Global Philanthropy Forum: Live Blogging Continues

Day Two of Global Philanthropy Forum started with stirring, impassioned, and inspirational speech on Human Rights and its many abuses by Kerry Kennedy.

She was kicking off a plenary on the issue with Kenneth Roth from Human Rights Watch, Paul van Zyl, who founded a transitional government consultancy, Sidney Harman of Harman International, and Keith Leisinger from Novartis.

Van Zyl practically put the current administration on notice when he suggested the potential need for a review of the human rights abuses of the past eight years.

Roth spoke mostly about Human Rights successes, until he was challenged by two audience members: one from northeastern India, where the indigenous people are "legal targets," based upon a 1958 law, and the second who asked whether governments should boycott the Beijing Olympics. His answer: they should not go to opening ceremony, but not boycott the games.

But Sid Harman was the most engaging, telling stories about his own journey of ensuring the rights of his employees at Harman's various industries.

Harman's story of the Oliver, TN, autoparts plant and its transformation is worth hearing again. And they've been proactive in addressing domestic violence issues in their company.

Great to have an example of an enlightened leader among captains of industry -- and among more policy oriented activists.

Global Philanthropy Forum: You Call This Live Blogging?

I'm at the Global Philanthropy Forum this week, in Redwood City, and thought I'd try my hand at "Live Blogging," which is a buzz word I keep hearing.

First impressions:

Most international gathering I've seen. Usually, the ratio of Americans to Other Countries is pretty out of whack. Not here.

Also, plenty of representation from developing countries, which is a refreshing sign.

And a great showing of next generation reps, which explains why I am writing this now.

I wanted to be in the session on "Web-based, purpose-driven social networking." It was packed to the rafters. (Obviously a trend worth watching.)

Finally, there are the "Celebractivists" like Desmond Tutu, Peter Gabriel, and Annie Lennox.

Okay, more later.

Social Entrepreneurs: Barack Obama Calls for Social Sector Investment

In a speech last week in Iowa, presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama, called for a new focus on social entrepreneurs as agents for positive change, and for increased investment in the social sector:

"The second thing I’ll do is invest in ideas that can help us meet our common challenges, because more often than not the next great social innovation won’t be generated by the government.

"The non-profit sector employs 1 in 12 Americans and 115 nonprofits are launched every day. Yet while the federal government invests $7 billion in research and development for the private sector, there is no similar effort to support non-profit innovation. Meanwhile, there are ideas across America – in our inner cities and small towns; from college graduates to folks making a career change – that could benefit millions of Americans if they’re given the chance to grow.

"As President, I will launch a new Social Investment Fund Network. It’s time to get the grass roots, the foundations, the private sector and the government at the table. We’ll invest in ideas that work; leverage private sector dollars to encourage innovation; and expand successful programs to scale. Take a program like the Harlem Children’s Zone, which helps thousands of kids in New York through after-school activities, mentoring, and family support. We need to make that model work in different cities around the country. And I’ll start a new Social Entrepreneur Agency to make sure that small non-profits have the same kind of support that we give small businesses."

Spurring private action through public programs. Obama almost sounds like a Republican with his call for "personal responsibility" and acknowledgment that "the next great social innovation won’t be generated by the government."

Does Barack Obama have a chance to become President? He got this Independent's attention with this speech.

Read the full speech here: The Swamp

Global Climate Change: Art in Action, the HighWaterLine Project

Andy Goodman pointed me to Eve Mosher's HighWaterLine Project.

Like the Lennon Piano Peace Project I wrote about a couple of days ago, the HWL is a work of art rather than confrontation, but in its quiet statement it speaks volumes.

All over the city, Ms. Mosher, an artist with a background in environmental design, is marking with chalk the 10-feet above sea level line around Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. This is the potential high water mark resulting from a 100-year flood or worst-case scenario rise in sea level by 2020 due to global warming. She's backed up her concept with science and references to reports.

What's cool about this piece is its simplicity. The artist isn't preaching or haranguing passersby with her message. In fact, you have to ask her what she's doing. Then she'll offer an "action packet" featuring steps to reduce climate change.

Imagine encountering the artist in action: is she an errant grounds crew member from a local ballpark on her way home? A sidewalk marker who has forgotten to turn off her machine? I love the way this works, quietly insidiously, spreading like an urban legend.

As Mosher explains on the HWL web site: "Climate change is a silent, invisible threat - High Water Line gives voice and makes visible the affects of this threat. High Water Line is designed to engage the community and promote thoughtful, informed dialogue and action."

Look for her if you're in Lower Manhattan next week (10-12 August).

