NBC News: Michael Bloomberg donates $4.5M to U.N. climate body after U.S. cuts
April 23, 2018
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has vowed to write a $4.5 million check to the United Nations body that oversees climate change negotiations to make up the shortfall in the agency’s budget caused by U.S. funding cuts.
Read moreNPR: 100 Top Colleges Vow To Enroll More Low-Income Students
April 18, 2018
College access and affordability: It’s a common topic in higher education — because college is the one place that can really be a catapult when it comes to moving up the economic ladder. And yet, research has shown that low-income students make up just 3 percent of the students that attend America’s most selective colleges.
And, it’s not that these students just aren’t there — every year tens of thousands of top students who don’t come from wealthy families never even apply to elite colleges. Universities are taking note — and banding together under something called the American Talent Initiative — a network backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Aspen Institute and the research firm Ithaka S+R.
Read moreFast Company: What U.S. Mayors Think About The Future Of Their Cities–And The Country
April 10, 2018
Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the $200 million American Cities Initiative in June 2017 to help city leaders develop new programs and policies that solve universal societal problems like affordable housing, poor public health, a lack of well-paying jobs, and even crime and climate change. The goal is to prototype radical interventions in one place, then share what’s working with others.
Read moreThe New York Times: In Poor Countries, Antismoking Activists Face Threats and Violence
March 12, 2018
Mr. Bloomberg announced that he was donating $20 million to create a new global watchdog agency called Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products — or S.T.O.P. — devoted to monitoring the industry’s deceptive tactics.
Read moreForbes: The Higher Education Movement Our Country Needs
March 2, 2018
Across our history, America has educated our citizens and future leaders far more effectively than other countries. U.S. education has always been a staple of national strength and global leadership.
With this idea in mind, dozens of college and university presidents are convening today at Bloomberg Philanthropies with a singular mission: to bolster our country’s leadership by sending 50,000 more highly-qualified lower-income students to top colleges and universities with high graduation rates by the year 2025.
Read moreFast Company: This Contest Will Put Millions Into Ambitious Public Art
March 2, 2018
Several years ago, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a competition to award struggling cities $1 million each for trying a novel approach at revitalization. It was called the Public Art Challenge, with the goal being that each place should think up some big, unifying, and life-improving masterpiece.
That effort has paid off beautifully. According to Bloomberg’s math, the four winning projects based in Los Angeles; Gary, Indiana; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and a triumvirate of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy in New York generated $13 million for those four places, both in terms of new jobs, related neighborhood investments, and visitor spending
Read moreQuartz: Nine American cities are revolutionizing how data can improve lives
March 2, 2018
Bloomberg Philanthropies named the inaugural group of nine US cities to achieve What Works Cities certification, its standard for government effectiveness. Underpinning the certification is an evaluation of how well a city uses data-driven decisions to improve its residents’ lives.
Read moreForbes: All-In Philanthropy: The Story Of Bloomberg LP’s Rebuilding Team In The U.S. Virgin Islands
December 6, 2017
A member of Bloomberg’s on-the-ground team in St. John put it this way: “Bloomberg didn’t just cut a check to help the U.S. Virgin Islands – the company sent down some of the smartest disaster recovery experts with hurricane experience who can help navigate government bureaucracy and speed the recovery process. Potentially the most important resource we have down here is brainpower.”
Read moreForbes: Cities Growing More Powerful And That May Be Good For You
November 21, 2017
Bloomberg, who is the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Global Ambassador for NCDs, discussed with Margaret Chan, MD, who was the WHO’s Director General at the time, the possibility of forming a network of cities around the world that would agree to implement interventions to prevent NCDs. As Kelly Henning, MD, who has led the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Health program since its inception in 2007, explained, “The WHO agreed that they would be well-placed to put forward such a cities initiatives and could serve as the implementing partner. The WHO representative for each country where each city is located has since been on board.”
Read moreThe New York Times: A Shadow Delegation Stalks the Official U.S. Team at Climate Talks
November 11, 2017
According to a new report from America’s Pledge, a group led by Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Brown, if the institutions working to meet the Obama targets were a separate country, they would be the third-largest economy in the world after the United States and China. Even as the Trump administration plans to roll back federal climate change policies like the Clean Power Plan, the study found, falling clean technology prices, the low price of natural gas and local carbon-cutting efforts have already cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 11.5 percent between 2005 and 2015.
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