November 28, 2010

Charities With an Expiration Date Hurry to Make a Lasting Mark

Going Out of Business, Deliberately 1

Courtesy of Realizing Rights

Mary Robinson (second from left), founder of Realizing Rights, says her organization made a point of spotlighting its collaborators because “they are the ones who will be carrying on the work.”

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Courtesy of Realizing Rights

Mary Robinson (second from left), founder of Realizing Rights, says her organization made a point of spotlighting its collaborators because “they are the ones who will be carrying on the work.”

By Maureen West

Imagine charities created with their own self-destruct mechanisms built in.

Realizing Rights, an eight-year-old New York human-rights group founded by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, and Water Advocates, a five-year-old Washington group that promotes safe water in the developing world, will both blink out of existence this month, as planned. Both groups were designed to change the way global problems are perceived and solved, without adding permanently to the nonprofit