ideas Public ideas A recent opinion column in The Chronicle of Philanthropy called for better protection for public policy ideas. Huh? This was a mind-bending piece for me, one which I finally realized struck me as the "solution" being - at best, a misapplication of resources - and, at worst, a
innovation Social Innovation Camp A few weeks back I wrote about Kluster and the promise it might hold for rapid prototyping of social ideas. Here's a better example - Social Innovation Camp, London, April 4 - 6, 2008. For 72 hours techies and social innovators will work on the following six ideas:
microfinance Virtual Seminar: Can online investing end poverty? This discussion will focus on MicroPlace as a breakthrough innovation in microfinance. Sponsored by The New America and Calvert Foundations. Join the webcast on March 19 at 1 pm pacific, 4 pm eastern by logging in here. Those in DC can attend in person at the Ronald Reagan International Trade
Recessions, the wealthy and philanthropy Given the chaos on Wall Street these past weeks, a report on the declining rate of growth in American millionaires may not come as any surprise. But since philanthropy is ever-occupied with transfers of wealth and such, I thought it appropriate to bring to your attention this report from the
Now the news is a portal to giving A new service, good2gether, links news stories on social issues to nonprofits addressing the issue. The service, called Good2gether (G2G), allows readers of a news story to click through directly from the story to donate to an associated nonprofit's website. Launch cities include San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Houston,
dml Second Life Foundations Discussion Foundations in Second Life: Monday, March 17th at 5 pm PDT , in Second Life as part of the Life 2.0 Summit - get there here And here is an 8 minute tour of virtual worlds that Sharon Burns of the MacArthur Foundation put together. And here is her tour
blogs Foundation blogs - again Peter Osnos writes about media for The Century Foundation. His weekly column, "The Platform" is one of my "must reads."As regular readers of this site know, I think the changes in the media business give us much to think about where philanthropy (and many other
innovation Trend Analysis for the Social Sector I've written before about where we stand in developing philanthropic capital markets (I'm sticking with this term, instead of the more en vogue "social capital" markets" because social capital is a term that refers to "connections within and between social networks"
Ruckus Nation Semifinalists announced Ruckus Nation announced 56 semi-finalists today, heading toward the grand prize announcement on March 17. List of semi-finalists is here. Each of them won $250 and are in the running for bigger prizes, exposure, and possible investment. Ruckus Nation is an online idea competition sponsored by HopeLab. It is designed
Self interested foundations David Leonhardt, "Economic Scene" columnist, looks at this question in this Sunday's "Money" issue of the New York Times Magazine. Online here. As Leonhardt looks at social science research on this question, particularly that done by economists, he asks: "To put it bluntly,
futures Issues that Matter (Adapted from Plenary Presentation, MicroEdge Users Conference, November 2007.) This post is about nine issues that matter to you - whether you work in a nonprofit public benefit organization, are a philanthropic funder, or happen to be a commercial technology company that serves those markets. Now, even if I do
Tech Roundup 2008.1 Here's my first philanthropy-related tech roundup for 2008. iCARE Peer to Peer Disaster Relief - someone needs what you have to give - make it happen on iCARE a project in progress from the engineering school at UC Berkeley. Kluster Crowd-sourced product (or service or action) design. Kluster
extinction Extinction Timeline Extinction usually makes me think of odd looking fish, once pristine forests now used for crops, and Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi (video). It usually evokes images of natural things that mankind has wiped out. Ross Dawson has an extinction timeline of things man has wiped out or
innovation That was fast...was it any good? Can we do that? Those are just some of the questions we should all be asking 72 hours from now, when the Kluster experiment comes to an end. Set your watch for 8 am, Pacific time, March 1. What is Kluster? Crowdsourced product development. Huh? Kluster is a design process that uses input from
future How we give Last month, the Wall Street Journal ran this story predicting how technology will change the way we shop, entertain ourselves, get our news and several other things (specifically, how we search, how we make and maintain our friendships, and how we protect our privacy). In making its (somewhat hesitant) predictions,
media Special report on philanthropy...and its not even Giving Season The Nightly Business Report on PBS begins a special three-part report on philanthropy this evening, February 25. Part One looks at how people decide how much to give - online at a GuidetoGiving part one. Tags: philanthropy, media
Social Capital Index Launches The Social Capital Index launched on February 22. Check out the announcement here. See it here. You'll be able to see Social Capital Deals, investments, and a fund matrix. Congratulations to the folks over at xigi for making this happen. Tags: philanthropy, socialcapitalmarkets, xigi
dml From 1000 entries... ....come 17 winners. The MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning inaugural competition (conducted in partnership with HASTAC) announced its first 17 winners today. The full announcement and list are here. And mark your calendars for March 17 when HopeLab announces the winners of the Ruckus Nation contest. DISCLOSURE: I work
Match the speaker to the quote 1. "The goal is to integrate public policy and charitable giving." A. Bill Clinton B. Michael Bloomberg C. Peter Peterson D. Bill Gates And, yes, I am aware that all of the choices are white American men over 50 years old. I didn't say anything (yet)
More on Giving Change, Changing Giving OK I started this conversation on Giving Change, Changing Giving, really just put in a placeholder, but I have been on airlines/in meetings ever since. I will get to it in more depth - but wanted to jot a note that connects it, surprisingly, to one of the more
Giving Change, Changing Giving Have been on airplanes and in nonstop meetings, most without wifi, hence lack of posts. Am working on thoughts about relationships between online giving marketplaces (DonorsChoose, GlobalGiving, Kiva) and how (if) they are changing giving. Also pondering (and pursuing research leads) on links between charitable giving and civic engagement...(e.
alignedinvesting Investing for Change There is a (wee) bit of a movement afoot in philanthropy - small, but growing. It is the movement toward using endowed assets as part of a foundation's change strategies - I've written about it before as "aligned investing." (posts here, here, here, here,
networks Notes on nonprofit networks Enough of my noodling about networks, I decided to take my questions, "What do nonprofit networks look like, how do they work, and what does this mean for philanthropy?" to the experts. So I asked these questions of the folks over at FAS.Research - who do very
innovation Customized Google-powered foundation searching This custom Google search was created by folks at eDemocracy. This comes via the NTEN listserve. Here's what its creator says about it: "To assist E-Democracy.Org's grant prospecting efforts I put together a little (big actually) Google Custom Search covering foundations, some government funding
networks Noodling about networks What do politics, the Super Bowl, and philanthropy have to do with each other? Besides the fact that they are all on my mind, that is. They may have nothing else in common so I'll stick with why all of them are on my mind. One word. Networks.
