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Dark Cloud over Good Works of Gates Foundation

The Los Angeles Times took a close look at the investment practices of the gates Foundation and found a dark cloud in the form of substantially greater financial investment in the oil companies destroying the health of Africans than the amount they make in grants to help in improve such health. I would be very curious to know how many lives the Gates Foundation would save if they were as aggressive in leading a divestment campaign against the oil companies as they are in trying to eliminate malaria. We need more research into foundation investment practices, that's for certain. Update as of Jan. 11, 1007: The Gates Foundation has announced that they would review their investments to assess their social responsibility. Oil companies in Africa aren't all that hard to assess, from my perspective, but the decision is certainly an opening. Posted: 1/8/07; 11:13:04 PM #

Nonprofit Technology Conference 2007

I'll be attending the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington DC during the first week of April this year. Most likely I will be talking about listening (isn't that an interesting phrase), introducing papers from the Journal of Information Technology in Social Change (a special issue of our Journal), and meeting with prospective bloggers for our network. Look me up if you're there, and don't forget to register soon if you want a discount. Posted: 1/8/07; 11:07:56 PM #

Good Capital Projects

I had a very rewarding conversation a few months back with some of the principals of Good Capital, a fascinating model for stimulating investment in social ventures. In the context of current capital markets, they make a good case for the need for finance models somewhere in between grants and traditional venture money. There are other such intermediate forms, of course (program related investments of grantmakers come to mind), but I'm hoping Good Capital can scale it up. Posted: 1/8/07; 11:01:05 PM #