Linda MacDonald’s Blog
Top US Donors – What are They Saying?
According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the top 50 Americans who gave the most to charity in 2020 committed to giving a total of US$24.7 billion to hospitals, homeless shelters, universities, museums, and more – a boost of roughly 54% from 2019 levels. What...
Top 3 Humanitarian Crises of 2021
A groundbreaking study discovered that after accounting for all income, charity, and non-cash welfare benefits like subsidized housing and Food Stamps, the most deficient 20% of Americans consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in...
Poverty Alleviation … It Takes a Village
Actress and activist Natalie Portman called on an audience at Stanford University to contemplate ways of helping the world’s poor, speaking specifically about microfinancing and village banking, and her work with FINCA International - a nonprofit that equips...
For Children’s Sake!
All around the world, people are fleeing war and persecution at record levels. Some 26 million of these individuals are refugees, meaning they have had to cross an international border in their quest for safety. Only those refugees most at risk - just 1% of the total...
Style over Suffering
In our “woke”, Twitter-Insta-TikTok culture, what percentage of our time, emotions and resources are being invested in style vs relieving suffering - me included? When my parents escaped North Korea, did they ever conceive of a world where their children and...
Do You Have 5 Minutes to Save Lives?
The politicization of refugees is not new. Regardless of whether the subject be Jewish refugees during World War II or Syrian refugees 6000 miles away in 2021, at the end of the day, helping those in need should be neither red or blue, but rather being human. But...
Refugee Resettlement Via AI
As the world faces its largest crisis of displaced people since World War II, a new algorithm developed by Stanford researchers could help countries resettle refugees in a way that boosts their employment success and overall integration. The group, headed by...
The Syrian Refugee Cataclysm
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the number of people fleeing war, conflict and persecution exceeded 80 million worldwide in 2020, the highest level seen in its 70 years of existence. "For people forced to flee, COVID-19 … has disrupted every aspect of...
Refugee Myths Debunked
The refugee crisis is accelerating at an increasingly urgent rate. As people are entwined in war, economic collapse, and a wide array of persecution, many have no choice but to risk their lives and flee in hopes of a safer future. Unfortunately the plight of refugees...
Refugees Who Now Help Refugee Programs
More than two million refugees have been taken in by the US since 1980. Many seek asylum due to past persecution or fear of potential persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership with a particular social group, or even political opinions. However, almost...