Search the Site

Posts Tagged ‘smile train’

Reader Advice Needed: What Would You Do With a $200,000 Crystal Decanter?

The Smile Train is one of my favorite charities. Combining insightful business-oriented thinking with an unquenchable thirst for helping children born with clefts, in just ten years the Smile Train has completely transformed the lives of over 500,000 people via a simple 45 minute operation.
The Smile Train has a “problem.” It’s a long story, but here is the abbreviated version. Bacardi, the makers of Bombay Sapphire Gin, got together with crystal maker Baccarat, Garrard the jeweler, and designer Karim Rashid, to produce five “priceless” handmade crystal decanters.


Freakonomics in the Times Magazine: Bottom-Line Philanthropy

In their March 9, 2008, column in the Times Magazine, Dubner and Levitt ask: why can’t a charity be run more like a business? They look at two philanthropies that have adopted unorthodox business models. Smile Train, which performs free cleft-repair surgery for poor children around the world, started training local doctors rather than flying in U.S. surgeons; this has . . .