Ikea gives €43 million donation to help Somali refugees

A charitable foundation linked to the Swedish furniture chain, Ikea has given the United Nations its largest ever private donation in the agency’s 60-year history (€43 million or £38 million) to refugees who have fled civil war and famine in Somalia. This huge sum of money will be used to expand the world’s largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya over the next three years, according to UN officials. The complex was first opened in the early 1990s and designed to hold 90,000, but it now holds 440,000 refugees, including 150,000 who have arrived in the last few months. The refugee crisis is still growing fuelled by violence, drought and famine in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres said that the donation would help up to 120,000 people fleeing a crisis that “continues to deepen with thousands of people fleeing Somalia every week”. UN officials also confirmed that the donation was examined with “due diligence” before it was accepted due to a recent controversy about the Nazi past of Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s founder.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: THE TELEGRAPH

Which Smartphone Users are the Most Generous?

Choose for Change is a challenge intended to raise money for the World Partnership Walk by June 12, 2011. The World Partnership Walk is an international initiative by the Aga Khan Foundation to create awareness on global poverty and provide funds for helping the world's poor. Choose for Change challenges smartphone users to find out what owners are the most generous: iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone.

Choose for Change has had a similar challenge in the past, previously determining which social network users were the most generous. The result of that challenge was $1,800 raised and Twitter crowned as the most generous social network. This time, Choose for Change is looking to vastly exceed that amount and raise at least $10,000.

All of the money raised by the Choose for Change Challenge will go directly towards the development projects of the World Partnership Walk. Furthermore, the amount raised by the Walk will be matched by other major donors, meaning that your donation will be multiplied and have a real impact on people's lives.

As of June 2nd, iPhone users were the most generous with $677.02 donated. BlackBerry, Android and Windows users were much farther back. To donate, simply go to www.chooseforchange.com and click the donate button underneath your phone category.

-Michael Kan

SOURCE: Choose for Change

SmartGiving: New & Easy Way To Donate

Want to donate but don't have the time? Not sure about which causes you want to support? Tired of long sign-up processes? SwipeGood.com came up with a solution that might fit you: SmartGiving, AKA "let your credit card choose your charity cause."

This innovative idea works as follows: after every purchase with your credit card, it automatically rounds up to the nearest dollar the amount of the purchase and donates the difference. Users can direct their donations to specific charities and organizations (there are more than 300 to choose from), or otherwise assign the money to causes according with their own spending habits. For example, if you buy groceries, the rounded up fraction will go to feeding the poor. As it can be seen in the image above, there are five donation categories: food, education, home, environment and health. SmartGiving is a new, comfortable, continuous and passive way to donate for good causes.

- David Nebreda

SOURCE: Mashable

Charity as Advertising??

More and more often many big names companies, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and JP Morgan Chase are utilizing charity and advocacy work as a means to advertise amongst their consumers.

During the Superbowl that aired last Sunday, "instead of spending $20 million on a handful of 30-second spots, the firm decided to give that amount away. Under the slogan "Refresh Everything", the Pepsi Refresh campaign asks the public to vote online for charities and community groups to receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000.

To learn more, follow the article written in the latest edition of The Economist.

- Tiffanie Depew

SOURCE: The Economist

Small Things Challenge

Intel is perpetuating corporate responsibility through the Small Things Challenge. They are teaming up with Save the Children and Kiva.org to help provide funding for education in developing countries. For each person that clicks on their donation button at http://www.smallthingschallenge.com, Intel will donate 25 cents to these charities.

