Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Denise Webb, 20, is a CoGenerate Senior Fellow. She’s a student at Berry College and a seasoned activist, working with organizations including United Way, Partnership for Southern Equity and The Sunrise Movement. She is the co-author of Why Aren’t We Doing This!...

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Despite the ongoing drumbeat of generational conflict (a hate story), right in front of us is evidence of a new narrative of cross-generational connection and collaboration (a love story).  That love story was on full display at the Grammys, most visibly in the Tracy...

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Peter Karoff

The Philanthropic Initiative, Inc.
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006

Helping donors increase the impact of their philanthropy

After a two-year sabbatical studying poetry, Boston business leader and civic activist Peter Karoff founded The Philanthropic Initiative in 1989. His plan, groundbreaking at the time, was to promote philanthropy and to greatly enlarge the pool of donors, encouraging them to give more, and more strategically. Today the Philanthropic Initiative is a nonprofit philanthropic consulting firm that provides strategic planning and programmatic services to individual donors, families, foundations and corporations. The Initiative offers not only advice, but research into areas of need, as well as a commitment to pro bono work. To date, The Philanthropic Initiative has helped to direct more than a billion dollars in philanthropic investment to address a broad range of social issues including: education, health, youth and family needs, hunger and nutrition, housing and homelessness, community and economic development, civic engagement, environmental issues, and the arts. Perhaps more importantly, it has spawned a burgeoning cottage industry of philanthropy advisors and consultants and has influenced the thinking and actions of thousands regarding the critical role new philanthropic capital can play in improving the quality of life in communities around the globe.