Come to think of it, Tracy may have been referring to Lucy Bernholz, Susan Herr, Lenore Ealy, or Gayle Roberts as the Queenpins of giving blogs. That would make more sense. The point, really, is that philanthropy, giving, fundraising, political theory and activism, social organizing, voluntarism are all one field of practice, though we operate in our little professional silos, each chirping our little birdsongs, to the other birds of our species. Yet, giving could become conscious of these subcultures and transcend them for a higher purpose, for several higher purposes: to give and raise more money, to invest it in nonprofits, causes and forprofit ventures to better purpose, to better serve donor-citizens, and to elevate the culture of givers, receivers, and the society at large. We are "aware" of one another now in the blog worlds. We link warily - " Who is this person? What are they nattering on about? Are they one of us?" We can dimly hear one another in the dark. Will we keep each one of us chirping his or her song, like some Nightingale at dusk in a Romantic poem, where isolation is the theme? Or will we begin a blog to blog and ultimately face to face conversation leading to a re-envisioning of our multi-disciplinary pro-am field of practice? I hope we will begin to find one another, not just as bloggers but as forces for change. My personal dream, that led to the creation of this blog, and was part of why Tracy formed Inspired Legacies, was to catalyze a not-for-profit, transpartisan, supra-disciplinary space where the best people in the giving field, including donors and donor mavens, could make common purpose: call it a club, a commons, a hub, a network. Tracy is considering an invitational convening, maybe in April, to coincide with the Advisors in Philanthropy Conference in Chicago, to catalyze such a network. Though dominated by Queenpins, a few token Kingpins would be invited too in order to hit our diversity quota. The space created for others would not be "inside" Tracy's space, nor Gifthub's, but more like a hologram formed by the energies of those who participate. No one would own it - odd thought. It would give those who participate a cooperative advantage (access to the best minds and networks); from that, of course, each might find a competitive advantage. Sharing works like that; if you have tried it with other talented, well connected people who live the culture of giving.
Thoughts? Interested?
