Philanthropy and the Presidency

The former president praises his wife's campaign, and talks philanthropy.

ByABC News
September 26, 2007, 5:28 PM

Sept. 26, 2007 — -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is getting a solid review of her political campaign from another successful politician in her family, former President Bill Clinton, who tells Charles Gibson that she has "done well" so far and has a "campaign with a purpose" in her run for the White House.

Clinton spoke with Gibson today as his philanthropic summit began in New York. The Clinton Global Initiative brings together government leaders, business executives and philanthropists to promote charitable work, something Clinton said he would continue to do if his wife is elected president.

The following is a partial transcript of his interview with Gibson:

Charles Gibson: We have existed on a sort of model for philanthropy for years and years. You have some money, you give it to a charity, the charity spends it. Are you looking for a new paradigm?

Bill Clinton: Yes, because the level of philanthropy has expanded quite a lot. So, with the advent of Internet giving, which has empowered small givers to make a big difference with donors being more demanding in terms of wanting to know what's the return on the investment they make, the ability of people in their private lives to advance the public interest is greater than ever before.

And what I'm trying to do is to get to that kind of threshold with as many people as I can possibly drag into this kind of work

Gibson: Well, let me get to government in a minute, but when you talk about problems as big as saying, " want to do something about climate change, or I want to do something about world health, or world hunger, or tolerance in the world," is it not a little -- I mean, those problems are so huge is there a bit of hubris in saying OK we can do something about these problems?

Clinton: Well, there is if you claim to do something you can't do. If you're, the nongovernmental sector can do things more cheaply, more effectively, more quickly, but you have to be ruthlessly accountable. You have to quit things that don't work, and you're naive if you think you can do it without some sort of support with the government, so you can take these things to scale.