Gift Hub

On The Indidivual in the Philanthropic Marketplace

Left Brain, Right Heart, excellent post by Randall Ottinger.  More high level ideas in one post than in many an essay or book.  Randy has the vision, the heart, a Harvard MBA, a well received book, a good network of high level leaders, and momentum. No one is thinking bigger these days. I hope he gets the critical mass of funders and implementers he needs to bring at least a few of his visionary ideas to fruition in the near future. He well may.

One Post Challenge

Congrats to Sean on the remarkable success of his One Post Challenge. Good to see so many new voices in the online conversation. Clearly, there is still a gap between those who do the most thinking and those who do the most talking. Sean has gotten a lot of the thinkers and doers in our field to pause, write a post, and maybe stick around and comment on each other's thoughts. We really do need a semi-moderated, or invitational, or quality-centric hub for informed public conversations about giving. Sean has done remarkable things with the simple blog format, pressing it to the limits to convene a field-catalyzing conversation that is open, but oriented to quality as well. He must qualify for the philanthro-blog-innovator of the year award.   

Good Card

Give a Good Card, Use a Good Card.

The Geneology of Social Capital Market, Now in Her Infancy

Social Capital Market is a sweet little thing, still in her infancy. She is at that stage where everything goes right into her mouth. Cute kid.  Profit, her Dad says to Giving, her Mom, "She has your eyes, but she has my teeth." Her mother's parents, Brotherly Love and The Spirit of Democracy are in their dotage.  Her father's parents, Mine and Thine, are still going strong. Times change, and we must change wih them. 

Double Bottom Line Mendacity Offset Trading

I like the idea that double bottom line businesses will informally offset the depradations of the single bottom line businesses that are now dominant. My hope is that we create a workable market for the moral debits and credits, kind of like carbon offsets, only for each moral ill.  For example, a mendacity offset: For every think tank thinker hired, you have to subsidize one legit thinker in some university somewhere in the world. For every ad exec, one poet. For every perjured journalist, one free range blogger. For every liar, one investigator. Offset down to a net zero mendacity footprint. Tom Matrullo adds a crucial caveat:

No need for direct offsets. The Times would, e.g., pay some ungodly number of credits into the bank for having failed to fire Judith Miller. No honest blogger currently being found, the credits could be added to a stake being amassed to woo Wayne Newton to do a Christmas special for the children of Darfur. The possibilities are incalculable.

Is this not philanthropy? Hey, Lucy, A Blended Moral Value Proposition, now that is a new buzz phrase.

DARPA Torture Bot?

"I saw a woman flayed the other day; you haven no idea how it altered her appearance for the worse." Jonathan Swift.

I know that if torture becomes institutionalized, competent people will be found to do it, and promoted when they do a good job. The best suited to the work will find, mentor and promote others as qualified, competent, and enthusiastic as they are themselves.  But maybe a better solution is ready to hand: DARPA Trauma Bot. Couldn't these mechanical surgeons take over the military's torture duties? That would spare us corrupting an entire generation enlisted men and their leaders. Would that the work of a moral surgeon could be delegated as easily.  But for satire, the Roman way is still the best.  As the knife goes in, you have to make good eye contact with the patient and talk him or her through each step of the cure.

Who Funds The School Voucher Movement?

National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy provides a one page summary of a new research report by their former Executive Director, Rick Cohen, showing who and how the voucher movement is funded. Not to hold you in suspense, the Milton Freidman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation make the list, as does the Walton Family Foundation.  Rick stresses that these conservative funders use not just giving but a coordinated multi-sectoral strategic push to achieve their vision of social change.

In Strategic Grantmaking, Cohen identifies these strategies. One of these strategies is the use of unrestricted general operating support when giving to grantees at significantly higher rates than most foundations. These funders also tend to distribute more than the federally mandated 5 percent of assets, which means more money is getting into the hands of organizations that advance the agenda.

Cohen also found that the leaders of these foundations provide additional support to the privatization movement with personal contributions to candidates, political parties, political action committees and 501(c)(4) organizations.

Presumably, think tanks, pundits, soundbites, and policy papers are also part of the mix.  We, true progessives, on the other hand, have our super-weapon:  Eskimo Whale Chants. Social change begins inside us. By chanting to the whales we set good things in motion, not just for whales but for all our astral bodies.

Endow A Fool (Insert My Picture Here)

As hundreds of billions of sub-prime loans were packaged and sold, ending up in pension plans, mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance company reserves, or assets backing savings accounts, who will be holding the empty bag once all this is marked to market? Not just the intermediaries who were holding these flawed investments in inventory or for their own account, but all the schmucks and investment advisors who went by the ratings these mispriced investments carried.  Still, if you are the CEO of a huge investment firm who gets fired, the news is not all bad. From such ranks we might recruit a new President, a State Attorney General, or a big time philanthropist. Catherine Austin Fitts lays it out in a list of links. My favorite such moral story is that of the man who headed up a sub prime lending company, made a big donation to Bush and is now Ambassador to the Netherlands.  Either Clinton would have done the same, probably. As the Emperor Vespasian said of the toilet tax, Pecunia non olet, "Money has no smell."

Could someone please endow a team of Satirists in white Emergency Vehicles, making house calls on Wall Street and in DC? We stage interventions for the mental health of unimportant people. Who will intervene among those who rule us? What investment for political return, what philanthropic initiative to heal the body politic, could have a bigger bang for the buck than a team of Clowns taking America's ruling elite away in straightjackets? Once safely in the asylum we could begin the long slow process of healing.  At times the cure may seem to the patient worse than the disease, but the main thing is that the disease itself not be allowed spread. Speaking of corruption, the Italians say, "the fish rots from the head down." We must extirpate the corruption among our elite lest it infect the whole. Philanthropy won't do it, politics is too sick to cure itself. Big business is in cahoots. That leaves the Satirists. I am happy to do what I can but I am fed up with doing it all pro bono publico in a Dumpster. I at least want a bounty for every politician or CEO I bag and cure.

Curing Philanthropy

Horace, the great Roman satirist, the most well-mannered of men, a friend of Maecenas and Emperor Augustus, suggested that poetry "should mingle the sweet and the useful," as does the nursemaid or doctor who sweetens harsh medicine with candy. I wonder if ExLax is the kind of thing he had in mind? Probably, but he was too urbane to say so. His humor is sometimes quite dry. Anyway, I hope satirizing Philanthropy will help the field be a little less constipated.

The Wall St Journal On Ameya Preserve

Are you for or against a gated community of conscience for the super-rich in Paradise Valley where nature meets culture, with fine wine,  gourmet organic food, itinerant geniuses, and preferred access to dinosaurs digs? The WSJ is even-handed about "Politically Correct Developments." Via Plenty Magazine's blog. Alice Waters sold out, and I would have too, but I missed the cut for Tame Geniuses, and they don't have a separate category for World Class Fools.