Philanthropy Action

News & Commentary

Archive

Archive

Jun 27, 2008

Use of Child Soldiers Still Common Despite Decrease in Conflicts

A recent report released by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers quantified a significant decrease between 2004 and 2007 in the number of conflicts worldwide involving child soldiers. But where conflict remains the practice continues unabated. 

Jun 23, 2008

Putting a Price on Water

The huge underwater aquifiers that have sustained agriculture in water scare regions in India and the Southwest United States have run dangerously low due to decades of uncontrolled pumping and wasteful irrigation. Without intervention, this scarcity will become only more acute, as farmers and other landowners preemptively pump even more in an effort to get as much as they can for themselves before it is gone. Making water a trade-able commodity that costs something based on availability and price is one solution to the problem.

Jun 17, 2008

Doing the Right Thing is Not Always Easy

Message fatigue can come about for any number of reasons. For one, constant bombardment with information about how bad things are can cause people to feel that their individual actions are meaningless. Equally concerning, however, is that the information donors need to make good decisions often becomes contradictory as an issue gets more attention.

Jun 12, 2008

Conflicting Data on American Education “Crises”

While there is vociferous conflict over the source of and remedies for the “crisis” in public education, it seems that everyone agrees that there is a big problem. Rather than spending millions of dollars fighting over education ideology we would all be better served by taking a humble approach that focuses on experimenting and testing various approaches to improving learning and performance by all students.

Jun 04, 2008

Lagging Donations to Burma and China: A Warning to Non-Profits?

Roughly three weeks after the cyclone and earthquake, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University estimated that donations from Americans totaled less than $60 million, compared with more than $200 million given in the week after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Drawing valid conclusions about the cause behind these wildly disparate totals is difficult, but two main forces seem to be at play: where the disasters occurred and the American economic slowdown.