The challenge is designed to raise awareness of lack of education in developing countries. Intel is willing to donate up to $300,000 towards these causes, but by requiring people to click, people are drawn to their website to learn more about the cause. Visit their website to help make a difference by encouraging microfinancing and investment in children’s education.
--Jessica Milstead

Source: smallthingschallenge.com

Cutbacks on Aid

As many people have cut back on donations to aid organizations, the World Food Programme has received only one-fifth of the money it needs to fund its projects this year. The demand for food is higher than ever, yet donations to the organizations are not meeting those needs. Unfortunately, other humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam and UNICEF are also experiencing shortfalls in their budgets. In a time of financial difficulty, it makes sense to cut back on certain expenses. However, "overseas development aid is about the last thing the developed world should be cutting back on."
Source: The Guardian

Obama's Donations to Charity

President Obama and his wife recently released their 2008 federal tax return, according to the New York Times. Out of their combined income, they gave nearly 6.5% to charities, totaling $172,050. Among the 37 different charities, the antipoverty group CARE received $25,000. It's encouraging to know that our President supports various charities, especially one that has done so much work to fight poverty.
Learn more about CARE here.
Source: New York Times

Aid Needs to Increase

There has been a 10% increase in foreign aid over the last several years. Unfortunately, the amount of aid currently given still represents just 0.3% of national income, the same level as in 1993. According to Oxfam's Head of Development Finance, Max Lawson, "Rich countries can come up with the money when they want to. AIG’s executive bonuses alone could have paid for enough teachers for 7 million children in Africa." With these numbers, achieving the MDGs before 2015 will definitely not be an easy task. Rich countries will need to implement significant increases in aid levels to meet the promises they've made.
Source: Oxfam

Increased Funding to Feed Children

Several weeks ago, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the US would be spending an additional $80 million to fund four projects to feed children in Africa. This funding is in addition to the $95.5 million allocated in December. All together, the programs are expected to feed 4.2 million children in 19 countries.
Source: Reuters

The Effectiveness of Aid

In a recent article by the Washington Post, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia talks talks about the effectiveness of aid in Africa, and how it has helped several countries combat poverty. Africa has been making significant progress over the past few years, and further development assistance from rich countries would help advance the progress.

"The citizens and leaders of donor nations should recognize how important their assistance has been to the new leadership in Africa and how appreciative most Africans are for this partnership. Critics say that African economies are shrinking, that poverty is rising and that failing aid is the culprit. But this argument is at least a decade out of date. Africa's turnaround is real, the evidence indisputable. Africans themselves have been the key to this reversal, but more effective aid has played an important role. Reducing aid would slow private-sector growth, stall poverty reduction, and undermine peace and stability in countries that are struggling to become part of the global economy.

It would be a cruel irony if, just as Africa began to succeed, its prospects were cut short by a crisis beyond its control. Strong action by African governments and robust support from the international community can keep Africa's recovery on track. Both should continue to do their part."

Full article here.

More Than Just One Good Cause

The first CarbonFree® Certified water on the market, NIKA water, is also the first to donate 100% of their profits to charities who provide clean drinking water to impoverished areas around the world. The certification was awarded after a rigorous assessment of the water's manufacturing process, distribution and consumption. NIKA has also pledged that for every bottle sold, they will take a bottle out of the environment and recycle it.

According to the company's co-founder, Jeff Church, “If we can shift just 1 percent of the annual consumption of bottled water to NIKA we would be able to donate more than $2 million per year to the impoverished world. Thus, even a small shift of bottled water consumers to NIKA will help make significant inroads around the world toward cleaner water and sanitation.”

Learn more about NIKA here.
Source: PR.com

$1 Trillion Commitment

During this week's G-20 summit in London, different world leaders agreed to commit a total of $1.1 trillion towards poverty-reduction efforts. As the economic growth of developing countries slows over the next few years, this contribution will be crucial in helping them progress out of poverty. The decision underscores world leaders' commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, even in the midst of a global crisis.
Source: UN News Centre

Donation to Improve Women's Rights

Several weeks ago, President Obama signed legislation to restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has been suspended since 2002. The first contribution of $50 million was released shortly after, and will go towards improving the health of women and children in over 150 different countries. "We are delighted that the United States will once again take a leading role in championing women’s reproductive health and rights, alongside all other countries and partners that have supported us over the years," said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the agency's executive director.
Source: UN News Centre