Wanna know where your high water mark is? Check out the Sea Level Rise Google Maps created by Alex Tingle

IMAGINE: John Lennon Piano on Tour with Mission of Healing and Hope

This sounds like one of those conceptual art pieces John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono was famous for over 30 years ago. The piano on which Lennon composed his anthem "Imagine" is touring sites of violent death in an attempt to bring healing and call attention to violent crime.

The Wall Street Journal (imagine seeing John Lennon on the front page of the WSJ!) reported this morning that the tour was organized by the current owners of the piano, singer George Michael and his longtime partner Kenny Goss. The pair bought the piano at auction from a private collector for $2.1 million.

Naive symbolism? Folly in the face of the prevalence of violent crime? The kind of thing John would have done in his post-Beatles activist youth? Maybe. But for the people who have experienced it, such as Alec and and Gabi Clayton in Olympia, Washington, whose son, Bill, took his own life at age 17 after he was attacked in a hate crime, it may provide healing and call attention to the types of violence that are all too common across America. (Read Gabi Clayton's blog)

The tour includes anniversary appearances at the sites of world tragedies, such as the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, New York's World Trade Center, the federal building in Oklahoma City, the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the 39th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination on the balcony of what is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

It all started last November at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. The tour was conceived after the piano was showcased at the IMAGINE exhibition at the Goss Gallery in Dallas last year.

"Imagine a world without violence, a world of peace. This sentiment echoes the lyrics to John Lennon’s 1971 song, 'Imagine,'" claims the Lennon Piano Tour website.

The Steinway upright is being photographed at each site for a possible book and documentary to "spread a worldwide message of peace, transcending time, cultures and boundaries."

Like the "Free Hugs Campaign," the Lennon Piano Tour is a simple act that touches people directly with a message that speaks louder than words of protest.

"This is about hopes and dreams and the world condition," Goss told the Associated Press last April.

The tour will likely conclude in December in front of the Dakota, where Lennon was murdered in 1980.

View a slide show of the stops along the tour: Lennon Piano. An RSS feed for updates is also available.

Watch the video of the Imagine Piano arriving at the Clayton's home and being played by proto-blogger and singer/songwriter Steve Schalchlin.



A moving tribute to a lost son.

Global Climate Change: Business Leaders Call for Action

According to an article by Scott Malone at Reuters, "a major U.S. industry body said on Tuesday that human activity is changing the Earth's climate and urged Washington to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.

"But the Business Roundtable, representing 160 of the largest U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in combined revenue, stopped short of advocating a specific policy to accomplish that, saying its members did not yet agree on methods.

"'The thinking of U.S. CEOs on climate change is evolving significantly,' said Charles Holliday, chairman and chief executive of U.S. chemicals group DuPont, and a Roundtable member. 'A growing number of CEOs view it as a major issue for their companies.'

"In recent years, corporate America has dropped arguments that there is no proof human activity causes warmer patterns across the world, putting some business executives at odds with the Bush administration which rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the main U.N. plan until 2012 for curbing greenhouse gases.

"Many scientists say rising emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, are linked to rising world temperatures. Many fear the warming trend could lead to more droughts, floods, heat waves and more powerful storms.

"'Some of our members like the idea of a cap-and-trade,' said John Castellani, president of the Washington-based organization, referring to programs in which companies could buy and sell the right to emit carbon dioxide.

"'Some members like a tax approach, we don't know which works best. So at this point we're calling for flexibility,' Castellani said in a telephone interview.

"The Roundtable's members include some of the biggest names in U.S. business, such as General Electric Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Motors Corp.

"Environmental group the Sierra Club dismissed the Roundtable's statement as an attempt to appear environmentally sensitive while actually seeking to ensure any new regulations accommodate its members.

"'Businesses understand that any regulation that is going to pass this Congress and get signed by this president is going to be something very weak,' said Sierra spokesman Josh Dorner. 'It's no coincidence that a lot of huge emitters are tripping over themselves to call for some action on climate change.'"

Read More: Business Roundtable Climate Action

Global Climate Change: Live Earth Poll Results Are In!

Readers have spoken! The results of my Live Earth Poll are in:

I asked, "Do you think Live Earth was a Success?"

70% of you thought that it was "Great entertainment, but won't move the needle."

The rest of the votes weresplit evenly between

"Dude, awesome success!" (10%)

"I'm blowing up my Hummer now." (10%)

and, sadly,

"What's Live Earth?" (10%)

One reader suggested an alternative question about "waiting for my neighbor to blow up his Hummer."

Thank you all for standing up and being counted. Look for more polls in the future on The Green Skeptic!

