J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, Beetle the Bard: helping children

J.K. Rowling annouced this week that all proceeds from her forthcoming book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, will benefit Children's High Level Group, a charity she founded. CHLG funds education and outreach activities to improve the lives of marginalised and institutionalised children across Europe.Beedle the Bard is a collection of five fairy tales and is mentioned in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" as having been left to Hermione Granger by Dumbledore.

If you're in Edinburgh, Scotland today and hoping to get tickets to today's lauch "tea party" of the book, sorry, tickets were distributed by lottery to Edinburgh kids age 8 to 11.

You can support CHLG with your purchase of Beedle the Bard (standard or collectors edition) ... or, if you're like me and just can't get enough Harry Potter, I won't wait for this book to show up in my Christmas stocking!

Another celebrity philanthropist

I miss my subscription to Time magazine which ended recently ... I thought it was a "times are tough" cut-back that I needed make, but since a friend forwarded me this article from the most recent issue, I realize how much I miss the weekly magazine I found in my mailbox on Saturdays.

Here's the story of actor Jet Li, who is teaching compassion and civic duty in a modern, Westernized China. Li's One Foundation is a partnership with the Red Cross Society of China. At the core of the foundation's philosophy is: “1 person + 1 dollar/yuan + 1 month = 1 big family”. The actor hasn't made many movies lately, as the article reports, to reprise the "major themes of his life — self-sacrifice, service and discipline."

Knowing we have a few Chinese students at the Center on Philanthropy and another fellow blogger who's also an Asia studies scholar, I'm interested to know what others think.

The Chronicle on the 'Cause Celeb'

A recent edition (October 30th) of The Chronicle on Philanthropy included an article on celebrity activism. (www.philanthropy.com/premium/articles/v21/i02/02005101.htm) In particular, it discussed Ashley Judd's involvement with YouthAIDS, a program of Population Services International. While Ashley Judd's involvement has brought positive attention and greater awareness to the mission of YouthAIDS, this mutually rewarding and beneficial (I'm inferring from the article) partnership does not always play out as well with other causes and celebrities. Helen Fielding's novel Cause Celeb offers a spot-on take of all aspects - both positive and negative - of celebrity charitable activism. Her questions are thoughtful, insightful, and certainly not easy to answer. For anyone interested in this growing fundraising and awareness trend, Fielding's novel is a must read!

Bono writes for the New York Times

It looks like Bono, the philanthropist musician, will be writing an occasional column for the New York Times next year. White the details are still being worked out, I would hope he'd use the opportunity to promote his philanthropic work through the ONE Campaign while reiterating to readers the impact ONE gift or ONE volunteer can have globally and locally.

Paul Newman, Philanthropist

Since I was crossing the east coast this weekend (5 states in one day!), I'm a few days late posting the sad news about actor and philanthropist Paul Newman. I'll leave his movie credits to our in-house movie buff Laura, so I'll mention just a few of Mr. Newman's philanthropic activities. In 1978 he created the "Newman's Own" brand. Being a privately held company, he's been able to use 100% of profits for his charitable work. He established and funded Hole in the Wall Camps for kids with mental illness (a camp that's attracted a lot of celebrity backing, by the way). His dedication to the less fortunate has long been well-known. Indeed, I think most would agree that he lived true to his own motto: "I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out."

I really enjoyed NPR's story on Mr. Newman, which I listened to while driving from DC to Baltimore on Saturday.