The Realist Idealist

This six part series by Richard Behar of Fast Company entitled “China in Africa” is the single best piece of investigative journalism I’ve read in months. Maybe years. Maybe ever.

Behar breaks down and brilliantly weaves the geo-political, business, governmental, community, historical, and personality issues that plague a handful of resource-rich countries across the sub-Saharan [...]

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My friend Asheen - who I’ve never met in person, but whom I respect greatly through a list-serve on which we both engage - sent this photo out today. His title: “An alternate universe.”

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I’m in London this week for the kick off of the Webby’s People’s Voice Awards sponsored by .Org.
www.thewebbys.org
Almost every time I’ve said “.Org” someone has responded, “Oh great, which one?” The answer is the interesting thing; the “.Org” I mean, and the one making this event happen, is actually an “org”anization unto itself as a [...]

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On December 5th, I was at a White House gathering for International Volunteer Day where Global Giving and Volunteers for Prosperity announced a public-private partnership that creates an incentive (by providing matching grants) to those Americans who want to volunteer abroad. It was exciting then to be sure, but like most things, we knew [...]

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After being on the road for a week or more I always return home (wherever that may be in a given year) with a wealth of new ideas on my mind.  It’s a timeless tradition for the weary traveler as the myriad airports and jets provide plenty of time (usually more than we’d like) for [...]

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Mashups make great sense when it comes to getting things done. I mean, why build it when you can mash it? Nonprofits, however, have mostly been slow to jump in the mashable fun.
As a meeting I was at recently of foundations at the Aspen Institute suggested, the majority of nonprofs are still asking questions [...]

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At the end of the day, fundraising is the engine that drives the nonprofit sector. In general, if you’re running any organization - for-profit or non - and you’re not thinking about money, you’re wrong. With the overwhelmingly vast majority of nonprofits, if you’re not thinking about fundraising, you’re wrong.

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As I’ve worked overseas for the better part of the last decade, one of the things I’ve always been disheartened by is the amount of high-potential talent in many countries that is simply too under-nurtured or under-developed to be able to tackle the country’s or local community’s problems.
What is often even more frustrating though is [...]

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I arrived in Dublin before the sun. It was cold, and the air tasted like sea water. I found my way to a bus that would take me the two and a half hours to Belfast, where I would meet with the rest of my SAIS companions – Professor William Zartman and 16 [...]

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Sometimes, I feel like I am the man without a plan (as in Amartya Sen’s review of Easterly’s White Man’s Burden).
Every once in a while I am reminded that I am not the only one.
Mark Mathabane, author of Kaffir Boy (roughly translated, Kaffir is the Bantu equivalent of “nigger.”) came to speak last week [...]

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