Briefing No. 29
What we’re reading
On the Greenwood Place bedside table
The Quiet Before - In these strange and difficult times, we are finding Gal Beckerman’s new book helpful. He looks at how ideas are debated, transmitted and become defining, how every idea and discovery that changes the world is marked by long periods of abject failure and how what really creates transformative change - for good and for bad - is often not obvious at the time.
MAPPED: 200 YEARS OF POLITICAL REGIMES BY COUNTRY
HISTORIC STEP TOWARDS ENDING PLASTIC POLLUTION
Meeting in Nairobi at the UN Environment Assembly this month, 175 nations have agreed a historic resolution to end plastic pollution.
INVISIBLE CHILD
We're reading Invisible Child by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Andrea Elliott. It’s a forensic look at poverty in the US. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, Invisible Child follows eight years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child born into poverty in Brooklyn, New York. Highly recommended.
DIGNITY
Properly incorporating ideas of dignity and respect, as Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee have written, sets off “a profound rethinking of economic priorities”. What might a dignity framework for respectful development look like?
CAN DEMOCRACY RISE TO THE OCCASION
The conventional wisdom these days is that autocracy is ascendent, democracy on the decline. Ken Roth argues that the alleged, widespread rise of the autocrats is more qualified than often assumed.
SOMETHING JOYFUL
Forty animators from around the world collaborated on this lovely two-minute video called Pass the Ball. Each person had three seconds to animate a ball and “pass” it to the next person.
CHANGING THE GREENWOOD PLACE BANK ACCOUNT
Greenwood Place has moved its banking relationship to Triodos Bank. Triodos publish details of every organisation they lend to and we’re delighted that the cash in our business's current account will soon be used to finance other inspiring businesses and charities. If you’re one of our clients, please look out for a change of details on your next invoice from Greenwood Place.
UKRAINE - WAYS TO HELP
If you would like to talk to us about ways to provide practical help to families and individuals in Ukraine or who have found themselves becoming refugees in the past few days, please call us. The situation is complex and still evolving but the
UPCOMING EVENTS
We’re looking forward to our next roundtable later this month on ending homelessness, with Meghan Roach, Daniel Brewer and Rick Henderson. Please do let us know if you’d like to join.
And... registration is now open for the virtual Skoll Forum. Please do log in here and register.
AND FINALLY…
CAN WE HELP YOU?
Greenwood Place provides philanthropy support, advice and execution for a small group of strategic philanthropists. We take an entrepreneurial approach to tackling tough social and environmental problems. We work closely with our clients to find the places where they can make most difference, we support their learning and we partner with them to achieve real, lasting change.
The Greenwood is the place in Shakespeare's plays where characters go to grow, change and learn.