Wohltätigkeiten - Karitative Unterstützung und pro bono Leistungen
Wer nichts für andere tut,
der tut auch nichts für sich.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
TEIL I beschreibt zwei Organisationen in München, die Bridges unterstützt, und TEIL II behandelt "Charities in English." Dazu gibt es zwei englische Addenda: A. "Micro-lending" und B. "The Gayan Book Foundation."
1) den Hilton Hotel Munich City Weihnachtsbaum im Interesse von einem Waisenhaus
2) den Münchner Business Plan Wettbewerb - www.mbpw.de
Wir befürworten auch die folgenden Organisationen, derer Webseiten in englisch sind:
1) Question Box- https://questionbox.org- Internet-Zugang in armen ländlichen Gebieten.
2) Junior Achievement (JA) - www.ja.org - betriebswirtschaftliche Grundausbildung
3) Save the Elephants! - www.savetheelephants.org Retten die Elefanten!
TEIL I - München
1. Der Weihnachtsbaum
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Der Hilton Hotel Munich City Weihnachtsbaum
Rosenheimerstr. 15 (S-Bahn Rosenheimerplatz)
Tel. + 89 48040
In Empfangsbereich des Munich Hiltons steht im Advent ein aufragender, gewaltiger Weihnachtsbaum. Er wird mit Weihnachtskarten behängt, die von den Kindern eines benachbarten Waisenhauses geschrieben worden sind. In jeder Karte wird ein gewünschtes Geschenk beschrieben. Die Hotelgäste blättern in den Karten. Wenn jemand eine findet, die er möcht, kaufen sie das Gewünschte und läßt es an der Hotelrezeption. Anschließend organisiert Hilton mit dem Waisenhaus ein Weihnachtsfest, in dem die Bescherungen ausgeteilt werden.
Bei der Gründung neuer Niederlassungen hofft Bridges, dieses schöne Konzept in 5-Sterne Hotels in anderen Städten einführen zu können.
2. Der Wettbewerb
Der Münchner Business Plan Wettbewerb www.mbpw.de
Dieser Wettbewerb liegt uns nähe am Herzen. (Ein Bridges Executive Coach hat immerhin Stufe I gewonnen, und die Idee stammt in den 80ern von M.I.T., an der er studierte.) McKinsey & Company, die renommierten Unternehmensberatung, brachte 1996/97 das Verfahren nach München. Es wurde durch Firmen wie BMW, Deutsche Bank und Siemens unter der Schirmherrschaft des bayerischen Ministeriums für Wirtschaft, Verkehr und Technologie lanciert. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf Studententeams aber der Wettbewerb ist jedem zugänglich. Nur fünf Jahren nach dem Start wurden über 150 Firmen durch die Teilnehmer gegründet und über 100 Million Euro von Wagniskapitalgeber darin investiert. Über 350 Coachs bringen Zeit dafür auf, den Bewerbern auf allen Stufen des Prozesses beizustehen.
TEIL II - "Charities in English"
Introduction
Many successful entrepreneurs have started foundations, caritative trusts and charitable organizations – or donated enormous sums to them. Historically the Fuggers (Augsburg, Germany, as of the 15th century), Rothschilds (originally out of Frankfurt, as of the 19th century) and the U.S. Rockefellers (as of the 20th century) have made, in U.S. pecuniary terms, multi-billion dollar philanthropic contributions. Among the more notable recently founded multi-billion dollar foundations are those of computer giants Hewlett and Packard, Bill Gates, and the financiers George Soros and Warren Buffet. A goal of Bridges is also to participate in philanthropy, albeit per force with less impressive resources.
Unfortunately members of Bridges have seen countless well-intentioned initiatives, ranging from small private ones to mammoth Word Bank ones, go awry in India, Latin America and all over Africa as well. As laudatory as ambitious wide-ranging charitable projects are, they tend to be fraught with the perils of cultural clash, implementation failure, corruption, malfeasance and peculation. Sometimes their leitmotiv veritably appears to be “over-promise, under-perform.”
