4 Million Microloans Visualized in 4 Minutes [VIDEO]

4 Million Microloans Visualized in 4 Minutes

very cool!!

Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance from Kiva on Vimeo.


4 Million Microloans Visualized in 4 Minutes [VIDEO]

Share this|

________________________ The MasterBlog

The $100 Million Status Symbol

The $100 Million Status Symbol

by Rebecca Dana

September 23, 2010 | 10:54pm

Mark Zuckerberg is donating millions of dollars to the NJ school system. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images From Zuckerberg to Koch to Gordon Gekko, $100 million has become the figure du jour for jaw-dropping philanthropy. Rebecca Dana on the sudden raft of nine digit newsmakers.

What do you get for $100 million these days?

If you’re the Newark Municipal School District, beneficiaries of a gift in that amount from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, you may finally get to claw your way up from the lowest ranks of the public-school system.
If you’re Zuckerberg himself, that money will buy you a news cycle, a turn on Oprah’s couch and a torrent of good press coverage, coinciding with the release of a fictionalized movie about your life, which you reportedly hate.

If you’re Gordon Gekko, on the other hand, resurrected this weekend in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2, that’s precisely the amount you’ve managed to squirrel away in Swiss banks. It can buy your professional comeback—or help your bleeding-heart-liberal blogger daughter realize her alternative-energy dreams.
It used to be $1 million was enough to induce gasps in a banquet hall. These days, just a seat on the board of the Met costs a cool $10 million, and to really drop jaws—as Zuckerberg did Thursday with a carefully placed story in The Wall Street Journal previewing his new education initiative, which he’s set to officially announce Friday on The Oprah Winfrey Show—you’ve got to hit nine digits.
The first $100 million gift in modern history was awarded in 1966, by businessman James A. Chapman to a variety of education institutions. Giving at that level shot up in the last decade, led by awards from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2001 to combat AIDS and a pair of donations in 2002 from pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly to her family endowment and the Modern Poetry Association.
“But it’s still quite exceptionally rare,” said Patrick Rooney, director of research at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. “It is sort of a mind-boggling and attention-grabbing number. At that level, the media is willing to pay attention.”
“What is clearly striking here is that he’s making such a large donation at such a young age,” said Francie Ostrower, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas and the author of Why the Wealthy Give. “Would people be writing about him if it were $50 million?”
• Insider: Zuckerberg Wanted to Delay $100 Million DonationYes, certainly, given that people write about Zuckerberg, worth an estimated $7 billion, when he ventures into the men’s room. But if the donation were just $50 million, who could have helped but notice that his gift, while enormous, paled in comparison to other recent examples of philanthropic largesse?

The first $100 million gift in modern history was awarded in 1966, by businessman James A. Chapman.

In September, billionaire George Soros gave $100 million to Human Rights Watch, earning a story in The New York Times. In August, Saudi Arabia promised $100 million to help Pakistani flood victims, a donation that made headlines worldwide because it beat the United States’ promised $76 million. Last year, the Gates foundation awarded $100 million to Tampa’s Hillsborough County School District to fix its system for training and evaluating teachers.
The last few years have seen a raft of high-profile $100 million donations. In 2008, billionaire Tea Party enthusiast David Koch gave $100 million to renovate the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, which now bears his name. That same year, Wall Street financier Stephen Schwarzman gave that much to the New York Public Library, which now bears his.
But why $100 million? Why not, say, $97.5 million, as the Orthodontic Education Community gave the University of Colorado School of Dentistry in 2003?
“At the most elementary level, we all do this. We all round up,” said Eugene Steuerle, an economist at the Urban Institute who has studied charitable giving patterns of the wealthy. “You want it to be large enough so that people can’t dodge what you’re trying to achieve.”
And it’s not just the status figure du jour in philanthropic circles—$100 million is now the going rate for a certain kind of tabloid dignity. People cheered at early, incorrect reports that Elin Nordegren’s divorce settlement from her philandering golfer husband Tiger Woods netted her $100 million. This week, Lindsay Lohan withdrew a $100 million lawsuit she filed against online brokerage firm E-Trade, claiming they defamed her in a Super Bowl ad that featured a “milkaholic” talking baby named Lindsay. The troubled starlet, currently back in jail, reached an undisclosed settlement with the company, presumably valued much lower than her initial asking price.
In the territory of scandals, $100 million feels like the ultimate affront to decency. In the winter, bankers were spreading rumors around Davos that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein would take home that much in salary and bonus this year. At the height of the Gulf oil spill, BP executives estimated the company was spending $100 million per day on cleanup and containment efforts. In the scramble to pass health-care reform late last year, ABC News reported that a single congressional vote, that of Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu, had cost $100 million in pork funneled to her state. And just this spring, a thief waltzed out of Paris’ Museum of Modern Art with five paintings, including a Picasso and a Matisse, valued at an estimated… you guessed it.
Zuckerberg’s donation comes less amid scandal than personal nuisance: the pre-release hype for Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network, a fictionalized account of his time at Harvard and the founding of Facebook, which is already drawing raves from reviewers. Zuckerberg’s visit with Oprah will air just hours before the movie premieres at the New York Film Festival, a week before its wide release.
With his gift to New Jersey schools, Zuckerberg joined the ranks of Soros and Gates—and beat the movie to a big $100 million announcement. But if the critical praise is any indication, The Social Network is headed for the ranks of Twilight: New Moon and Iron Man 2, which hit the current box-office benchmark for a big-screen hit: $100 million on opening weekend.
Rebecca Dana is a senior correspondent for The Daily Beast. A former editor and reporter for The Wall Street Journal, she has also written for The New York Times, The New York Observer, Rolling Stone, and Slate, among other publications.


