Can Philanthropists, the Public, and the Poor Make Poverty History?
The fight against global poverty has quickly become one of the hottest tickets on the global agenda with rock stars, world leaders, and multibillionaires calling attention to the plight of the poor at international confabs such as the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. The cozy, all-of-a-kind club of rich country officials who for decades dominated the development agenda has given way to a profusion of mega-philanthropists, “celanthropists,” and super-charged advocacy networks vying to solve the world’s toughest problems. Supporting the development glitterati is a sizable rank and file made up of the mass public as evidenced by the abundance of “Make Poverty History” wristbands, an Internet-enabled spike in charitable giving at all income levels, and record involvement in overseas volunteering. While philanthropic foundations and celebrity goodwill ambassadors have been part of the charitable landscape for many years, the unprecedented explosion of development play