The world is run, one may say, by one million politicians, ten million business magnates and one hundred million bureaucrats. “The rest of us, all six billion of us, do pretty much as we are told!”2 Even from the very top of the pyramid, one cannot “save the world.” However by tackling a specific, narrowly defined problem one can, indeed, make a difference. Therefore the position of Bridges is that its coaches should endeavor to play a significant role in selected charitable initiatives, one manageable problem, one pressing need, one specific location at a time.3
1. The Question
The Question Box https://questionbox.org
Given the Bridges Q3 strategy methodology based on questions, the concept of the Question Box is particularly appealing to us. One brings the power of the Internet to answer questions for people in developing areas, especially poor rural communities. Many of these communities do not even have electricity, let alone computers!
The basic concept is that a person from there uses a mobile phone to telephone someone in front of a computer who immediately starts Internet research. Question Box was launched in India, followed by Uganda. Questions have ranged from critical farming issues and helping children with homework to trivia about celebrities.
Rose Shuman had the idea and developed the concept. She wrote an excellent article about its implementation: "How We Killed Our Strategy to Save Our Mission," on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network, July 5th, 2011. A statement in that article every entrepreneur and manager should note who ventures into unknown markets is: "We assumed that our assumptions about user behaviors and on-the-ground realities would be wrong. We were completely correct on that front."
She is a Phi Betta Kappa4 graduate of Brown University (one of the eight Ivy League ones, the most famous of which are Yale, Harvard and Princeton.) The Question Box initiative is one from Open Mind, a non-profit company in California of which she is the founder and CEO, while also being a partner at BrightFront Group, a global consulting firm.
2. Achievement
Junior Achievement www.ja.org
The non-profit organization Junior Achievement (JA) was founded in 1919 by Theodore Vail (CEO of the then telephone monopoly AT&T) with the support of Winthrop Crane, Massachusetts Senator. Its guiding force was Horace A. Moses, CEO of Strathmore Paper Company, who accepted the additional role of being JA´s Chairman in 1920, a position he was to hold for 27 years. JA began as after-school clubs for students on the East Coast of the U.S. Its focus is on financial literacy for young students (primary and secondary school) and teaching them about entrepreneurship.
The organization is active in over 100 countries. Its website states that JA volunteers are giving classes to over 9 million students a year. Look for innovation from new JAs in two of the world´s most dynamic entrepreneurial countries, China and India! JA China www.jachina.org began operations (funded by Paul C. Chou´s foundation) in four cities in 1995 and JA India in six cities 2007. (As of May 1st, 2011, the website www.jaindia.org is apparently being updated, i.e. is in an "under construction" mode.)
3. The Elephant
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Save the Elephants! www.savetheelephants.org
This non-profit organization was founded by Iain Douglas-Hamilton. He is a zoologist with a PhD from Oxford who is an authority on African elephants. Among the many companies that have supported Save the Elephants is the firm with which this domain is registered, as explained in the footnotes.6 Our elephant mascot Qoogol is adamant that Save the Elephants should be everyone´s number one priority. He wishes to remind you of the sterling, heroic character of Horton the Elephant to encourage your contribution.
"Horton is a kind, sweet-natured elephant who cares about other animals or people. Though he goes through many hardships, whether trying to keep an egg warm through storms, rough travels, and humiliating shows, or tries to save a small planet from harm, he always triumphs."7
He is featured by Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) in his books Horton Hatches the Egg (1940) and Horton Hears a Who! (1954). In the first book, the egg hatches into an elephant-bird. In the second, Horton struggles to protect a microscopic planet in the face of the incredulity of his neighbors, who do not believe it even exists. Thanks to his efforts the planet is saved and respected by others. Horton is characterized by his generous nature and respectful compassion.
