Philanthrocapitalism_ How Giving Can Save the World - Matthew Bishop [5]
Second, the information technology revolution and the globalization of commerce have produced vast new fortunes. There are more millionaires and billionaires than ever, and, fortunately, many of them want to reinvest a sizable portion of their wealth in solving problems and giving people in their own countries or people half a world away the chance to break the chains of poverty, disease, lack of education, or group hatred so that they too can live productive, peaceful, fulfilling lives.
Third, charitable giving has been democratized as never before, primarily through the Internet, enabling citizens of modest means who share a common concern to amass huge sums of money. When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, Americans quickly gave more than $1 billion for relief. About 30 percent of our households contributed, more than half of them via the Internet. The disaster evoked a similar response in other developed nations, many of which contributed even more per capita than we did, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and the Scandinavian countries that lost many citizens who were vacationing in the area where the tsunami struck.
When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, President George W. Bush asked his father and me to help raise private funds to supplement the government’s efforts. Shortly afterward, I made my annual trip to the New York State Fair with Hillary. As I was walking down the midway with my nephew, a woman came out from behind one of the game booths and handed me $50. She said, “This is for the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. I’m sorry to give you cash, but as you can see, I’m working and don’t have time to send it over the Net.” This working woman’s preferred method of giving was via the Internet, a development inconceivable just a few years ago. When I became president in 1993 there were only fifty sites on the World Wide Web. When I left, there were 9 million. There are hundreds of millions today.
Perhaps the most unique mechanism for raising large sums in small amounts is the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Launched in 1989, the lottery is unique in two ways. Every month, and twice in July, thousands of winners are drawn. In addition to the Jackpot winner, there are street and neighborhood winners—all those who buy a ticket in the winning area share the prize. More important, 50 percent of the gross proceeds of the lottery go directly to charities, with an emphasis on those pursuing social justice, environmental protection, and development aid. It’s a great deal. While individual prize winnings are smaller than in a traditional lottery, the number of winners is larger, and every Dutch citizen knows that half the proceeds of every lottery ticket will go directly to good causes. Since 1989, the lottery has given more than 2.3 billion euros ($3.1 billion), more than 217 million euros in 2006, to scores of NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the World Wildlife Fund, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace. It has also supported the work of my foundation and our work on climate change.
The impact of these three trends—the growth of civil society in the developing world, the vast pool of new wealth available for giving, and the rising influence of small donors—has been reinforced by the proven ability of NGOs of all sizes and missions to have a positive effect on problems at home and abroad, often in partnership with governments and local NGOs in developing countries. Still, both the potential and the need for further advances are enormous, largely due to the staggering scale of global poverty and underdevelopment, and the persistence of pockets of poverty and other social problems in the United States and other developed nations.