by Beth Bandy

Last December, the consumer research firm Trendwatching predicted 2011 would be the year of “emerging generosity,” when “wealthy individuals from emerging markets” would “increasingly be expected to … donate… not just in their home countries, but on a global scale.”

With increasing numbers of internationally-based high net worth individuals (HNWI) becoming more interested in donating to charities, the transparency and trustworthiness of recipient non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has become a regular news item. I believe it is important for front-line fundraisers and prospect researchers to stay on top of these trends because they form a backdrop for our knowledge about these donors.

As I prepare to present a ShareTraining seminar about researching prospects in the BRIC countries, I thought it would be useful to provide a few English-language resources I use to track philanthropy trends in Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

General Sources
I regularly check two general philanthropy news sources that cover the BRICs, as well as other countries around the world. The first of these resources is Alliance magazine. In fact, the current issue of this subscription-based publication includes an article about philanthropy in Brazil and India. The second general resource is the news section of the Philanthropy UK website. This section regularly includes news items about BRIC countries and has a handy archive search feature, through which you can see how discussions of philanthropy and charitable organizations have changed over the last few years.

Brazil
While there are many Portuguese-language resources specifically focused on Brazilian philanthropy and charitable organizations, few such resources exist in English. Instead, keeping track of these topics often requires turning to general and business news sources for special coverage.

One good example is a collection of articles released by The Financial Times called “Latin America: Social Enterprise and Philanthropy.” Although these articles covered countries throughout the region, they included numerous specific examples from Brazil about charitable giving and tax law, data on recurring gifts, and growth of the country’s third sector, as well as corporate social responsibility and corporate foundations.

Other sources of information about Brazil can be found in Americas Quarterly which often publishes articles in its print magazine and on its website and blog about philanthropy, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and related topics. Likewise, the online archive of Latin Trade magazine can be a useful resource. On that publication’s website try searching for keywords such as “CSR,” “NGO,” and “philanthropy” – and subscribe to their RSS feeds for breaking news on these topics.

Russia
As in Brazil, it is difficult to find English-language news about trends in philanthropy and charitable organizations. One good resource is the English-language The Moscow News, a current-affairs media outlet that regularly provides coverage of nonprofit organizations and philanthropists in Russia. To get familiar with the site, try searching its online archives for the keyword “charity.”

The publishers of Alliance also maintain a philanthropy blog written by numerous experts on philanthropy around the world. This blog recently featured the first in a series of posts that describe the findings of a new report about institutional philanthropy in Russia. This report, prepared by the Russian Donors Forum, is not otherwise available in English.

India
Dasra is an organization for Indian philanthropists. You can learn a lot about recent philanthropy and NGO developments by subscribing to Dasra’s e-newsletter and reading its blog. Dasra hosts the annual India Philanthropy Forum. One highlight from the most recent Forum was the release of Bain & Company’s India Philanthropy Report 2011. I wrote a piece for my own blog about the report, covering some take-aways for prospect research and fundraising efforts.

One business and finance news source that frequently has articles on philanthropy in India is LiveMint.com. Use the search function to find relevant articles on this topic in the archive or select “Doing Good” from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

China
The China Development Brief has long covered NGOs and philanthropy in Chinese. Recently, a new English-language translation of the publication has been released online. The first translated issue (Summer 2011) covered “Philanthropy and Civil Society in China.”

Another good news source from China is Caixin. Although this publication is generally focused on business news from China, its English-language website regularly includes features about philanthropy and charitable organizations in China.

I hope these resources will help you stay on top of relevant trends in the BRIC countries. If you would like more information about how to research individual prospects in these countries, please join us on January 31 for my ShareTraining seminar, “Golden BRICs: Researching Prospects in Brazil, Russia, India & China.”

Beth’s live ShareTraining seminar is on January 31, 2012 at 12:00 Eastern and will last approximately 90 minutes. Click here for more information and to register.

This month Cynthia Hetherington, president of The Hetherington Group will be our speaker for “Protecting Our Organizations from Harm: A Researcher’s Toolbox for Due Diligence.”  Cynthia is an experienced researcher and teacher, and has performed competitive intelligence research globally on companies, for other companies.  We know that her knowledge can be useful for nonprofits, too, to help us be wise in our due diligence research both domestically and abroad.  Cynthia recently published an article in her newsletter about researching in the Middle East that we thought would be a great preview of her seminar:

Researching in the Middle East

reprinted with permission, (c) 2011 Cynthia Hetherington

The Arab Spring sounds like a lovely entrée into a delightful new season filled with romance and surprises. What a beautiful name for such a measure of turmoil happening in the Middle East and North Africa. The entire event is filled with suffering and uncertainty. Yet “Spring” is all about the awakening of a new generation of Arab nations, those who are tired of the oppression and despots their parents and grandparents suffered under. With these new generations, opportunities will abound and a call for research and due diligence work will, no doubt, increase. Keep in mind, each country has their own strict laws governing investigations. For example, private detectives do not exist in Saudi Arabia because the practice is forbidden. You need to hire an attorney to make general inquiries on your behalf. So it is always beneficial to contact an experienced vendor/investigator in the country in which you are investigating in order to learn the limitations. The following are some online English language sources for conducting online due diligence in these territories:

Media

Al-Jazeera English (english.aljazeera.net)

Often heard in American news when referencing the latest Al Qaida video or press releases, there is little actual access to the channel in the United States. Now recognized and respected globally, Al- Jazeera is known for reporting from the Arab perspective but has also enlisted reputable journalists known for unbiased reporting. Based in Qatar, Al-Jazeera is not a government owned media outlet.

Country Briefings (Economist.com/countries)

The Economist is a go-to source for any country-specific information. Their coverage of the Middle East over the past year has been quite brilliant, as they are reporting and keeping up with the rapid changes that the Arab Spring is forcing. In addition to the news reporting, look to the Economist Intelligence Unit (eiu.com/public/) for country-specific reports.

Company Directories

Skyminder.com

This subscription-based service offers well-priced credit reports from around the globe. Much of the instantly purchasable reports are from Dun and Bradstreet; however, GraydonUK, Coface, AsiaCIS, and other credit reporting company reports can be retrieved in 5 to 10 days.

Kompass.com

Kompass offers free searching based on executive, company, or brand name. Reports are very well priced and offer the standard corporate information, such as formation, principals, industry classification, and location details.

Social Networks

Maktoob.com

This site offers research and business content information. Maktoob claims to be Arab world’s largest Web portal and online community. According to their site, Maktoob was founded in the year 2000 as the world’s first free Arabic/English Web- based e-mail service, offering users a platform to send and receive e-mails in either language, regardless of their operating system. In the few years since, Maktoob has strategically grown to become an integrated group of companies and Web sites. The network of sites includes Maktoob.com, the world’s leading Arab portal with a market share of around 13 million unique users, as well as a range of companies and sites specialized in business and e-commerce in the MENA region.

Jeeran.com

Jeeran (the neighborhood) offers you ways to connect with friends, chat amongst each other, and share videos, photos, and other multimedia content. Jeeran.com comes to you in English, Arabic, and French language versions.