It’s blockbuster season in Hollywood - there’re a whole bunch of great movies out there, including “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which I saw last night. It’s a fantastic-but-true story of the Texas Congressman, played by Tom Hanks, who influenced Congress to support Afghan freedom fighters in their battle against Soviet invaders in the 1980s. Working with a renegade CIA agent (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and an anti-Communist Texas socialite (Julia Roberts), Wilson managed to increase the appropriations for this “covert” war from $5 million to $500 million over a few years - arming the mujahideen who were ultimately victorious against the Soviets.

Despite this triumph over communism, the end of the movie depicts Wilson’s unsuccessful attempt to push the U.S. government to invest in the post-armed-conflict Afghan infrastructure, in the form of education and rebuilding schools. So that didn’t happen, and the weakened state of the country post-war contributed to the subsequent rise of the Taliban - and we all know how that’s turned out (ironically, this movie touches upon “who was responsible for the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,” father of Benazir, who was assassinated in Pakistan yesterday).

Of course, it’s the movies, and we hope for Hollywood endings. But to me, Charlie’s quote in the epilogue, about  “changing the world but messing up the endgame,” highlights how these critical elements of civil society - education, health care, a decent economy - can make a huge difference in the overall stability and ultimate prosperity of a country and its people.

Good movie. Thumbs up for Charlie Wilson’s War from this reviewer.

See the work GlobalGiving is supporting in Afghanistan.

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Next on the Delhi tour we visited Naz Foundation, an extraordinary organization focusing on HIV/AIDs. The program include includes prevention, care and advocacy, and is one of the few organizations working on the controversial issue of MSM (Men having sex with Men), since workers in this field can be arrested under an archaic law dating back to British rule. The home cares for 34 HIV positive orphans aged 10 months to 14 years, and is the only co-ed residential facility for children, which allows siblings to stay together and preserve the family they have left. The Hindi Christmas pageant the children put on could not have been more of a touching experience. The kids created this play (including the costumes) with no adult help. One child made quite an impressive Santa Claus costume out of his inside out jacket (red lining on the outside) and pulled apart cotton balls. I will never forget the twelve year old Indian angel in a white dress yelling at Mary (in Hindi) that she would have a son, and Mary saying “that’s impossible, I’m not even married!” But what was most touching was the children’s behavior towards Saima and me. They were incredibly affectionate and without any signs of stigma or shame that they would have in most parts of the world. They urged us to pick them up, one after another. It struck me that these children lack two of the most important things that children need- family and good health– yet they are some of the most happy and loving children I have ever met. We urged Naz Foundation to put this project up on our site, so stay tuned.

And, to end the evening, a wonderful Indian vegetarian meal. So, a very curry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

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This time last year I was bundling up the kids to walk home through the snow after Christmas Eve candlelight church service, Silent Night still echoing in my head. Never did I expect my next Christmas would be in New Delhi instead of New England. Funny what life throws at you.

I’ve had a lot of blessings this year (it’s hard to have even a Christmas in India without thinking of one’s blessings). A big one of which is that I started a job at GlobalGiving. With a little more than six weeks of work under my belt I couldn’t resist the opportunity to check out some of these amazing projects I have read so much about and meet the impressive people behind them. Having spent the better part of my career in international development, I easily become frustrated with the short descriptions of the projects on our site. They give the basics, but it is hard to really feel the difference they are making. I want to learn so much more about them. What makes these people want to start such projects? What is an example of a story of someone’s life that was completely turned around as a result of this project? What was a failure, and how did that project leader learn from it and, as a result, improve the program? And, the biggest question of all- SO WHAT?? I don’t ask this in a callous manner, but rather–what is the greater good that this project is creating—what is the systemic change? Such big ideas are hard to sum up in a 200 character paragraph, and even if the project leader wrote diatribes of text, would we really read it when there are 450 other projects on the site to explore? So, I’ve come to India to help us at GlobalGiving become better storytellers and help the project leaders learn how to tell their stories more effectively.

Here I am, with my lovely colleague Saima, the ideal traveling companion who speaks Hindi, has memorized almost all of the GlobalGiving projects and does not snore, which is important during a 14 hour flight. Today we visited two projects. Sharan is in a difficult situation. Although the organization’s programs for adult drug abusers (started 20 years ago) are successfully gaining funds and becoming integrated into government services, their program for child drug rehabilitation is closing due to lack of funds. Rajiv, the Director, expressed his sorrow that these children who have such a complex set of challenges are losing the only sense of home and family they have. We met the last five boys still living at the center, and were moved by their accomplishments of seeking to get off drugs in the first place, surviving detox and the reticence they are now experiencing about leaving the center. This project is now seeking funds to place these boys with other organizations to finish their schooling and develop skills for the workplace.

More tomorrow, in my Christmas Day post.

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Our buddies over at DonorsChoose are the best at rallying people to help them win awards. They won the BIG A$# Amazon award in 2005, have been on Oprah, and now are finalists for the Tech Crunch “Crunchie” Awards.

Not to dis the other great finalists…but DonorsChoose is a special friend to us. In fact, just this week we received a sizeable grant due to an introduction made by Charles.

So, if you have a moment, click here and vote for DonorsChoose.

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So when Dennis and I left the World Bank to start GlobalGiving, we left a pretty impressive infrastructure of support. And by infrastructure I mean not just IT and administrative support, I also mean access to an in-house printing shop, large format printers, in-house photographers, video equipment … But what has been amazing here at GlobalGiving is that we sometimes have access to world-class resources because of the kindness of strangers.

