Moving the conversation to xchangexchange
The Green Skeptic responded to my post about environmental blogs and the need for cross-sectoral solutions with this post. Here's the basic gist of the discussion:
My claim:
solving them
The Green Skeptic offered up these thoughts, with some quotes from Susan Raymond:
So here now, is my next question.
How do the above thoughts on the role of philanthropic capital fit with the reality?
Recent research on philanthropy and poverty have focused on the amount of giving which actually tracks to major mainstream cultural institutions and alma maters. There have been serious discussions about proposals to change the tax code to favor giving for poverty-related efforts and away from well-endowed organizations.
We also have to factor in the rising role that commercial capital is playing on some, previously philanthropic, issues - e.g. cleantech and microfinance. Is this the capital we are referring to in calls for "social capital markets to take over?" Let us not forget that these are socially-oriented, bottom-line driven, commercial ROI-based capital sources.
So, if we're really asking questions about the role of philanthropic funds within a social capital stream, we had best at least start with a sense of what dollars go where, what dollars come from where, and how we value, access, count, and use these dollars. In other words, we're back to my previous question about what mix of revenue (philanthropic, social investment, commercial investment, fair trade, social venture funds, etc) is actually funding public goods/services.
This is, I believe, still the key question, and one which is being taken up by some very thoughtful folks running the xchangexchange - which has the intellectual horsepower to become a hub of thinking about the changing capital markets. I'm going to move my conversation, questions, and the insights I received about the value of various elements of the blended value map over to the xchangexchange conversation - join me over there.