Equity Bank Spreading Prosperity in Kenya

Contrary to the pessimistic financial news coming out of most banks lately, Equity Bank of Kenya recently reported record pre-tax profits and expansion plans for Nyanza Province. Equity Bank provides financial services to poor customers in Kenya and Uganda who have never previously had a bank account. According to CEO James Mwangi, the bank's high volume/low margin business model has been successfully attracting customers despite the difficult economic times, making it home to 49% of Kenya's bank accounts. Using its success for a greater good, Equity Bank will be signing a partnership with BAACH (Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger) to provide Kenyans with access to financial credit, improving their farming activities in an effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
More info.

Saving Lives Does Not Require Great Sacrifices

In an inspiring article, Peter Singer describes the psychology behind giving money to help children living in poverty. His argument is that nobody would stand by and watch a helpless child drown in a pool. At the same time, many people do nothing as children around the world are dying from diseases such as diarrhea, something that is easily preventable. Psychologists label this the bystander effect: a person is more likely to help when they are the only one around able to do so, and people are less likely to help when they see others around them not helping. According to Singer, people's unwillingness to help these children is mostly due to the fact that they believe they won't really have an impact, when this is in fact untrue.

Singer suggests levels of donation that Americans could give without having to make any drastic sacrifices: "They begin at 1% of income for 90% of American taxpayers, rising to 5% for those earning above $105,000 a year, and gradually increasing until they peak at 33.3% for those earning more than $10 million a year. That would raise more than $500 billion a year—more than double a U.N. estimate of what it would take to cut world poverty in half."

Source: Newsweek

World Water Day

Today, March 22, is World Water Day, a UN project aimed at bringing attention to the lack of access to clean water worldwide. In observance, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is teaming up with Rotary International to bring clean water and basic sanitation to communities in selected developing countries. Dominican Republic, Ghana, and the Philippines will be receiving an estimated $2 million for the efforts. The results of the projects in these three countries will determine whether other developing nations will receive similar aid.
Source: USAID

The Blue Sweater

Earlier this month the Acumen Fund announced the release of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, by Acumen's CEO and founder, Jacqueline Novogratz. On a trip to Rwanda, Novgoratz came across a young boy wearing a pullover, with her name still on the tag, eleven years after she donated it to a Goodwill in Virginia, an incident which inspired her to write this memoir. The goal of the book is, in the words of the author, "to inspire more people to become engaged in working to solve the problems of global poverty."

read more

Water is not Free for Everyone

We often take for granted the fact that clean tap water comes to us at no cost. Meanwhile, the lack of access to clean drinking water is destroying lives around the world. To bring light to this issue, UNICEF created The Tap Project. The awareness campaign will be holding World Water Week starting tomorrow until March 28, when participating restaurants will offer their customers the opportunity to donate $1 for ordering a glass of tap water. The money raised will go towards UNICEF's efforts to bring safe drinking water to the millions of children around the world who lack it. Every dollar raised will provide one child with clean water for 40 days. Learn more about the project here, and find out which restaurants are participating in World Water Week.

Digital Soil Map to Help Farmers

Uganda will be soon benefit from an $18 million digital map of Africa's depleted soil. The project, sponsored by the Gates Foundation, will collect samples of soil from different regions. Composite samples of 12 or more cores from one region will be analyzed for their pH content, levels of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc and manganese. Knowing more about what kind of soil they are working with and what fertilizer would be best, farmers can be more effective with their agricultural techniques.
Source: allAfrica.com

Coca Cola Partners with USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Coca Cola have recently teamed up to provide clean drinking water to Mozambique's sixth largest urban region, Chimoio. This alliance brings together a total of $1.79 million in funding, $500,000 of which comes from USAID. This project will provide water for 25,000 people as well as local schools, health facilities, and industrial and commercial users.
Source: USAID