World Economic Forum honors Australian Jewish innovator

Jeremy Balkin launched influential effort to encourage charity among super-wealthy

The World Economic Forum has selected a Jewish philanthropy promoter from Australia as one of its Young Global Leaders for 2013, naming him alongside Chelsea Clinton, star political analyst Nate Silver and Black Eyed Peas musician will.i.am.

Jeremy Balkin received the honor for founding and running Give While You Live, an organization “challenging the super wealthy to share their good fortune during their lifetime,” according to its website.

Funds raised by Give While You Live have gone to a variety of Jewish and non-Jewish charities, including the Jewish National Fund, Australia’s Jewish Communal Appeal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The president of Karma Capital in Sydney, Balkin is also a member of ROI Community, a network of 800 Jewish activists in a variety of fields, which is part of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network. He addressed the group in Jerusalem at the 2012 ROI Summit, lecturing on successful fundraising and organization building.

As one of 200 Young Global Leaders — all under age 40 — from 70 countries, Balkin has been invited to attend the group’s annual summit, which will take place in June in Yangon, Myanmar.

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