Lucy Bernholz

Bono to be NYT philanthropy columnist

U2 front man and anti-poverty activist Bono will publish his first column tomorrow in Sunday's New York Times (1/11). [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Great Depression Giving - Where's the data?

The Economist is just the latest source to run a line about giving that goes something like this: "During the Great Depression, giving rose. Over the past 40 years there have been several recessions, but just one year in which total giving has fallen in America: 1987, the year

Blog Hiatus

Philanthropy2173 is on a reduced publishing schedule at least through January 2009 due to a death in my family. I'll be back when I can. I'm more likely to be posting short thoughts through twitter - follow me here. These also scroll and are archived along

Atlanticphilanthropis

MoveOn takes on Madoff

MoveOn.org has joined forces with The Open Society Institute and Atlantic Philanthropies to raise funds for several organizations that were ripped off by Bernard Madoff. Here is the full text of the MoveOn letter announcing this effort, MoveOn's website is here: "Dear MoveOn member, You'

(Untitled)

Fifty great campaigns/websites/resources mixing technology and giving http://ping.fm/MuWnK

madoff

They Need us Now

TheyNeedUsNow  is a somewhat* rapid response  to the trail of tears left in the wake of the great Madoff Ripoff. Hats off to the folks who pulled this together - whom I can't identify from a quick scan of the site (unsolicited RECOMMENDATION to the site builders: Fix

The price of data

[Photo: Edinburgh University Data Library] I really was planning on taking a blogging break, but the philanthropy news (scandals) just keeps-a-comin'. Long time readers know that the role, value, access to, and use of data in philanthropy and public problem solving are some of my key interests. It'

Just what we didn't need...less trust

MTV has admitted to using Knight Foundation grant dollars to NOT pay the freelancers that it hired to do the work of its Street Team 08. Details are here and here, initial discussion from the freelancers is here and here. After some public tale-telling (just what you might expect from

giving

Government and giving

I was going to title this post, "Michelle and me." You see, I (and 10 million+ others or so) just got an email from Michelle Obama asking me to give to charity this holiday season. Here's my personal email from Mrs. Obama: This holiday season, the

philanthropiccapitalmarkets

Commons, not markets

The title of this post "commons, not markets" hints at a much larger theme I'm working on. In that vein, however, here is an interesting site and presentation on a "social venture commons" that I found through twitter (#igniter). Note the presentation refers to

clinton

Who will answer the call?

Ah, yes. Two words - philanthropy and transparency - that go together quite frequently in "insider baseball" discussions among foundations and nonprofits. Unfortunately, the general public is standing outside the ballpark on this one. Two major public events on this issue - the release of the list of

innovation

Mapping medical donations

Hey - check this out - global map of medical donations Made possible by the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations www.pqmd.org - "...an alliance of pharmaceutical, health product companies and humanitarian organizations that donate billions of dollars in medical products each year to help people in developing

buzzword2008

Buzzword 2008.10 - Philanthrocapitalism

And the final buzzword for 2008....Philanthrocapitalism. It definitely goes to prove that buzzwords created by professional journalists will get a LOT of play. A Google search on the terms brings up 41,000 hits. The book has been reviewed everywhere, debated everywhere, and discussed everywhere. Even though, from an

change.org

What would you ask? (WWYA)

Nathaniel Whittemore has a nice discussion going on over at change.org - "What is the one thing you need to know before giving to charity this year?" The posts are all interesting, and comments are also helpful - here are some paraphrased excerpts - read the post/

buzzword2008

GoodGifting gets its own website

GoodGifting was buzzword number 6 this year. ChristmasFuture essentially puts the idea into action. Another rapid development example of buzzwords mashing into being. Tags: philanthropy, buzzwords, buzzwords2008

brest

Data matter

Data matter. So says Paul Brest, President of the Hewlett Foundation. Given my earlier posts on data, and the list of ideas that several groups have endorsed as ways to improve philanthropy, this paragraph from Brest's letter jumped out at me: "In other development work, the Hewlett

buzzword

It is a Buzzword Mashup

Predictions markets + mobile giving + charity gift cards = predicto + charity choice You can't make up this stuff. (I know because I try). Perhaps in 2009 I'll start a new list of real-live efforts that represent buzzwords mashed together. Tags: philanthropy, buzzwords, buzzwords2008, buzzwords2009

madoff

No, I didn't "predict" the Madoff Ripoff

I assume no one takes me seriously when I claim to predict the future. I mean, c'mon, if I could predict the future don't you think I'd be doing something else besides working all the time and writing this blog? I call my "

ideas

Big (?) Ideas

Several groups from several sectors have met in the last month+ to discuss ways to improve philanthropy and social investing on a global scale. In no particular order, and with no authority other than my own, here are some of the ideas I know of that are being discussed:* * New

buzzword

Buzzword 2008.9 - Social Enterprise

This next entry on the buzzword 2008 list - social enterprise - is a perfect example of the 20 year+ buildup that some buzz requires. The concepts and realities of social enterprise have been around for a long time (Bill Drayton founded ASHOKA in 1980). In 2008 the blending of

Thoughts on philanthropy

If you got together with other smart people to discuss how to "optimize institutional philanthropy" you would have a lot to talk about. It would help to identify some of what needs to be made better. Here's a rather elegant and brilliant summary from a colleague,

commons

Why not a "Giving Commons?"

Both videos are by Jesse Dylan, who made the Will.i.am "Yes we can" video. These are from the blogs of Creative Commons and Larry Lessig. Tags: philanthropy, commons, technology, media

(Almost) real time grant data

My hat is off to the Foundation Center!* - check out these maps of foundation giving and program related investments in response to recession - it isn't a $700 billion bailout, but there is activity to note, and the Foundation Center maps make it easy and useful! This

huffpo

More social innovation, this time Jewish

Over on Huffington Post there is a great post about innovation in times of recession. It focuses on opportunities for social innovation in the Jewish community, but only a little of what it has to offer are specific to that community. Here are the authors' three identified opportunities: "

buzzword2008

Buzzword de-listing!

Hot on the heels of the Marketplace review of buzzwords (listen here) we've had our first ever buzzword de-listing! Thanks to the folks in Jewish philanthropy, we saw NextGen move into mainstream philanthropy and take the number 8 2008 buzzword spot. No sooner did it make the move