Philanthropy

New America Foundation Announces New Philanthropy Fellow

Elizabeth Wu — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:32:00 -0500

The New America Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of the first HAND Foundation Philanthropy Fellow, Dr. Lucy Bernholz. With the generous support of The HAND Foundation, based in Redwood City, Dr. Bernholz will analyze key trends in the philanthropy sector, with a focus on the reforms and regulations that will determine its future.

Lucy Bernholz

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:43:00 -0500

HAND Foundation Philanthropy Fellow

As a New America fellow, Dr. Lucy Berhnolz will analyze key trends in the philanthropy sector, with a focus on the reforms and regulations that will determine its future. She is also currently writing a book on the "giving commons."

Steven Teles

Kate Schuler — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:13:00 -0500

Schwartz Fellow

Steven Teles is Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He has been a professor or visiting researcher at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Maryland, Brandeis University, the University of London, Holy Cross and Hamilton Colleges. He is the author, most recently, of The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the… more

Stevel Coll on National Journal Video | 'Steve Coll on Philantropy'

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:54:00 -0500

New America Foundation president and CEO discusses philanthropy's role in revitalizing news reporting. LINK to video

Eric Schmidt in San Jose Mercury News | Google CEO Will Take New America Foundation's Helm

Communications — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:35:00 -0500

Google CEO Will Take New America Foundation's Helm (San Jose Mercury News)

Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt has been named to be the next chairman of the New America Foundation, which researches issues such as health care and education.

Schmidt will become chairman June 1, the foundation said Thursday in a statement. He succeeds James Fallows, a writer for the Atlantic Monthly magazine and former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.

Schmidt will help the organization as the endowment and staff grow, Steve Coll, the foundation's CEO, said in an interview. Other board members include Quadrangle Group principal Steven Rattner and Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International. more

Eric Schmidt in The Washington Post | Google Chief to Chair Think Tank

Communications — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:25:00 -0500

Google Chief to Chair Think Tank (The Washington Post)

The New America Foundation named Eric Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of Google, as its chairman. His unpaid position begins June 1 at the District think tank, which says its mission is to bring new voices and new ideas to public discourse. Schmidt's election follows the September arrival of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll as president and chief executive. Coll formerly worked at The Washington Post. more

New America on CNET | Google's Schmidt named chair of think tank

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:58:00 -0500

Google's Schmidt named chair of think tank (CNET)

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has been named as chairman of the board to the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. that focuses on issues like healthcare, education and foreign policy.

Schmidt joined the board 10 years ago when the centrist think tank was founded and before he joined Google. He will assume his new role June 1... more

Eric Schmidt in The Associated Press | Google CEO Named Chairman of Think Tank

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:49:00 -0500

Google CEO Named Chairman of Think Tank (The Associated Press)

Eric Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of the world's largest search engine, needs to update his profile on the company Web site.

If he doesn't, his new chairmanship at the New America Foundation won't show up if Schmidt Googles himself.

On Thursday, the Google chairman and CEO became chairman of the Washington think tank whose various issues include telecommunications and technology policy.

His unpaid position will be effective June 1.

The first chairman for Google Inc. when he joined in 2001, Schmidt will be the think tank's second since it began in 1999. He's been on the think tank's board since its inception. He follows James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly magazine. Fallows will remain on the board.

Schmidt's election also follows the September arrival of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll as the president and chief executive of New America, which has a $13.5 million annual budget, 75 staff members and 25 fellows. The group's policy issues also include economic growth, foreign policy and trade, among others. ... more

--This article appeared online in BusinessWeek, Forbes, Conde Nast Portfolio, CNN Money, The… more

Eric Schmidt in Chronicle of Philanthropy | Google CEO Named Chairman of New America Board

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:41:00 -0500

Google CEO Named Chairman of New America Board (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer of Google, will become the chairman of the New America Foundation’s Board of Directors on June 1, the group announced. He plans to mark his new role by making an an unrestricted $1-million donation to the group.

Mr. Schmidt has served on the foundation’s board since its founding in 1999, but he has not been as actively involved in philanthropy as many of his fellow billionaires.

He says he was attracted to the group from the beginning because “they would try to do things that were unconventional. They were like Google, but before Google existed.”

