Korea

Learning to Give honors the Beautiful Foundation for their work in the field of philanthropy. The Foundation seeks to promote a culture of giving and sharing by providing various methods in which ordinary citizens can participate and connect the resources and needs of society.

About the Beautiful Foundation

The Beautiful Foundation in Korea is based on a Community Foundation Model. A Community Foundation is a form of non-profit public interest foundation that comes about and is driven by the will of residents to solve and manage problems in the local community. The Beautiful Foundation was impressed by this model's active problem solving abilities, self-regulation, and flexibility for projects. The necessity of a strong Community Foundation in Korea was apparent.

It has been six years since the establishment of the Beautiful Foundation. In this time, the Beautiful Foundation has quickly become a representative organization, making substantial contributions to the construction and popularization of a culture of philanthropy in Korea. The Beautiful Foundation's work has been quite multifaceted, including the building of a philanthropy culture of rational and regular donation that is not dependent solely on sympathy, the formation of a donor-centric fund culture, diverse and flexible grant making, and the establishment of a desirable partnership model between cooperation and non profit organizations.

The Beautiful Foundation USA Inc. Northern California was established in 2005 and the Beautiful Foundation USA in New York had its Opening Ceremony on April 8, 2006.

The Partnership: Learning to Give and The Beautiful Foundation

To meet the need of a systematic and fundamental change in philanthropic culture, the Beautiful Foundation initiated “Na-num-gyo-yuk” Project in 2004. Na-num-gyo-yuk is a pioneering philanthropy education initiative to teach children about philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. For more information visit the project’s web site, www.nanumedu.org, or download and view this slideshow.

Na-num-gyo-yuk has accomplished some of its intiatives by partnering with the US organization Learning to Give (LTG) and implementing LTG’s program in Korean schools.

Through this partnership the Learning to Give website will offer Korean adaptations and translations of lesson plans. This partnership will also facilitate an International Teacher Exchange through which educators travel abroad to participate in summer institutes and further their knowledge of philanthropy education on a global scale.

By the Numbers: Partnership Results

From 2004 to 2006, the following accomplishments have been made:

84 teachers trained in intensive summer institutes
300 teachers complete one-day workshops on philanthropy education
350 classes use Na-num-gyo-yuk curriculum and material
287 children participated in Na-num-gyo-yuk Summer Camps
14,432 children have been taught Na-num-gyo-yuk lessons

Additional resources will also be available on this site in the future, such as a Master's thesis researching the implementation of Learning to Give into the Korean culture, as well as LTG lesson plans translated into the Korean language and adapted to Korean culture and history.