TPI’s Johnson joins strategic global conversations with Templeton and Salzburg Global
Date Published: January 7, 2009
“A Global Age of Philanthropy?”
The next ten years may stand out as a transformative era in global philanthropy, one in which private social investing plays an increasingly important role in tackling critical challenges throughout the world. While the beginning of the 20th century ushered in what is often referred to in the United States as the “golden age of philanthropy,” the inaugural decade of the 21st century suggests that we may be at the beginning of what will be a truly global age of philanthropy.
A number of foundations and institutions are actively exploring strategies to strengthen the role and impact of global philanthropy. TPI Senior Fellow Paula Johnson was invited to participate in two strategic global conversations, hosted by the John Templeton Foundation and the Salzburg Global Seminar.
Each year the John Templeton Foundation invites about twenty thought leaders to a Global Leadership Summit for a discussion about future action in a specific area of philanthropy. The 2008 Global Leadership Summit focused on Free Enterprise, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Wealth Creation in Africa. The three-day seminar explored how the application of free enterprise, entrepreneurship and market-based principles can work to alleviate poverty in Africa. Participants examined several emerging entrepreneurial successes, investigated critical questions surrounding economic development and entrepreneurial success in Africa, and considered what philanthropic and business communities can do to accelerate market solutions.
In December, the Salzburg Global Seminar convened thought leaders from around the world to consider a major initiative on Optimizing Institutional Philanthropy for the 21st Century. The seminar challenged existing philanthropic parameters and practices, examined a number of promising changes underway in social investing, and began to explore what new principles, policies, structures, and strategies could optimize the value of global philanthropy as we move forward through the next several decades.