Addendum A. - Micro-lending
In the U.S. there have been, over the decades, several exposes of religious drives for various good causes. These include relief for famine in Africa and earthquakes and floods in Asia and South America. Both Christian and non-Christian drives have elicited the scrutiny of investigative journalists. In extreme cases, 90% of the funds donated somehow or another stuck to the church, mosque, temple, etc. What actually reached the starving, injured or homeless was a paltry 10%. Certainly such cases are a minority, but how much of one? Does one charitable religious drive in 1,000 get "sticky" or is it more like one in 100, one in 10?
Therefore Bridges preference is for "doing well by doing good," i.e. to invest in a lending pool where a modest return on investment is strived for. That means there is a chance that you might get some of your money back! Both the direct contact aspect of Namesta Direct, and frank disclosure of MyC4 are attractive, as presented further below.
By way of an introduction to microloans, a summary from a 2006 entry on Kevin Kelly´s Cool Tools website follows. He introduces his research with:
"Previously I've recommended the micro-finance cool tools of Trickle Up, Opportunity International and my favorite, Heifer International, as three ways to leverage small amounts of money for maximum global good. Micro-finance programs are not a panacea. For a critique, start with Microcredit is booming in India, but. . . " in Forbes.
The Forbes article points out that only one fifth to one third of microloans are actually used to start a business. Often the funds are used for (urgently needed) consumer purchases. In Bangladesh the system is set up so that ideally a bank officer visits the borrower/borrowing group weekly, forever. However in India, the hotbed of microlending with over 1000 microlending institutions serving 15 million customers, that is just not possible. The lending officer to borrower ratio is frequently over 400 to 1. One should note that interest rates are often high, 20 to 30 percent.
Bridges therefore sees a need to provide "nuts and bolts" business basics to those borrowers who actually do start businesses. The providers of this guidance do not need to be veteran entrepreneurs or sophisticated MBAs. They do have to understand basic business finance, i.e. cash flow, and to have common sense. And above all they need to be culturally acceptable to the rural, or urban, poor whom they are advising. Bridges hopes some day to play a role in organizing the "micro-coaching" so badly needed to support the microloan ventures.
Below are two micro-lenders to begin with:
Namaste Direct (ND)
ND is a person-to-person micro-lending program. One provides funds directly to an individual and receives progress reports about how the money is being used. The concept is management intensive and as a result the program is small.
Participants from over 100 countries have lent 13,600,000 € to 6,800 small businesses in seven African countries. Loans can be as little as 5 €! Under "loans" it provides believable statistics about payment rates, including frank disclosure of a high default rate. (July, 2011)
Micro-lending is further discussed at Show Me the Money of "Blue Star Start-up Strategy for Entrepreneurs" under Dienstleistungen.
Addendum B. - The Gayan Book Foundation
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The charitable Gyan Book Foundation is more than a passing fancy or whimsical notion. It is a strong desire, a very real wish, which Bridges would be pleased to support. However no action plan with a time-line for 2013/14 or even another, far off, year has been prepared. No specific goals have been set. And, as Peter Drucker aptly remarked, until goals degenerate into real work, they are just dreams.
This particular dream belongs to the president and founder of a firm offering DP/IT services in Mumbai, India. As a very first step she has given her dream a name and a leitmotiv: the Gyan Book Foundation - where knowledge is ever growing. (The name is derived from “gyan,” the Sanskrit word for knowledge.) The purpose is to promulgate the love of reading. The underlying principle is, to paraphrase the biblical aphorism, not to give people fish (hence feeding them for a day), but to teach them how to fish (feeding them for a lifetime). In this case what is being encouraged, reading, is a key to lifetime learning.
Hence the Gyan Book Foundation will seek to make books more widely available to people who cannot ordinarily afford them in Mumbai. As the city has a population of over 13 million, larger than that of many countries, this initial geographical limitation appears eminently reasonable. Mumbai offers an interesting precedent, as she explains:
“In India, specifically Mumbai, books are not easily available. If you are an avid reader you have to pay hefty fees to a Library & become a member of it or go & buy your own copy. I have bought books second hand from the street vendors at Flora Fountain. They have a wide variety of books in all genres & in good condition too. I remember the last time I went to purchase books from there, the seller told me about an Exchange Scheme they have been offering to their regular customers.
