.3m For a Postcode Lottery player their address could be the luckiest thing that ever happened to them. Anyone who wants to play provides their postcode which then becomes their ticket number. Using the postcode means it’s not just one participant who wins a prize, but all the players in an entire street [...]
La Caixa Foundation – No.4 December 18, 2014 Spain – £309m La Caixa Foundation’s chairman Isidro Faine likes to quote the words of assassinated senator Robert Kennedy to describe the Spanish bank’s attitude to charity. “Senator, Robert F. Kennedy, once said ‘the future is not a gift; it’s an achievement'. These words remind us that our efforts in the present will determine [...]
Silicon Valley Community Foundation – No.5 December 18, 2014 USA – £231.8m It seems surprising that the area surrounding San Francisco Bay in northern California – arguably the world’s supreme entrepreneurial hotspot – is in need of charitable assistance. Yet despite the wealth of some in Silicon Valley thanks to the hi-tech giants and start-ups, there are also what Silicon Valley Community Foundation [...]
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – No.6 December 18, 2014 USA – £230.9m When General Johnson spoke everybody listened. I think there's a direct translation from the kind of standards the general had at the company to what you see in the Robert Johnson foundation,” says Johnson & Johnson's former chief financial officer Robert Campbell, now a trustee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. [...]
The Walton Family Foundation – No.7 December 18, 2014 USA – £207.84m The Walton family is the richest in America, according to Forbes 2014 list. Their wealth has come from their 51 per cent stake in retailing giant Walmart – the world’s largest retailer. The Walton Family Foundation was set up by Walmart’s founders, Sam and Helen Walton, in 1988 when they pledged [...]
Church Commissioners – No.8 December 18, 2014 UK – £207.8m “There is no greater joy than helping a young person explore more about God and the big questions of this universe, as they journey through this life,” says Jane Gillis, a school community worker at Christ Church Clifton, who is working with local schools to provide spiritual development opportunities. Gillis’ work [...]
David and Lucile Packard Foundation – No.9 December 18, 2014 USA – £184.8m “Think first of the other fellow,” was the first of David Packard’s 11 rules summing up his approach to life. Packard, one half of the duo which set up computer manufacturing giant Hewlett Packard, at one stage one of the world’s largest tech firms, started the company in a Californian garage with [...]