Social Entrepreneurs: The Purpose Prize Finalists

My friends Howard and Marika Stone, founders of 2young2retire.com have just been named 2007 Purpose Prize Fellows. The Purpose Prize, a major new initiative started by Civic Ventures, invests in Americans over 60 who are leading a new age of social innovation by providing five awards of $100,000 and ten awards of $10,000.

The winners reveal the wide variety of backgrounds and experiences that those over 60 bring to the task of solving some of society's most pressing problems in what used to be called the retirement years. (Finalists include Interface's Ray Anderson, Project 18's Gloria Jackson Bacon, the Reverend Sally Bingham, who is leading a religious response to global warming, Richard Cherry of New York's Community Environmental Center, and Bridges to Understanding founder Phil Borges.)

"As the first wave of America’s 77 million baby boomers turn 60, The Purpose Prize winners are doing what society least expects people over 60 to do: innovate," said Marc Freedman, founder and President of Civic Ventures.

"These men and women - some national figures, some local heroes - disprove the notion that innovation is the province of the young and show us the essence of what's possible in an aging society."

Howie and Marika started "Too Young to Retire" after successful careers in international advertising sales and public relations/journalism. Rejecting the idea of retirement as "a great place to visit but who would want to live there?" Howie built a coaching practice to help other mature people skip retirement and discover their own continuing passions and Marika pursued her mission of "helping people -- especially women of a certain age -- achieve their full potential."

The couple wrote a book, Too Young to Retire: An Off-Road Map to the Rest of Your Life and started the web resource 2young2retire.com.

Howie and Marika have long inspired me to keep focused on the purpose and meaning of my life. In fact, it was Howie's informal coaching some 16 years ago that led me to realize I could leave a publishing career for work with The Nature Conservancy.

Congratulations to Marika and Howie on being named 2007 Purpose Prize Fellows!

Social Entrepreneurs: Vote for Ending Corruption at Changemakers

Changemakers, an initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, wants you to join the search for innovative solutions that enhance the transparency and accountability of societies throughout the world.

Prepare to vote on June 6, 2007

Read all 80 entries: Ending Corruption

Environmental Movement: Is the Pew/NET M&A the Wave of Future?

Last week, the Pew Charitable Trusts' environment program (Pew) and the National Environmental Trust (NET) announced it was merging to form a new entity, the Pew Environmental Group. While the Washington Post wrote about the merger a week ago, I haven't heard much about it from colleagues in the field. I'm surprised.

As Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin writes, many "Americans think of the environmental community as a fractious bunch of free thinkers, that if you put two of them together they would generate at least three different opinions."

We've been hearing for years from the foundation community that they want environmental groups to collaborate more. Sometimes this works and scales of efficiency and effectiveness are achieved that would otherwise be impossible; most of the time, however, such direction leads to a scramble to create new projects or programs that end up making more work for all concerned.

True, there are some genuine collaborations that have worked. Most of these have been at the field level, although there are periodic efforts to get the green groups to work together or to share best practices at the highest level. Still, there is room for improvement on that front as scarce resources generate turf wars as very distinct, often niche missions compete for a limited donor pool.

We're hearing it from donors too. Questions about what distinguishes one group's strengths from another, missions that are beginning to overlap more frequently, and even long-range goals that are duplicated and would be more complementary if we would only take Rodney King's advice and "just get along."

But this merger idea is a novel one. It happens in the for-profit sector all the time and it is surprising that it hasn't happened before in the civil sector.

And why not? This bold move by Pew and NET is forward thinking. Both parties acknowledge that they will be stronger as one. As Environmental Trust President Philip Clapp told the Post, "The challenges are so enormous and we have such a short window of time to solve the problem, we decided we had to change the way we operate."

In the business world, mergers are often a way to expand operations and, sometimes, to bring in expertise and capacity that is otherwise lacking. If done right, it may also allow for greater efficiencies, long-term stability or sustainability.

Will this move spur a wave of M&A activity in the environmental movement? Keep an eye on the landscape: This may be an idea whose time has come.

Global Climate Change: Who Built the Ark? Greenpeace.

This is kind of amazing, actually. I'm not usually a fan of Greenpeace's stunts, but this one is really clever. AP reported yesterday that Greenpeace activists plan to build a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat, in what is now modern Turkey, where the Biblical vessel was said to have landed after the great flood (or the first mass near-exinction, if you want to call it that).

It's a clever appeal for action on global warming. Turkish and German volunteer carpenters are building the wooden ship on the mountain in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran. The ark will be revealed in a ceremony on May 31, a day after Greenpeace activists climb the mountain and call on world leaders to take action to tackle climate change.

Read the full story from AP: Noah's Ark