This month's giving carnival, on The Foundation of the Future, is hosted by Trista Harris. I would suggest the following trends:
- Fewer dollars going into private foundations as a percentage of the growing total.
- More Boomers giving large amounts in their lifetime and putting time and talent with it ("engaged philanthropy")
- More mission aligned investing
- More investment in PRI and social ventures and B companies
- More sharing of insights and ideas behind the scenes and on line as the Gen Y people, the digital natives, create their own many to many networks
- More clarity within philanthropy of its complicity in the ills it seeks to cure
- A coming moment of truth as foundation people see the US slip towards a bi-partisan Pinochet style Capitalism, whose buzz words are Freedom and Ordered Liberty: Either foundations like that fine, as their Boards may like it fine, or the money begins to move for social change. (Or, some foundations go one way, other the another way, and we see a real clash.)
