News & Trends for Donor-Advised Giving to Asia

Abundance Abounds: Organizational Strategies, Approaches and Thoughts

by Charles Ostertag

This spring, at the Chinese Historical Society of America, Kay S. Grace of Transforming Philanthropy, LLC suggested the tapping of what is abundant, yet not readily apparent, is a potent fundraising and organizational strategy for local Chinatown nonprofits here in San Francisco. Within the recent economic turbulence, many smaller Chinatown nonprofit organizations offering essential services to the elderly, newly arrived, unemployed and/or ailing are now finding it more difficult to provide for those in need. While times are indeed dire and pressure-filled, with the appropriate attitude and perception, these stresses and strains can serve as valuable moments of reflection, reorientation, and reorganization for nonprofit entities, thereby strengthening an organization for the better. As I delineate my interpretations of the various shades of Grace’s presentation, it is my hope that all nonprofits and the communities they serve can benefit from these words:

Give2Asia's 2008 Annual Report

Hello all,

We are pleased to let you know that Give2Asia's FY2008 Annual Report is now out. Follow the link below to read the letter from our CEO Michael Howe and download the report.

Thanks to everyone who helped make last year a great success!

Click here to see our CEO letter and to download the report.

Fundraising in Difficult Times: a Fundraiser's Perspective

 By Dien Yuen, Give2Asia

Kim Klein, internationally known fundraising trainer and consultant, was the keynote speaker at the Northern California Planned Giving Council (NCPGC) conference last week.  Her topic, "Thriving on Uncertainty: Successful Fundraising in Difficult Times" brought a healthy dose of practicalness and optimism to advisors and gift planning professionals in the audience. 

As I listened to Kim share her thoughts, I realized that we in the philanthropic field have an opportunity to reach completely outside the box, past our apparent limitations, to find tools that will allow us to sustain our growth and realize our fullest potential.  We have not built sustainable organizations, we have not stewarded our donors well, and we certainly have not earned the trust of those we serve and those who we want to support us.  We now have an opportunity to do what we have been struggling with all these years - to help build a stronger nonprofit field in which transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness are fundamental values.  But are we getting there?  What else can we do to make this happen?

Success Against All Odds: Women's Education in Afghanistan

"Please teach our children."  This was the message that Dr. Sakena Yacoobi heard when she visited refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran during the Soviet incursion in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and before the rise of the Taliban.

Later in the early 1990s, when the Taliban came to power, many thought it would be safe to return to their homeland. What they found was a new regime, which distrusted the practice of teaching girls -- a practice suddenly negatively associated with the Soviet occupation. However, protected by the communities where she operated, Dr. Yacoobi safely entered Afghanistan -- and an Afghani woman herself -- and began teaching girls and training new teachers in an environment where such activities could lead to imprisonment or death.

Early this week, on Monday May 18, Give2Asia had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning. Dr. Yacoobi is the president and executive director of this internationally recognized NGO, which grew out of her work teaching girls and training teachers during the Taliban's rule.  Today, AIL provides health care to women and children, teacher training for women, and educational support for boys and girls in Afghanistan. Despite the ongoing violence, her schools remain safe because of her respect for local traditions and partnership with the villages and towns where AIL operates.

Since 1995, AIL has been able to provide access to education and health care to an estimated 350,000 women and children every year. This NGO, still led and run by Afghan women, plays a major role in reconstructing the health and educational systems in Afghanistan today.

During her presentation to Give2Asia, Dr. Yacoobi spoke of conditions in Afghanistan when she was a little girl, watching women in Afghanistan receive poor or little medical attention, especially during stages of pregnancy. She was lucky to be able to receive a formal education in the U.S. and Europe, but she was always aware that she was one of the lucky ones.

Dr. Yacoobi is a 2006 Skoll Award recipient. This year Dr. Yacoobi received the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership for extraordinary accomplishment and bold, visionary leadership in the nonprofit sector. 

To learn more about Afghan Institute of Learning, check out their Web site at www.afghaninstituteoflearning.org. To donate to AIL, click here.

Amidst the economic debacle, Chilton Investment Company sets itself apart

May 12, 2009 – Chengdu, CHINA – On the first-year anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, Chilton Investment Company LLC is helping students at Sichuan University to overcome the hardships created by the disaster and to achieve their academic goals. In partnership with Give2Asia and with the goal of making an investment in China’s youth, Chilton Investment Company made possible a series of scholarships for freshman Economics and Finance majors who possess a solid record of academic success and who have been adversely affected by the earthquake.

The Awards Ceremony will be held on the Jiang An Campus of Sichuan University in Chengdu. Twenty-eight students will each receive a Chilton Scholarship Award in the amount of RMB 3,000 (US$450) per year, which is renewable for up to four years. All recipients of these awards come from impoverished families who live in one of the 51 officially designated earthquake-affected counties in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. In addition to academic performance, students were also selected based on their inability to afford normal tuition fees and living expenses.