“What’s driving the global boom in philanthropy?”
“I don’t know if it’s right to say there’s a global boom in philanthropy. We work with dozens of partners who’ve been doing phenomenal work for decades. But I do think that in all walks of life (not just philanthropy), people are more aware of what’s going on in the world around them. There seems to be a boom in how much people are paying attention to global issues, largely because the Internet makes it so much easier to connect with people and information from around the world.
[…] “Once you’re talking to people in Kibera, Kenya or Sao Paulo, Brazil, your natural desire to work together kicks in. When I was growing up in Dallas, Texas, people put a lot of energy into making our community better. It’s just that now, people’s sense of community is much, much larger.”
At the end of October, PhilanTopic posted a list of questions directed at Melinda French Gates — who in fact answered several of her favorites on the Gates Foundation blog just last week.