The 'Philanthropy Project' Launches With Unprecedented $10 Million Grant to Promote Generosity in America

The 'Philanthropy Project' Launches With Unprecedented $10 Million Grant to Promote Generosity in America

American Film Institute Joins Effort to Create New Genre of 'Filmanthropic' Entertainment

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Using modern entertainment's unrivaled power to inspire, the Philanthropy Project is out to transform every American man, woman and child into a philanthropist. With an unprecedented $10 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, the pioneering project is working with the American Film Institute (AFI) to launch a multimedia campaign that entertains and educates viewers even as it mobilizes them to become not just charitable, but philanthropic.

The Philanthropy Project is being launched just as aging Baby Boomers in America are bequeathing trillions of dollars in personal earnings to their heirs and favorite causes -- marking the largest transfer of private wealth in human history. In previous inter-generational transfers of wealth, roughly 10% has gone to philanthropy. By telling the rousing, untold stories of our country's 68,000 mostly small foundations (whose quiet, good works have cured disease, improved literacy, sent humans to the moon, and enhanced the life of all Americans for more than a century), the Philanthropy Project aims to motivate Baby Boomers and their young heirs to increase that percentage substantially, propelling the United States into an unparalleled, populist era of generosity and citizen philanthropy.

The venture is led by Dr. Michael Guillen, a Cornell-educated theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and three-time Emmy Award winner known for his 14-year post as ABC News Science Editor. Guillen explains that the project aims to create a sea change in how people perceive philanthropy. "Most of us associate the word with stuffy, rich, white people," says Guillen. "For much of the public, philanthropy is strictly the province of the wealthy: the Gateses, Buffets, Rockefellers, Templetons. Yet all Americans, no matter their station in life, can have a meaningful impact on their communities and the nation at large by donating whatever they can -- be it, to paraphrase Sir John Templeton, their time, talents or treasure."

The Philanthropy Project is sponsoring an unprecedented "Filmanthropy Scholarship Competition" among first-year Fellows at the AFI Conservatory, hailed worldwide as one of America's leading filmmaking programs. Competitors will create short films about the leaders of small foundations and citizen philanthropists who are transforming the lives of individuals and communities all across America, after which they'll be judged by AFI's renowned faculty. Ten scholarship recipients will be announced in April 2008, whereupon they will volunteer their time and talents to the philanthropies featured in their films.

"The use of private wealth by individuals, non-profits and family foundations to meet a wide variety of society's needs and challenges is a longstanding part of America's unique and extraordinary heritage," says Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr., chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation. "The Philanthropy Project will expand upon that heritage by sharing with millions of Americans inspiring, uplifting stories about innovative approaches that private philanthropists and family foundations continue to take every day in meeting human needs."

"We are inspired by the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation," says AFI Conservatory Dean Robert Mandel. "By encouraging young filmmakers to bring their personal philanthropic endeavors to new audiences, the seed is planted for a new generation of artists to change the world through its stories."

Charitable foundations are a uniquely American institution -- rarely found anywhere else in the world. For more than a century, foundations have been the headwaters that constantly supply the river of philanthropic funds flowing to countless nonprofit organizations nationwide; which themselves have served as tributaries bringing much-needed services to the American public. Ever since 1906, when John D. Rockefeller founded our nation's first major foundation, these unique institutions have given rise to spectacular innovations we now take for granted, such as: public libraries (Carnegie Foundation), the polio vaccine (Sarah Scaife Foundation), the 911 emergency telephone system (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), and even the Space Age (Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation).

Yet it is the greatest story never told. According to a recent poll, while most Americans are familiar with the nation's largest charities -- Red Cross, United Way, March of Dimes, etc. -- close to 90% cannot cite the name of even one foundation.

Today, America has some 68,000 charitable foundations, with total assets in excess of $500 billion! Only 50 of them -- a mere 0.07% -- tout billion-dollar assets and sport famous names such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford and Gates. More than 98% of all foundations are small, with assets of under $100 million, little staffing, and tight budgets. Yet their combined philanthropic purse is larger than that of the big fifty, and they're using it to help Americans at the local, regional and national level. Many aging Baby Boomers are creating new foundations and/or donating to existing ones in record amounts. The Philanthropy Project wants to help maximize this historic philanthropic trend -- which could swell the collective assets of our nation's foundations by an unprecedented $5-plus trillion -- monies that will help tackle some of our country's greatest, most intractable 21st-century needs.

About Dr. Michael Guillen

Dr. Michael Guillen, three-time Emmy Award winner, best-selling author, and former Harvard instructor, is known and loved by millions as ABC News Science Editor, a position he filled for 14 years (1988-2002). In that capacity he appeared regularly on "Good Morning America," "20/20," "Nightline" and "World News Tonight." He is currently host of "Where Did It Come From?," a popular, weekly, one-hour primetime series for The History Channel that debuted in Fall 2006. Along with hundreds of articles written for publications such as The New York Times, Science News, and Psychology Today, he is author of two critically acclaimed books: Bridges to Infinity: The Human Side of Mathematics and Five Equations That Changed The World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics. His latest is Can a Smart Person Believe in God? President of Spectacular Science Productions and Filmanthropy Media, Guillen earned a B.S. from UCLA and a Ph.D. in physics, mathematics and astronomy from Cornell University.

About the John Templeton Foundation

The John Templeton Foundation (http://www.templeton.org/) funds innovative scientific studies of life's "Big Questions" by scholars at the world's most prestigious research institutions. The Big Questions and their possible answers have profound intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual implications and include everything from the laws of nature and the nature of the universe to the fundamental character of generosity, altruism, gratitude, forgiveness, and creativity. In 2006, the Foundation disbursed approximately $60 million to such research projects, as well as college courses, books, and essays related to the Big Questions.

About the American Film Institute

AFI is a national institute providing leadership in screen education and in the recognition and celebration of excellence in the art of film, television and digital media. AFI trains the next generation of filmmakers at its world-renowned Conservatory, maintains America's film heritage through the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and explores new digital technologies in entertainment and education through the AFI Digital Content Lab and AFI K-12 Screen Education Center. As the largest nonprofit exhibitor in the United States, AFI ON SCREEN encompasses the annual AFI FEST presented by Audi: AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival -- as well as year-round programming at ArcLight Hollywood and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, including SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival. AFI AWARDS, the annual almanac for the 21st century, honors the most outstanding motion pictures and television programs of the year, while AFI's "100 Years..." series has ignited extraordinary public interest in classic American movies. And, during the past 35 years, AFI's Life Achievement Award has become the highest honor for a career in film. Additional information about AFI is available at http://www.afi.com/.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: AFI; Philanthropy Project

CONTACT: Larry Winokur, lwinokur@bwr-la.com, or Chris Libby,
clibby@bwr-la.com, both for AFI and Philanthropy Project, +1-310-550-7776

Web site: http://www.templeton.org/
http://www.afi.com/

---

Profile: International Entertainment