Tycoons give hope to Ethiopia
The Sunday Times
Jan. 3, 2009
PHILIP Berber, the dotcom millionaire turned philanthropist, is being backed by the computer billionaire Michael Dell in his drive to help the rural poor in Ethiopia.
The Austin, Texas-based Dubliner said last week his charity A Glimmer of Hope gave more than $8m to projects in Ethiopia last year. He said: "Our giving is now about dollar for dollar: in 2009 we gave $4m and third party donors gave the same amount."
Berber said his charityis endowment has given away $20m over the past eight years, while third party donors such as Dell gave a further $10m. The endowment from Berberis own family is valued at about $50m he said. Dellis family foundation has given imultiple millions of dollarsi to Ethiopians via A Glimmer of Hope, he said. "They are an engaged large foundation that is supporting our work. It is at one end of the scale o at the other we have churches and local children in Austin."
Over the past three years A Glimmer of Hope has doubled its annual spend to$8m a year. "The money in our endowment has been reduced because of the stock market falls, but we are increasing our giving, not decreasing it," said Berber. So far the charity has helped 2m Ethiopians receive healthcare, education and micro-finance services.
Berber sold his electronic-brokerage group CyBerCorp to Charles Schwab for $488m in March 2000, just weeks before the dotcom collapse. "The great investor in the sky blessed us both with the sale price and the timing," he said. After the sale, Berber wound down his commercial interests to concentrate on charitable work.
Berber was in Dublin to speak to students in Trinity College in an event sponsored by the Irish charity Suas Educational Development.
He said he feared aid to Ethiopia would fall because of the global recession. iIf we are serious about helping to lift people out of poverty in our lifetime, we need to scale up and build capacity,i said Berber.