Conference Presentation, Panel
Activist Philanthropy: Upping the Ante for Giving
- Linda Reznick anticipates expanding direct community engagement across the Central Valley, including establishing polling booths in areas like Lost Hills, to rebuild forgotten communities before deploying capital.
- Reznick projects reaching 55,000 children in education and providing free medical care to 12,000 individuals, with charter school graduates expected to achieve a 100% college acceptance rate and 80% retention through graduation.
- A career pathway program expected to graduate its first class next year aims for 100% of graduates to earn a full AA degree in "new ag," leading to entry-level jobs paying $35,000 to $55,000 or university entry as juniors.
- Reznick expects talent to flow bidirectionally between for-profit and non-profit sectors without permanent career switches and anticipates small charities will value business advice.
- George Weiss plans to celebrate CES Next's 30th anniversary next year and expand the holistic education model to two additional cities beyond Buffalo, Syracuse, and Guilford County.
- Weiss forecasts that student monitoring and social worker interventions in Syracuse and Onondaga County will continue the recorded 43% drop in foster care placements and maintain a 90% college retention rate.
- The "Say Yes" model expansion includes integrating five schools in Harlem starting with kindergarten, with an expectation that 18 to 20 graduates will be Ivy League material.
- Weiss expects private colleges, including Ivy League schools and institutions like Stanford, MIT, and Duke, to continue offering free tuition and believes good ideas will eventually attract independent capital to ensure organizational self-sufficiency.
- Precious Motsebe envisions STEM bursaries inspiring South African and African students to contribute to local economic development and expects business support programs to operate on a three-to-five-year timeframe, occasionally extending longer.
- Support for women and girls is projected to improve health indices, reduce infant and maternal mortality, and facilitate family entry into the middle class, while programs aim to inspire youth to leave a positive legacy.
- Motsebe anticipates that poor communities know best how to solve their own problems, a perspective that will guide community visits and program design.
- David Goldmann expects the $250 million gift to a six-center cancer consortium to create a self-financing evergreen model where intellectual property remains with the centers, enabling immediate research breakthrough sharing.
- The consortium aims to turn many cancers into manageable diseases and currently supports research for 27 orphan diseases, with potential expansion to include ALS research.
- Success for the Orphan Disease Center is defined by the number of clinical trials evolving and FDA approvals obtained, a metric described as a long-term plan.
- Goldmann anticipates that philanthropy is better suited than business for standardizing platforms between academic and industry partners and notes the field of cancer immunology remains fraught with perils despite its promise.
- General observations predict a convergence of big data, diagnostics, and life sciences will reduce research timelines from decades to days, while social media and early wealth accumulation will drive individuals in their 30s to engage in philanthropy sooner than previous generations.
- A wave of M&A activity is predicted for the 1.6 million US nonprofits to generate efficiencies similar to for-profit dynamics, and small African governments may struggle with HIV antiretroviral budgets as costs decrease without funding increases.
- Organizations addressing monumental problems without economies of scale are expected to remain small and struggling, while sustainability issues arise when financial dependence relies on donor checks rather than earned models.