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I'm musing on crowds and change over here on the Random Philanthropy Observations Tumblr. And a warning, I'm playing with Storify and Audioboo - two new tools that I think will help me tell better stories and think in public better - so, watch out, more

Kristine Salmi-Snowdeal of CROPP Cooperative/Organic Valley and it’s grant making fund, Farmers Advocating for Organics (FAFO) recently asked me for some advice on funding social media. I didn’t want to say no to the people from whom my family gets milk. I agreed to do so, if

(Opening Plenary, Skoll World Forum, Thursday, March 31, 2011) On Friday I'm participating in a session at the Skoll World Forum called "Crowds, Clouds and Social Change." I'm honored to be joined by Patrick Meier of Ushahidi, Chris Gebhardt of TakePart and Kevin Starr

"In a place like Oxford, simple things are complicated. We study justice, health, equality, happiness, truth....The scope of what we have not yet imagined is vast." These are paraphrases from Stephan Chambers' opening remarks at the Skoll World Forum. I was quite struck by this line,

I spoke this morning on Disrupting Philanthropy at the very modest Somerset House in London, courtesy of NCVO, BigSocietyNetwork, the Guardian UK , the European Association for Philanthropy and Gicing, and many other kind hosts. One of the examples I used is about how Andy Carvin (@acarvin) influenced how many of

Twitter is amazing. As I'm sitting on O'Hare's tarmac I learn about the March 26 austerity protests in London. Which is where I'm headed (with stops in Philadelphia and DC). It seems fitting to try to learn about the public responses to

Northern California Grantmakers, a regional association of foundations, corporate giving programs and donors, held its annual meeting today. The Green Room at San Francisco's War Memorial Building played host to the participants. With its soaring ceilings and balcony overlooking City Hall, this is a public space that roars

(#biblionews conference logo) Regular readers of this blog know that my guiding intellectual question is "What's public, what's private, and who decides?" This question sent me to grad school. It defined my dissertation. It guided me into philanthropy. It informs my daily work. Earlier

Giving circles have been around for a long time. Probably millenia. In the last decade they've gotten a lot of attention because of the formal structure of Social Venture Partners and increased research and expansion efforts. I think the Awesome Foundation is something different. I first found the

Most of what I read on a daily basis has to do with publishing, the news, technology, and social change. The evolution to revolution to evolution cycle in the news business and in publishing - driven by cycles of technology, behavior change, expectation setting, technology innovation, repeat - are fascinating

I'm excited to join Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet and American Life Project and my colleague Rob Reich from Stanford on March 10 for a discussion about Philanthropy, Technology and Policy in the 21st Century. If you're in the Bay Area please join us for

In 2004 I published Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution. The book offers ideas on ways to rationalize funding streams for social good. I chose to use the term "philanthropic capital" to describe the capital markets for social good. I picked it instead of "social capital&

I'm delighted to link to two articles just published in Alliance Magazine. In this piece, Missing: The Power of Peer Networks, I elaborate on comments I made earlier regarding the Magazine's feature section on the future of philanthropy advising. This piece emphasizes the roles of peers

The University of Notre Dame has a research center on generosity. They are currently offering dissertation fellowships for research - information is here. They also have a science of generosity community and a blog. Tags: philanthropy, research

A few days ago I checked my Twitter stream and saw several items tagged #JIFLAB. I could tell  that these tweets were coming from staff of The James Irvine Foundation. I pinged the people I knew and asked "What's #JIFLAB? What's going on?" I&

I had a great time on Wednesday leading a webinar hosted by Guidestar on my Ten Predictions for the Next Ten Years post. Thanks to the ~1700 people who tuned in! The twitter #tenforten discussion was fabulous, I've seen some blog posts riffing off the discussion, and the

I'm taking a writing class and a swimming class. The writing class is taught by a well-known non-fiction writer. All ten of my classmates are published authors; several are accomplished journalists. I've been writing for a long time, but have not taken a writing class  since

The following idea came to me in an interview with Melinda Penkava of NPR. The story was taped this morning - I'll post a link when it goes on the air. Here's an idea for a social entrepreneur - mission insurance. Now that we have social

Did you know that Keystone Accountability offers a Free Feedback App? Check it out - you can get a customized survey to find out what your constituents (clients, partners, customers, users - whatever you call the people you serve) think of your work. Keystone is a leader in the field

I'm pleased to announce that the seminar series that accompanies Philanthropy and Social Investing: Blueprint 2011 is underway. I'll be leading several invitation-only seminars hosted with regional associations and foundations beginning in February. The seminars are three hour working group discussions built around the Blueprint 2011