Charity

Amazon shuts its charity donation program 'AmazonSmile' as it fails purpose

Amazon on Thursday announced that it will shut down its charity donation programme, "AmazonSmile", as it failed to create the impact the company hoped for

Purpose of charity should not be religious conversion, observes SC

Asserting the purpose of charity should not be conversion, the Supreme Court reaffirmed on Monday that forced religious conversion is a "serious issue" and against the Constitution. The court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking direction to the Centre and states to take stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion by "intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits". The Centre told the court it is collecting information from states on religious conversion through such means. Appearing before a bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought time to furnish detailed information on the issue. Mehta sought a week's time from the court which it granted. "The purpose of charity should not be conversion. Allurement is dangerous," the top court said, and acknowledged that forced religious conversion is a very serious matter. When a lawyer questioned the maintainability of

Warren Buffett donates more than $750 million to family charities

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett donated more than USD750 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the four foundations run by his family, but unlike his annual gifts to charity each summer, the recipients didn't include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett has been making annual donations to the same five charities every year since 2006 when he unveiled a plan to give away his fortune over time, with the Gates Foundation receiving the biggest donations. Wednesday's donations mark the first time the 92-year-old has made a second major gift within the same year. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed Buffett gave 1.5 million Class B shares in the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate he leads to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his first wife. He also gave 300,000 Class B shares apiece to the three foundations run by his children: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation. In June, he gave 11 million

Entities involved in trade would cease to be a charitable institution: SC

This judgement could have wide ramifications as the charitable institutions involved in any trade or commerce in the name of said provision could come under its radar

Sale of Warren Buffett portrait raises lesser funds than $19 mn lunch bid

The auction of a high-tech portrait of Warren Buffett didn't come close to matching the $19 million someone paid earlier this year for a private lunch with the billionaire, but it still raised $75,100 for one of his favorite charities. The eBay auction wrapped up Tuesday evening on Buffett's 92nd birthday. The portrait created by Motiva Art features a grid of letters over the picture that light up to spell out 11 of the Berkshire Hathaway CEO's best-known quotes including, "It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked." A previous portrait of Buffett painted by performance artist Michael Israel in 10 minutes outside the Berkshire annual meeting attracted a $100,000 price in 2008. The lunch auction Buffett has done for years to benefit the Glide Foundation that helps the homeless in San Francisco always attracts big bids because it offers exclusive access to the investor who is willing to answer almost any question except what he might buy next. This .

Rohini Nilekani is changing philanthropy

Her book offers a useful maxim for philanthropists to live by

Prince William's charity invests in world's biggest backers of fossil fuels

The conservation charity founded by Prince William, second in line to the British throne and who launched the Earthshot Prize, keeps its investments in a bank that is one of the world's biggest backers of fossil fuels, The Associated Press has learned. The Royal Foundation also places more than half of its investments in a fund advertised as green that owns shares in large food companies that buy palm oil from companies linked to deforestation. The earth is at a tipping point and we face a stark choice, the prince, a well-known environmentalist, is quoted saying on the websites of the Earthshot Prize and Royal Foundation. Yet in 2021, the charity kept more than 1.1 million pounds (USD 1.3 million) with JPMorgan Chase, according to the most recent filings, and still invests with the corporation today. The foundation also held 1.7 million pounds (USD 2 million) in a fund run by British firm Cazenove Capital Management, according to the 2021 filing. As with JPMorgan, it still keeps f

To mark Adani's 60th birthday, family pledges Rs 60K cr to charities

The corpus will be administered by the Adani Foundation

$15 bn from Bill Gates, Melinda Gates tops biggest gift list in 2021

It was a healthy year for big gifts to charitable causes in 2021, a year that saw one of the largest multibillion-dollar contributions in more than a decade

In 2020, the year of Covid-19, Indians donated 43% more: Survey

Two in three gave money or goods to charities or for community services, and an equal proportion said the government and businesses should have contributed more, says the 'India Giving Report 2021'

Reaching out with food, oxygen & care: Endearing stories in the time of Covid

Private philanthropy outstripped corporate largesse by 42% in FY20: Report

It is this increase that has propelled an increase in total private funding by a healthy 23 per cent, touching Rs 64,000 crore in FY20

Funding from family philanthropy in India triples to Rs 12,000 cr in FY20

Family philanthropy has proven resilient throughout the pandemic, a report said

CSR shouldn't be legally mandated, charity must come from within: Premji

He added that it is important that individual and personal philanthropy is separated from a company's CSR efforts

World's richest Bezos tops list of making largest charitable gifts in 2020

The world's richest person made the single-largest charitable contribution in 2020, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of top donations

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' ex-wife donates $1.7 billion for social causes

MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced that she has donated around $1.7 bn to groups involved in philanthropic causes such as healthcare, LGBT rights and racial justice

Easing woes: Unsung warriors who helped the poor during Covid-19 lockdown

A new report highlights the role played by non-profit organisations in mitigating the effects of Covid-19 despite facing financial and other constraints

Individuals lead the way in philanthropy, even as firms' contribution falls

Contribution from foreign sources, domestic corporations has slowed

India ranks low on World Giving Index despite informal culture of donations

The report, published online in October 2019, was based on surveys of 1.3 million people in 128 countries over the last 9 years (2009-2018)

Movember, ice buckets, fun runs: Why philanthropy of the body is the rage

Researchers are only just starting to grapple with embodied philanthropy as a new kind of pro-social behaviour