Amongst all the regular cavalcade of criticism and negative news across media channels, it was encouraging to come across a recently released report, discussing the current trends in global philanthropy and progress in international development.

The Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances* is produced annually by The Centre for Global Prosperity (CGP), detailing the sources and magnitude of private giving to the developing world. Not to be categorised as a mere statistical paper, it also summarises current observations on how private capital and new sources of social funding are achieving sustainable reductions in poverty despite weaker economic activity.

Highlights from the report include:

Private capital investment flows from all donors increased from $228 billion in 2009 to $329 billion. Global philanthropy, remittances,...

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We’ve all felt that painful sensation of confusion and loss when a door closes in our life. Sometimes, it will have been slowly squeaking shut for quite a while already, and other times there will be no warning of the abrupt slamming of that door. Either way, there is no denying that these times force us to reassess our lives and more often than not, another door opens to greener pastures…

Alexander Graham Bell, the famous inventor once observed:

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.

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This week we had the great honour of having Biju Thampy, founder of Vision Rescue in India, come and speak to us at our Global Support Office in NSW. Wandering into the room after a morning of meetings, catching up with colleagues, the whole training room was abuzz with midday chatter and an air of curiosity on what to expect with this ‘special With Heart presentation’…

Vision Rescue is a registered non-profit charity involved in feeding, providing non-formal education, medical help, skills training and other kinds of assistance to the addicted and abused street children*. As a company, we entered the journey with Vision Rescue in 2009, with the donation of a bus for their team to utilise in their daily work on the streets in Mumbai....

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Australia has been overtaken by the U.S as the world’s most charitable country in a recent survey*.

As the US is the world’s richest country it makes sense that they’ve climbed to the top spot. Australia, on the other hand, ranks 14th on the world’s richest scale^: so we’ve done well to get the silver medal in generosity.

One would hope that the richer you are, the more you give away. A simple concept but our perception of rich depends on who we have around us. If you live in a community where big houses, boats and cars are the norm, then you won’t be rich until you’ve at least paid off the mortgage. In other nations, however, one cow could make the richest man in your village.

So why don’t we always give more, when we earn more? Perhaps our increased earning gives us new privileges, invites us to a new community. A higher salary may provide income for a property in a more well-off area, around more well-off people, reinforcing the message that’s its normal to be well-off.

But messages...

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We’re excited to be staring at this blank canvas, ready to make this the space for the collision of proactive ideas, current stories and moving images.

It is here that we will be exploring people and places from the very broad and interesting landscape of humanitarian giving, with a splash of the coffee world. After all, coffee is our hero!

By bringing in various guest bloggers and different ambassadors of our charity partners, as well as commentating on the issues at hand, we hope you enjoy being a part of this intellectually and compassionately charged arena to come…

Image provided by Lauren Horton, in association with Compassion Australia