Even when he disagreed with work produced by the scholars and journalist at the foundation, he says, he still found the work worthwhile and provocative. more

Muhammad Yunus: The Unlikely Disciple

Ron Tang — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

There is no shortage of people who exemplify Peter Drucker's principles and practices -- a multitude of middle managers and top executives responsible for many millions, if not billions, of dollars in economic activity. Yet the most Drucker-like of all may well be a man who launched his enterprise with a series of transactions totaling 27 bucks.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the concept of microcredit -- providing the poorest of the poor with tiny loans to start their own moneymaking ventures -- is promoting a new idea these days. He calls it "social business," and in his just-released book, Creating a World Without Poverty, he contends that it promises to relegate destitution across the globe to where it belongs: inside a museum.

His notion is to foster a whole class of companies capable of competing in the marketplace but whose primary aim is to meet a clear social need, not to maximize profits.

These firms are meant to earn money. But they pay no dividends. Instead, explains Yunus, "any profit stays in the business -- to finance expansion, to create products or services, and to do more good for the world." (Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates recently shared a somewhat similar, though not identical, vision in Davos, Switzerland (BusinessWeek, 2/4/08), with his plea for "creative capitalism.")

And what might Drucker have made of all this?

Any business, he asserted in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, "exists for the sake of society." In The Effective Executive, he added: "An organization is not like an animal, an end in itself, and successful by the mere act of perpetuating the species. An organization is an organ of society and fulfills itself by the contribution it makes to the outside environment."

No Political Boxes

This is not to say Drucker pushed for corporations to focus specifically on the needs of the indigent as Yunus has. But I think he would have greatly appreciated Yunus' model, for it is an overt expression of Drucker's conviction that "psychologically, geographically, culturally, and socially," the business community must be part of the wider community.

Interestingly, it's tough to stick Yunus in any particular political box. His Grameen Bank "supports less government… is committed to the free market, and promotes entrepreneurial institutions," he pointed out. "So it must be far right." At the same time, Grameen is "committed to social objectives" and does not advocate a system of pure laissez-faire; rather, it would like to see policy incentives that encourage "businesses to move in directions desired by society." Yunus noted: "All these features place Grameen on the political left."

Surely, Drucker could relate, once suggesting that, as he sought out the proper balance between continuity and change in society, he could see himself "sometimes as a liberal conservative and sometimes as a conservative liberal but never as a 'conservative conservative' or a 'liberal liberal.'"

Motivated By More Than Dollars

Drucker, too, would have no doubt been sold on Yunus' basic premise: People are motivated by a variety of impulses -- not simply a desire to get filthy rich. The existing system, said Yunus, has "created a one-dimensional human being to play the role of business leader… We've insulated him from the rest of life, the religious, emotional, political, and social. He is dedicated to one mission only -- maximize profit."

Drucker -- whose own writing draws heavily on sociology and psychology, on history and art and religion -- once remarked that his work was likewise predicated on the belief that "people are diverse, often unpredictable, always multidimensional."

In the end, though, it is not just Yunus' theories Drucker would have admired; above all, it's his effectiveness. Two things are behind it.

Challenge Conventional Wisdom

The first is a willingness to punch holes in conventional wisdom. "Despite their importance," Drucker wrote in Management Challenges for the 21st Century, "the assumptions are rarely analyzed, rarely studied, rarely challenged -- indeed rarely even made explicit."

Yunus thrives on challenging assumptions. He's doing it now, as he tries to reframe what most people imagine a business can be. And he did it before when he established Grameen.

Indeed, had he listened to the many reasons that offering credit to poor people was supposedly a fool's errand, Grameen never would have grown from that first $27 in loans, made 32 years ago straight from Yunus' pocket to 42 Bangladeshi villagers, into what it is today: a financially self-reliant bank that has given $6 billion in loans to millions of Bangladeshis, boasts a 98.6% repayment rate, and has put a huge dent in that nation's level of poverty. (It also has become the centerpiece of a network of two dozen socially driven companies with interests in education, health care, apparel, telecommunications, and much more.)

Avoiding Lofty Philosophy

The second factor that makes Yunus so effective is that, even though there is more than a hint of idealism in his efforts, he consciously tries "to avoid grandiloquent philosophies and… take a pragmatic approach." To that end, Grameen backs its actions with sound market analysis, nurtures its employees, actively seeks out customer input, and continually improves its products and services.

This, of course, is classic Drucker. Despite "the romance of invention and innovation," Drucker advised, "'flashes of genius'" don't get terribly far. What does carry a business forward is "hard, organized, purposeful work."

See for yourself. Check out Yunus' new book and, if you missed it, his first: Banker to the Poor. Not only are they inspirational, they are highly informational -- fantastic case studies on how to manage a business the right way. Which is to say, the Drucker way.