Northern California Grantmakers

“I want that last check to bounce,” says philanthropist Charles F. Feeney in a recent New York Times article which reports that Mr. Feeney’s is working hard to spend his last $1.5 Billion–a goal he hopes to reach by 2016.

“Just as he did with his first $6 billion, it will all be awarded through Atlantic Philanthropies, the group of private foundations he created in 1982 and managed to run anonymously for its first 15 years, even though it was one of the largest sources of grants in the United States, Ireland, South Africa and Vietnam…

When the last of its money has been spent and it closes its doors sometime around 2020, Atlantic Philanthropies will be by far the largest such organization to have voluntarily shut itself down, according to Steven Lawrence, director of research for the Foundation Center. (The much bigger Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to shut down 50 years after its founders die.)”

One of the 81 participants who’ve signed the Giving Pledge, “Warren Buffett called Mr. Feeney the ‘spiritual leader’ of a campaign urging extremely wealthy people to donate their money.”

You can learn more about Charles F. Feeney by visiting the Foundation Center’s  “Eye on the Giving Pledge,” a new feature on their Glasspockets.org site.

Read the New York Times articles “Philanthropist Wants to Be Rid of His Last $1.5 Billion” online.

For the second year in a row NCG member Levi Strauss has teamed up with Water.org to raise awareness around the issue of clean water access. On March 22nd–World Water Day–Levi’s launched “Go Water<Less,” a new interactive challenge that encourages individuals to take water-saving measures and to help provide clean water access to those without.

At the “Go Water<Less” website individuals can learn more about water conservation; facts about clean water access worldwide; and take an online pledge to participate and share it with their social media networks.

In the following video Levi’s and Water.org share one woman’s journey for clean water, reminding viewers that there are one billion people in the world who don’t have access to clean water.

Check out Levi’s “Go Water<Less” campaign online.

Learn more about Levi’s “Go Water<Less” on their Unzipped blog.

NCG member Full Circle Fund shows us what a great infographic looks like.

But how did they get there? Great visual design doesn’t just fall out of the sky, right? Well net.magazine features a tutorial on how Elefint Designs developed the beautiful and meaningful infographic for Full Circle Fund.

Check out the infographic tutorial online >>