Matthew Bishop, the American business editor of The Economist and the publication's chief business writer, gave a lecture Tuesday about the relationship between philanthropy and politics.
"The New Philanthropy: Prospects and Challenges" panel featured several philanthropists other in the Lecture Hall of the Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus.
Author of a survey supplement in The Economist, "The Business of Giving," Bishop also has an upcoming book, titled "Philanthrocapitalism," which will be published in September.
Bishop talked about how he became interested in philanthropy and about his various interviews with wealthy philanthropists such as Bill Gates, known to be the richest man in the world and the chair of the Microsoft Corporation.
Bishop, who grew up in London, said the British government took care of social problems and activism was widely used to attempt to change government policy.
He said the idea of philanthropy was something unknown to him at the time he lived in England, and that he came to the United States 10 years ago to report on the dot-com boom.
He became fascinated with what people gaining tremendous wealth would do with their money, he said.
Bishop said many newly wealthy people he spoke with told him they never expected to make so much money and somehow felt wrong that they were so wealthy.
Therefore, many turned to philanthropic pursuits, he said.
"The sort of things they were talking about really did have the potential to change the world and make the world a better place" Bishop said.
He said people are now much more aware of the social problems present on the other side of the world in places like India, Darfur and China and that their money is not what fulfills them in life.
"I think that what [wealthy people] are doing is tapping into a whole series of really important trends that affect society as a whole," Bishop said.
Tolu Oyetunde, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student, said Bishop made him hopeful that people can make changes in the world.
"Matthew Bishop talked about how the wealthy were taking charge and making a change in the world, which is really good and it gave me hope," Oyetunde said. "I can do something too, even if I'm not as wealthy as they are, as long as I give up my time."
Jeanette Goodson, a staff minister at the Fountain Baptist Church, Christina Vanech, a high school junior who started a book drive to aid South Africa and Olubayi Olubayi, the president of the Global Literacy Project, also joined the discussion.
Goodson represents the Fountain Baptist Church based in Summit, N.J.
Her church donated $1 million to support Hurricane Katrina relief efforts last year, she said.
Goodson said the Kenya educational sponsorship program at her church began when she sponsored three children from Kenya.
She corresponded with the children, as well as the headmistress of their school, and eventually traveled to meet them.
She ran the first trip to South Africa with the church and took 143 people to see the building that the Fountain Baptist Church donated to the South African Baptist Convention, she said.
Goodson said the church also recently purchased 15 acres of land to develop the Pan-African Leadership Academy to help students from all over Africa to become leaders.
"In 2005, the government instituted free education for primary schools," Goodson said. "So now we are only dealing with secondary schools, which are high schools. But our purpose for doing all of this is not just to educate the students, but to make leaders out of them so that they can learn how to lead their country."
University Associate Professor Edward Ramsamy, who coordinated the discussion, introduced 16-year-old Vanech from the Pingry School in Martinsville.
Vanech helped to collect more than 56,000 volumes of books from surrounding community churches and schools, Ramsamy said.
She then traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa last summer to establish a library there, Ramsamy said.
Vanech also helped to initiate literacy programs for nine disadvantaged schools in the Johannesburg metropolitan area, Ramsamy said.
"This was something perfect for me and what I was looking for because I knew traveling would mean that we could forge a connection and meet people on the other end," Vanech said.
It wouldn't just be collecting [books] for them, he said. We would actually be able to have a connection, make friends and meet with children.
"[Philanthropy] has just been something I've been used to. I grew up with my parents encouraging [philanthropy], and my school has a lot of community service connections," Vanech said. "[My school requires] 10 hours per year, which is not a lot, but it's a good way to get started."
Olubayi spoke about his experiences as a philanthropist as well.
As a lecturer in Africana Studies at the University, Olubayi teaches a senior seminar on wealth and the contributions Africans have made to science.
Olubayi is also a founding trustee of the Global Literacy Project, a non-profit organization that has shipped more than one million books and computers to disadvantaged countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia.
He said he has talked to numerous people who share similar experiences growing up and others who came from economically poor backgrounds but who eventually became wealthy.
"The intellectual question for us was, 'What did it take to come from a very economically poor family to a university like Rutgers? How did you get there?'" Olubayi said.
He grew up in a rural part of western Kenya where his mother was a teacher and his father had a library in the house, he said.
He said success often depends on access to books at an early age.
When the Global Literacy Project first began in 1999, one of the school districts the program worked with was one of the worst in Kenya, he said.
As of last year, the district is among the top 13 in the region due to the program's efforts, he said.
"There is very strong evidence that this had to do with, number one, the presence of the books, and then number two, the fact that University students came back to work with primary schools in the districts," Olubayi said. "It's important to realize that global citizenship, in the end, really means having a deep sense of membership in the global village and having a deep sense of responsibility."
