As 2006 draws to a close and 2007 is starting in another time zone, I look forward with a certain amount of hope. The subject is giving back... The Melinda and Bill Gates foundation is trying to innovate in a new kind of giving - charity with effectiveness, and support of all kinds of projects. Warren Buffet made a muli-billion dollar donation to the Gates founddation, believing that it would make a difference. And as many people copy the glitteratti, we will be seeing all kinds of strip-down versions of creating your own charitable trust. As an example, Peter Wuffli of UBS Bank in Switzerland, has just launched the Elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalisation with a donation of 20 million Swiss francs (his salary is 22 million). He is trying to encourage an ethical approach to globalization and to fight the poverty that might arise therefrom. Other Swiss philanthropists - Stephan Schmidheiny's foundation covers development projects in South America; Klaus Jacobs's foundation gives about 20 million Swiss francs to youth projects, and the Landolt family finances scientific projects. So philanthropy is alive and well, and I have hope that it will expand, faith that the charity given will be increasingly effective to solve some of humanity's problems. My wish for 2007 - that as the success stories roll in, more people will emulate these philanthropists and the whole thing will snowball.