by David Sasaki | Apr 15, 2016 | English, Philanthropy
Though imperfect and not without risks, we are better off with philanthropy than without it. Philanthropy is not undemocratic; extreme inequality is undemocratic.
by David Sasaki | Feb 2, 2016 | Book Review, English, Gates Foundation
Talk about a well-timed release. Linsey McGoey’s No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy came out just weeks before Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and set off an Internet-wide...
by David Sasaki | Oct 8, 2015 | English
Working as a program officer at a private foundation can be a surprisingly lonely endeavor. But it doesn’t have to be.
by David Sasaki | Aug 17, 2015 | English
Somewhere between government, commerce and religion, philanthropy has emerged as an influential, global force. It increasingly shapes our policies, values, research agendas, business practices, and — more subtlety — the way we see the world. It’s time that we think critically about philanthropy and its role in society with the same rigor that we study the public and private sectors.
by David Sasaki | Aug 23, 2013 | English, Omidyar Network, Open Government, Transparency Digest
Next week I’ll be completely offline in the middle of a desert. This Week in Civic Innovation will be back on September 6 with a look at how some organizations are using open data to improve school performance. Philanthropy While city governments talk about the...
by David Sasaki | Jan 25, 2013 | English, Omidyar Network, Work
This post is long and not every section is relevant to every reader. Please feel encouraged to skip to those sections that are most relevant. Opening Up Philanthropic Strategizing The Long View of Media Development A Survey of the Media Donor Landscape Media for...
by David Sasaki | Dec 8, 2011 | English
My problem is the following: I get to a point where I have 7 or 8 drafts of ambitious yet incomplete blog posts that, if my to-do list is to be believed, will ‘soon’ be published. But my to-do list is not to be believed, not ever. And so these drafts sit...
by David Sasaki | Feb 14, 2011 | English
I left Global Voices in May of last year and ever since have been cautiously dipping my toes in the world of philanthropy. For the past seven months I have been working as a full-time consultant for the Information and Latin America programs of Open Society...
by David Sasaki | Jan 30, 2010 | English
Open Society Institute, the network of philanthropic foundations established by billionaire George Soros, has long promoted access to information because it understands that information is power and that people in positions of power often try to withhold information...
by David Sasaki | Oct 31, 2009 | English
Whew. I just published the third and final part of my “New Era of Media Development” series over at Idea Lab. I’m glad to have that out of the way. I know I’ve been whining quite a bit lately about the funding community, but that’s...