GIFT TO TEACH BUSINESS TO THIRD-WORLD WOMEN

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: March 6, 2008

Goldman Sachs & Company will donate $100 million to give at least 10,000 women a business education and, more broadly, to develop and enhance business education programs at universities in Africa, the Middle East and other developing regions, the firm announced Wednesday.The gift is one of the largest corporate donations since 2000, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.“No country will ever achieve its full potential if half of its talent pool is stymied or underrepresented,” said Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive.

The program will span five years and include programs to benefit disadvantaged women in the United States.

Mr. Blankfein said investing in educating women in the developing world for managerial roles and in building educational programs to develop business expertise and talent would benefit the economies of the countries where Goldman’s money will be spent, and that would be to the firm’s benefit. Goldman follows economic growth around the world, Mr. Blankfein said, “but also we try to create it, because that’s how our bread gets buttered as a business.”

Shareholders often object to spending corporate profits on philanthropy, and Mr. Blankfein said he expected he would get some objections to the gift. A few years ago, for instance, Goldman had to answer to shareholders angry at the company for donating a $35 million tract of 735,500 acres on the island of Tierra del Fuego, Chile, to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Goldman spent more than a year developing the program on business education. Its partners in the endeavor range from the Pan-African University in Lagos, Nigeria, to the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.

Its focus on women mirrors the efforts of many nonprofit groups that are working to give women financial tools in the belief that it will benefit their communities.

Marcellina Mvula Chijoriga, dean of the faculty of commerce and management at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, used her experience to illustrate women’s broader impact on society. One of 10 children of parents who had no formal education, Dr. Chijoriga has four children of her own and supports 10 more children in her extended family.

She said Goldman’s gift to institutions like hers would enable women “to be managers of computer companies instead of running salons.”

Past Coverage

• Bottom Line for (Red) (February 6, 2008)
• Lehman Pledges $10 Million to Black College (October 17, 2007)
• DESIGN NOTEBOOK; Rwandans Weave Baskets of Hope (October 11, 2007)
• CARE Champions World’s Poor Women With Help From Wealthy Ones (May 3, 2007)

(Article courtesy of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

RELATED LINKS:

GOLDMAN SACHS AND COMPANY: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/

THUNDERBIRD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT:  http://www.thunderbird.edu/

PAN AFRICAN UNIVERSITY, LAGOS, NIGERIA:  http://www.pau.edu.ng/about.php