Philanthropy and Development Symposium Brings World's Leading Experts to Grounds

September 9, 2010 — The University of Virginia's Center for International Studies will host a three-day symposium beginning Tuesday that will explore the role of philanthropy and development in the United States and around the world.

The symposium will review the scope and activities of civil society in a global context. It will delineate what the elements of an enabling environment for civil society are and where the threats to civil society exist. It will also examine individual and organized philanthropy and how it is reacting to climate change, poverty alleviation, and human rights.

The event, which is free and open to the public, begins Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in the South Lawn Commons auditorium. Lincoln Chen, president of the China Medical Board of New York, will provide an overview of philanthropy and development.

Chen was the founding director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, and in an earlier decade, the Taro Takemi Professor of International Health and director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. From 1997 to 2001, Chen served as executive vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and from 1973 to 1987, he represented the Ford Foundation in India and Bangladesh.

The symposium continues Wednesday in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom with a continental breakfast from 8  to 9 a.m. Among the speakers will be Lester Salamon, director of the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, who will discuss civil society. Barry Gaberman, former senior vice president of the Ford Foundation and Michael Seltzer of Rabin Strategic Partners will discuss "Individual Philanthropy; The Rich, the Famous and the Poor."

Other topics include "Foundations: The Backbone of Organized Philanthropy," presented by U.Va. Commonwealth Professor of History Olivier Zunz, and "How Business Concepts are Changing Philanthropy," by Matthew Bishop, the American business editor and New York bureau chief of The Economist magazine. The symposium concludes Thursday with a luncheon presentation by Gaberman titled "Trends in Philanthropy."

For a complete schedule, click here.

— By Jane Kelly

Media Contact