News

A nation of women

02/02/2012

"Anadolu" (Anatolia) may very well be the "land of mothers," but as Turkey finds its place as a global leader, it needs to become a nation of women. According to the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap report released this week, it has a long way to go. Read more.

Raising girl power on Twitter

01/24/2012

On Tuesday, January 31 at 2PM EST and 9PM IST, we'll host a Twitter chat about empowering young girls with the hashtag #gendergap. Read more.

Social Entrepreneurship on the Rise in Turkey

01/17/2012

Social entrepreneurship is on the rise worldwide, especially Turkey. Ashoka Türkiye's Zeynep Meydanoglu and Matthias Scheffelmeier share insights about what's going on in Anatolia in this blog post.

301,927 has been raised to-date through Van Earthquake Relief Fund

01/10/2012

As long as individuals, corporations and foundations show interest in supporting the longer term recovery and reconstruction process in Van, Turkish Philanthropy Funds will keep the Van Earthquake Relief Fund open for contributions. Read more.

Craig Kennedy, The German Marshall Fund

Craig Kennedy has been president of the German Marshall Fund since 1995. Under Mr. Kennedy’s leadership, GMF has focused its activities on bridging U.S.–European differences on foreign policy, economics, immigration and the environment. An aspect of that strategy includes supporting over twenty American and European policy research institutions that are actively involved in shaping transatlantic cooperation. Mr. Kennedy has also expanded GMF’s programs in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. A major accomplishment of that effort has been the launch in 2003 of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a $27 million grantmaking initiative to strengthen civil society and democracy, in partnership with the U.S., Dutch, Swedish and Greek governments, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Expanding GMF’s capacities as a public policy institution has been another of Mr. Kennedy’s major achievements. Toward this effort, he has provided GMF with a strong infrastructure throughout Europe, opening new offices in Paris, Bratislava, Brussels, Belgrade, and Ankara to complement the work being done in Washington and Berlin. Another key program, the Transatlantic Fellows program, was begun under Mr. Kennedy’s direction and provides outstanding journalists, policy analysts, and academics an opportunity to pursue their research and writing interests in one of GMF’s offices. He has also supported several substantial new projects which strengthen the organization’s public policy efforts. Among them are Transatlantic Trends — an annual survey of American and European public opinion — and the Trade and Poverty Forum — an international effort to ensure that the United States and Europe work together with other industrialized and developing countries to address poverty in the developing world through the world trading system.

Mr. Kennedy began his career in 1980 as a program officer at the Joyce Foundation in Chicago. From 1983 to 1986, he was vice president of programs for Joyce. As president of the Joyce Foundation from 1986 to 1992, Mr. Kennedy built the Foundation’s environmental program and launched a new program on U.S. immigration policy. Mr. Kennedy left the Joyce Foundation to work for Richard J. Dennis, a Chicago investor and philanthropist. During this same period, Mr. Kennedy created a consulting firm working with nonprofit and public sector clients. Mr. Kennedy serves on the Board of the nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the European Foundation Center, and as an independent trustee of the Van Kampen mutual funds.