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DCL
Massive philanthropic donations by the mega-rich are part of a very positive trend that has been gathering strength in the past few years. The most high-profile examples are no doubt Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, donating billions of dollars to make the world a better place (and they aren't just throwing money at problems, they are using various processes to make sure their donations are effective and have maximum impact). Of course, all of this is not new. Andrew Carnegie is probably the spiritual leader of this philanthropic movement which is now culminating with the Giving Pledge.
Another great donation happened recently, and I'm not talking about Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million for the Newark Public School system (that's for another day). Today I want to highlight George Soros's donation of $100 million over 10 years to Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
The AP writes: "Soros' donation is meant to help Human Rights Watch volunteers around the world entice other donors to give enough additional money to boost the organization's budget from $48 million a year to $80 million within five years. The organization envisions hiring about 120 more staffers— primarily researchers and advocates
This is very good, because people who make charitable donations have a tendency to give to organizations working on more concrete things - like the environment, health, poverty - and the fight to preserve and expand rights and liberties can sometimes be overlooked because these things are a bit more abstract.
There is only one catch to Soros's donation: For every dollar that he's giving, Human Rights Watch must raise another dollar. In other words, every dollar you give is doubled by Soros. Good deal, no? If you want to support Human Rights Watch, you can do so here.
