Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Learn the art of giving

?Profit & Loss? panel discussion to be held


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Photo courtesy Kiva Matt Flannery is the founder and CEO of an online lending business. He will speak at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts on Monday, July 9.

Philanthropy impacts both the giver and the givee. Because of the synergistic dynamic, an educated donor can make choices that work beyond the scope of one's own conscience. But how is that done?

The Sun Valley Center for the Arts will present "Giving in the 21st Century: A Panel Discussion on Philanthropy" at 7 p.m., Monday, July 9 at The Center in Ketchum, located at 191 5th street.

The panel will include Matt Flannery, CEO of Kiva, Rand Runco, founder of Ten Friends and Carol Lewis, CEO of Philanthropy Northwest. The panel will discuss the number of ways one can be philanthropic and why it is so important at this time.

"The Center invited three visionaries to offer insight into the new world of giving as part of its multidisciplinary project, 'Profit & Loss,' which looks at who wins and who loses in today's global economy," said Kristine Bretall, The Center's marketing director.

In addition to the panel, the project includes films, a lecture and an ongoing exhibition in Ketchum featuring the work of six international artists. The exhibition will remain up through Friday, July 27.

In spring 2004 Matthew and Jessica Flannery spent several months working in rural Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Their experiences there along with their combined professional interests led them to develop Kiva.org. Now Kiva's CEO, Matt Flannery, has taken the organization from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships around the world.

Kiva's Web site lists small businesses and entrepreneurs in the developing world that are looking for loans. Each listing is complete with biographies, financial needs, qualifications and other pertinent information. The premise is that Kiva investors can connect with and loan money to these small businesses for as little as $25. Throughout the course of the loan, which is usually a year or less, investors can receive e-mail journal updates on the businesses they've sponsored. As loans are repaid, people get their loan money back.

Rand Runco's Ten Friends is another non-profit that works to help people by using the Internet. Funding is raised at tenfriends.org, as well as through locally organized events, school educational fundraisers and mailings. The organization's focus is in Nepal, where cultural respect, human dignity, increased quality of life and environmental preservation are of utmost importance. The organization Runco founded, with fellow schoolteacher Matt LaMont, is especially concerned with the challenges faced by children.

Now in its 30th year, Philanthropy Northwest members are an association of organizations and individuals, somewhat like the Idaho Community Foundation. Philanthropy Northwest, whose CEO Carol Lewis will speak on the panel, funds projects and non-profits in the Northwest states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Its annual grant-making, which ranges from $5,000 to more than $20 million, provides more than $440 million a year to help meet important needs in the region.

Philanthropy Northwest also educates people about the investing process and donors' rights, which, according the Web site, include:

·To be informed of the organization's mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.

·To have access to the organization's most recent financial statements.

·To be assured that their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.

·To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.

Philanthropy Northwest's list of partners includes such organizations as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft, who fund such projects as ending homelessness and providing information on how to help in a natural disaster.

Admission to the panel discussion is free and open to the public.




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