New: "CSI report", Issue No.7/ May 2010
In this issue:
- Social Investment: this term faces the challenge of having to describe a very diverse and heterogeneous field. We provide an approach on how to conceptualise private contributions to common welfare.
- Research project "Social entrepreneurs": To what extent can social challenges be tackled not only by donations or public authorities, but in an entrepreneurial manner? This is the main question of our recently initiated research project.
- Charities Aid Foundation - Foundation School: The international executive training week focuses on the art of donating, management issues within a foundation and a founder's family.
CSI News
Interview with Dr. Volker Then on the "Giving Pledge" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
The "Giving pledge" programme has predicted that it will draw $600 billion into philanthropy. More than three dozen billionaires have promised at least half of their fortunes to charity, joining a program that Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett started in June to encourage other wealthy people to give.
In a recent article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dr. Volker Then, Managing Director at CSI, talks about the development of foundations and giving in Germany and its cultural differences with regard to the US.
For the entire article, please click here (German)
"The financial sector needs a civil society watchdog" by Ekkehard Thümler and Lorenzo Fioramonti
Ekkehard Thümler, Project Director at CSI, and Lorenzo Fioramonti, Senior Fellow at CSI, call in their recently published article "The financial sector needs a civil society watchdog" for the set up of a 'Greenpeace of the financial sector'. They discuss the question if and how philanthropic foundations engage for the creation of such a civil society watchdog for the financial markets and announce a CSI reserach project on these issues.
For the complete article, please click here.
Fürther Ludwig-Erhard-Preis awarded to Robert Münscher
Dr. Robert Münscher, Head of CSI Advisory Services, has been awarded the 2010 Fürther Ludwig-Erhard-Preis. The prize was presented to him at an official ceremony in Fürth by German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle for his dissertation on building trust in intercultural management relations ("Vertrauensentwicklung im interkulturellen Management“). Using the example of German-French management relations, the dissertation describes the conditions for building as well as destroying trust across cultures. More information in the CSI press release (in German).
CSI at EDULEARN 10 Conference
For the first time, the CSI was represented at the EDULEARN 10, the
annual International Conference on Education and New Learning
Technologies, from 5th to 7th of July 2010 in Barcelona. More than 500 delegates from 65 different
countries met to attend 400 presentations. Dr. Tobias Vahlpahl and Florian Bläß from the CSI teaching team presented their paper "A different kind of eLearning for
different lecturers?" According to their study, lecturers at different ages tend to use eLearning techniques in different ways and with a different focus. The complete paper can be downloaded here.
"The Gross Domestic Problem"
by Lorenzo Fioramonti
Lorenzo Fioramonti is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social Investment of the University of Heidelberg and one of the authors of the documentary "The Age of Adaptation", which deals with climate justice, the imbalances of economic growth and the need for an alternative development model.
On May 31st, 2010, his article on "The Gross Domestic Problem" was published: The financial crisis has been crunching our economies. Plummeting exports, job losses, falling investment, home foreclosures and skyrocketing deficits (and public debt) are but a few of the most widely reported disastrous effects of the [...]
For the entire article please click here.
NGO Management workshop
The NGO Management workshop, which will be organised by the International Training Centre of the ILO Turin, Italy, will take place in Turin from May 10th through May 14th.
For further information please download the workshop flyer or contact the International Training Centre.
CSI-MLS-Symposium 2009
The global crisis is now entering its
second year. What began as a banking crisis continues to impact the economy and society at large, including the nonprofit sector and philanthropy.
Questions and issues concerning the impact of the financial crisis on the third sector were at the heart of the 2009 CSI MLS Symposium, an international gathering of academics and social investment experts.
For more information please download the symposium protocol.
Dr. Volker Then at the symposium "Responsible leadership in times of change"
The symposium "Responsible leadership in times of change", hosted by the Banque de Luxembourg, will take place on October 9th, 2009, in Luxembourg. CSI managing director Dr. Volker Then supported the Banque de Luxembourg in the conceptional preparation of the symposium "Responsible leadership in times of change". He will also participate as a host of the foundation governance workshop.
For more information please download the symposium flyer
CSI contribution to Volunteering Report
The
"Report on the Situation and Perspectives of Civic Engagement in Germany" is a state of the art report on volunteering
in the Federal Republic. It gives policy recommendations for political and corporate leaders, civil society and further
research. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and assembled by the
Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), the report especially addresses the relationship between volunteering and
families. For this purpose Konstantin Kehl and Volker Then from CSI were asked for an expert report on volunteering in
multi-generation housing developments. The paper can be downloaded from the
WZB project website (in German).
CSI participates at the 1st "Zukunftssymposium - Bürgerengagement und gesellschaftlicher Wandel"
On June 26th, 2009, Werner Ballhausen (Bündnis für Engagement), state secretary Gerd Hoofe, Dr. Brigitte Mohn (Bertelsmann Stiftung),
Prof. Dr. Thomas Olk and Dr. Volker Then, CSI's managing director, held the discussion about strategies for the development of the "Engagementland Deutschland" at the the final panel of the first symposium "Civic commitment and social change" in Cologne.
In the context of this event, executives from both politics, economy and civil society met in order to discuss the
impact of civic commitment for society.
www.Stiftungen.org/Zukunftssymposium
Deutsche Version