The $100 Million Status Symbol

Share this|

________________________

Larry Ellison, George Lucas Join Billionaires in Buffett-Gates Charity Pledge - WSJ.com

TECHNOLOGY

AUGUST 3, 2010

U.S. Super Rich to Share Wealth

By SHELLY BANJO And ROBERT A. GUTH

Billionaire Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison will join film director George Lucas and 38 other mega-wealthy people in following a call by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to pledge to give the majority of their riches to charity.

View Full Image

Getty Images

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates

On Wednesday, Mr. Buffett announced that 40 of America's wealthiest individuals and families, from formerCitigroup Inc. leader Sandy Weill to hotel mogul Barron Hilton, have signed the "Giving Pledge."

Mr. Buffett and Mr. Gates in June had asked the individuals and families to publicly commit to give away at least half of their wealth within their lifetimes or after their deaths.

The pledge stemmed from a series of dinners the two men held for the nation's billionaires over the past year to discuss the effects of the recession on philanthropy.

Rob Guth discusses the public pledge by 40 billionaires, led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to give away at least half their wealth before they die.

The push by Mr. Buffett and Mr. and Ms. Gates is publicizing what had been a private matter for many wealthy people. Many of those who joined the pledge already had intended to give away much of their money.

The effort comes during the second consecutive year in which philanthropy experienced its deepest decline ever recorded by the Giving USA Foundation, which has tracked annual giving since 1956.

Donations fell 3.6% to $303.8 billion last year, down from $315 billion in 2008, according to Giving USA. In 2008, charitable giving fell 2%.

In an interview, Mr. Buffett said that while the pledge push might produce a short-term boost in giving, the main goal is to set an example over the long term for others to get involved in philanthropy.

"The behavior of those before does affect what happens with those after, particularly if those people are somewhat admired in society," Mr. Buffett said. "If Carnegie and Rockefeller hadn't done what they'd done, there'd be less philanthropy in the United States today."

Mr. Buffett said he and Mr. Gates in coming months will meet with wealthy individuals in China and India to talk about the pledge in the hopes of adding more names from outside the U.S.

Some signatories on the list Wednesday came as a surprise. Mr. Ellison, the software mogul, is among those who had been involved in philanthropy but hadn't stated their intentions so publicly.

Some of the Donors

View Slideshow

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

• More photos and interactive graphics

"Until now, I have done this giving quietly—because I have long believed that charitable giving is a personal and private matter," Mr. Ellison wrote in a public letter in response to a call from Mr. Buffett to joint the group.

The letter was posted on the Giving Pledge website, set up to display the billionaires' commitments.

Mr. Ellison said he has put virtually all his assets into a trust with the intention of giving away at least 95% to charitable causes and has already given hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and education.

"So why am I going public now? Warren Buffett personally asked me to write this letter because he said I would be 'setting an example' and 'influencing others' to give," Mr. Ellison wrote.

"I hope he's right," he added.

View Full Image

Getty Images

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Mr. Lucas, creator of the "Star Wars" franchise, said he was "dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education" in a pledge letter on the Giving Pledge website. "It is the key to the survival of the human race," he wrote.

In an interview, Tom Steyer, founder of hedge fund Farallon Capital Management LLC in San Francisco, said he and his wife had planned to give away their wealth but decided to go public after Mr. Buffett called.

Mr. Steyer made the pledge to support what he sees as an effort by Mr. Buffett to show how those who profit from capitalism can help improve society.

"We want him to succeed in reshaping the way people think about the private enterprise system," Mr. Steyer said.

Other billionaires on the list, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens , had previously stated their plans to give away the majority of their wealth but said calling attention to their plans will encourage others to follow suit.

On a conference call with media, Messrs. Buffett and Bloomberg said that tax deductions weren't a main motivator for people to join the pledge.

Still, for a donor in the 35% income tax bracket, the highest U.S. bracket, the effective cost of a $100 donation while alive can be $65, subject to some limitations.

The dinners will culminate with a daylong meeting where donors can swap project ideas and advice, as well as discuss challenges such as how to draw children into giving.Philanthropists who sign the pledge will be invited by Messrs. Gates and Buffett to attend three or four dinners this fall, Mr. Buffett said.

The group won't monitor whether the signatories meet their pledge commitments.

"I think the chances of there being any significant slippage of that are virtually nil," Mr. Buffett said. "When people make a pledge like this I think if anything their commitment becomes stronger over time."

Mr. Buffett said he and Mr. Gates and Ms. Gates called between 70 and 80 people based, in part, on their record of philanthropy.

He said he was able to persuade two individuals to expand their giving, while a couple was convinced by their children to increase their giving.

The big question is whether the group can find new donors in the months ahead, especially in an uncertain economy.

While America's rich have recovered somewhat from the recession, their spending and investing have slowed because of the volatile stock markets, rising taxes for top earners and economic uncertainty overseas.

—Robert Frank contributed to this article.

• Buffett on World's Growing Wealth
• Wealth Report: The New Social Status?
• Read the full list of donors
• Deal Journal: Who Hasn't Signed the Pledge
• Earlier: Gates, Buffett Goad Peers to Give Billions

Write to Shelly Banjo at shelly.banjo@wsj.com and Rob Guth at rob.guth@wsj.com

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visitwww.djreprints.com

Larry Ellison, George Lucas Join Billionaires in Buffett-Gates Charity Pledge - WSJ.com

The MasterBlog