The Scheme was that you buy a book from them & then sell it back to them & they will return you 80% of the original purchase price of the book. Of course it’s difficult for me to travel so far as Flora Fountain & the last time I went there was almost 2 years ago. So I really didn’t want to be part of the scheme. Then the book seller told me that I can bring the book anytime even after years & if they were still there they would refund me 80% of the purchase prices. I remember the book seller from whom I bought about 5 books, he wrote at the back of the book his name & date of purchase of book & also indicated that it was under the Buy-Back Scheme.”
By no means would the Gyan Book Foundation be a solitary voice crying in the wilderness. Book-lovers are active worldwide, as reviewing the websites below will show. Yet there is always room for one more charity that is competently managed and governed by compassionate common sense. Similarly there will be room in the world of book-lovers for the Gyan Book Foundation.
www.buyselloldbooks.com This site is country specific for India.
www.paperbackswap.com/index.php
As a final edition to the list may we suggest participating in:
One could begin by leaving some children´s books at a school or orphanage. The concept is explained on the website:
"Welcome to Bookcrossing, where people . . . share their passion for books with the world. Where books take on a life of their own. How? It's easy.
Simply click on the link below and sign up for free in less than 1 minute-- that's it!
A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure . . .
Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. . .anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate . . .Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person."
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1 Danisch Christmas tree Marlene Thyssen 24.12.2004. https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene GNU Free Documentation License, Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution 2.5 Note an email to malene at mtfoto.dk would be appreciated too.
2 The quotation is from the international bestseller of Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram, Abacus, 2004, p. 350. (Shantaram means “Man of Peace.”) The “million ruler” statement is adapted from the original, more cynical one on the previous page, which divides the governance of the world into evil, stupid, and cowardly categories – which seems a little pessimistic, the Moloch of war and terrorism notwithstanding.
The first 500 pages of the novel recount with fascinating plangency life (including the seamy underside) in Mumbai. With 13 million residents it is one of the three or four largest cities in the world. In the early 1980´s Gregory Roberts was a heroin addict in Australia who robbed banks to support his habit. He was covered in the press there as "The Gentleman Bandit."
Eventually arrested and convicted, he soon escaped from HM Prison Pentridge, a notorious maximum-security prison in Australia (since closed), to India. He established a free health clinic in the Mumbai slum where he lived, joined the local mafia, acted in a Bollywood film, learned Hindi and Marathi, and fought with the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. Captured smuggling heroin into Germany, he was extradited to Australia to complete his prison term. There he wrote his 900 page novel three times, because prison guards destroyed the first two versions.
3 In the U.S. we prefer to support charities that have met the IRS non-profit 501 (c) 3 guidelines.
4 Phi Betta Kappa is the most prestigious academic honor in the U.S. The award, a small gold key, is often affixed to one's watch chain or worn on a label. The society that awards it was founded at William and Mary College in 1776. Of the 2300+ universities and colleges in the U.S. about 275 have Phi Betta Kappa chapters. Almost half (131) of the American Nobel Laureates are Phi Betta Kappa holders. (Wikipedia 2010)
5 Elephant, Khwai River, Botswana © Steven Allen, photodisc, Getty Images PDI 95722362 (11 Apr 2011)
A still of Horton crossing a bridge would have been shown on this page. However the legal department of Twentieth Century Fox stated that it categorically refused to license Horton images (April, 2011). The response threatened dire legal consequences if one ignored the prohibition. Presumably the appearance of this still on 225 other websites is illegal - a violation of copyright. That would also apply to most (almost all?) of the other 300,000 Horton images that appear on the Internet (source - Google images, 2011).
Gayan Web Design 2010