The two strangers are Petra Dilthey, and Uli Schwarz, who virtually showed up at our doorstep on a day in October this year via an email after reading Bill Easterly’s book White Man’s Burden. Here’s what they said:

From our point of view the projects, you are supporting and promoting are worth while to be shown to as much viewers as possible. We are a German filmmaker couple which dedicates their life to poor children and would like to discuss fields of possible collaboration with you.

I got this email 3 days before my colleague Donna and I were headed out to Los Angeles to try and somehow get our minds around how to get more video integrated into the GlobalGiving experience, thinking about getting more video footage from our project leaders, developing footage for a public service announcement, and seeking advice from our advisory board member Carole Bayer Sager. And here are their first videos, from Andhra Pradesh. They are beautiful and moving, and come a lot closer to our original vision for GlobalGiving–bringing the daily drama and excitement of succeeding against all the odds in all the disadvantaged communities around the world straight to the screen. And an opportunity to help.

Enjoy:

The 50 Brides of Prajwala: Shattered Dreams Reborn

Providing Education for 100 girls in Andhra

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In the three years I’ve worked at GlobalGiving, I’ve worked on tons of email communications. Here’s my unabashed confession—I ignore most newsletters. I find them trite, salesy, and simply boring.

But Agros International gets my attention every time they hit my inbox—their incredible pictures and video links tell stories that paragraphs of blobbidy bloop can’t. The quality of their emails triggers my happy neurons, and I now have come to expect an even better newsletter each time.

So here’s my four smiley faces, two thumbs up and a Wayne’s World “I’m not worthy” to Agros International, Master of Multimedia Marketing. Below is the newsletter as I received it in my inbox—again, simply beautiful!

Here’s one of my favorite Agros projects:

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America’s Giving Challenge is on!

Here is the video I made a couple of nights ago with my good friend Nathan on the steps of the Capitol. Share the video, and start a fundraiser.

Thanks to playasound.com for the killer soundtrack.

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This past week I received a newsletter from our friends at the Women’s Funding Network. Here’s what the lead story said:

Looking for the Real Deal this holiday season? Most of us are. We want something real, something valuable, beautiful, and we want the money we spend and the gifts we give to matter. Women’s Funding Network delivers the Real Deal.

Women’s funds democratize philanthropy. In the U.S., philanthropy was created as a tax incentive so those with means could receive tax deductions for helping those in need. Despite that ideal, 70-90% of tax-deductible gifts in the U.S. end up helping the middle class and the wealthy. Women’s Funding Network is the exact opposite because 80% of our members’ grants go to women living in poverty and those most affected by homelessness, violence and human rights abuses.

These investments result in empowerment for women who build out that progress in stronger families, better communities and hope for the world. That’s genuine philanthropy. We deliver the Real Deal.

It reminded me of a piece published by former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, a couple of months ago. In his blog post (which appeared also as an article in the LA Times, on NPR Marketplace, etc), he pretty much said that it would be more appropriate if only those charitable donations that address the issues connected to poverty received tax-deductibility benefits from the US government. He also goes on to discuss the importance of government funding for programs that give tools to lift people out of poverty…If you read the comments on the blog post you’ll see that he inspired quiet a lot of response - for and against.

Seems most realistic to work under the assumption that the issues that perpetuate poverty - in the US or anywhere in the world - can truly only be addressed with investment both from the “top down” (aka government, multi-lateral organizations, et. al) and from the “bottom up” (e.g., GlobalGiving, DonorsChoose, Kiva, Women’s Funding Network). Neither approach can do it alone, neither is unequivocally better or worse as far as efficacy. Here at GlobalGiving we’ve chosen to build a bottom-up tool, but the recent announcement that funding to the World Bank has increased substantially this round is great news too. (shout out to my former colleague Bob Zoellick!)

Sometimes it’s those art programs that lift a child out of poverty. They could be In NYC or in Rio. To quote a current candidate for whom Mr. Reich worked indirectly, “It takes a village.”

Regardless… Hats off to our partners at WFN, and other GlobalGiving partners around the world, who are “keepin it real.”

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Can the Internet revolutionize citizen-led philanthropy?

That’s the question The Case Foundation and Parade Magazine are hoping to address with the America’s Giving Challenge, the first large-scale initiative to use technology as a way of inspiring people to support causes they care about. Through the Challenge, which runs from now through January 31, 2008, Parade is encouraging individuals to champion causes they care about, raising donations online using Web 2.0 tools that make it easy to spread the word and give. And there are some other incentives (of the monetary sort) too: the eight “fundraisers” attracting the greatest number of donations for their causes will each get $50,000 for their chosen cause, and the 100 causes that receive the most donations will each get $1,000.

GlobalGiving is one of the two partners selected by Case and Parade to support the Challenge (Network for Good is the other, for US-based organizations) - so anyone who wants to support an international cause will have the opportunity to fundraise for or donate to a project on GlobalGiving - with the potential to get $50,000 for that project!

The Washington Post and New York Times have already written about the Challenge, which kicked off yesterday, and the really big bang will come this weekend, when Parade is featuring the Challenge in its magazine (look for Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey on the cover) - which is distributed in over 400 U.S. newspapers, and has a readership of more than 70 million!

So if you’ve got a favorite project, now’s your opportunity to help them get $50,000. Set up a fundraiser, create a charity badge, tell all your friends, leverage your social network, take the Challenge…become a part of the revolution!

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