ON PHILANTHROPY 2.0

GIVING THOUGHT

Today's news of Warren Buffett's giving some $31 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the already world-leading $30 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is terrific news for society at large. 

As an aside, one wonders what's going through the minds of mega-yacht enthusiasts Paul Allen and Larry Ellison, as Don Dodge implies.

While one can only applaud initiatives like those made by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, I do empathize with Paul Kedrosky's reaction to all this magnanimity:

"All cynicism momentarily aside, I am in awe at this kind of giving. I really and truly hope it does good, even if the skeptic in me is uneasy with the whole idea of large charitable foundations."

The technologist in me wonders how this could be done better, more in keeping with what I call the "Prime Directive" of technology investing, i.e.,

"To look for places where one can see a 10x improvement in price/performance".

In other words, how would one re-think philanthropy from a technology and/or Web 2.0 perspective?

How could one magnify any size of giving dedicated to long-term philanthropy, by the 10-X kind of levels expected by Moore's Law type of curves?

Is that even possible?  Certainly, one innovation along these lines are the recent introduction of "microcredit" oriented philanthropy.

In addition, how would one re-think the centralized, gate-keeper way a foundation is typically organized and run?

In other words, how could one get the "Wisdom of the crowds" to help direct where the funds go.

Is there a Google PageRank inspired algorithmic way one structure a philanthropic effort, regardless of whether we're talking about deploying billions or millions?

Or alternatively, is the a Digg-type approach to philanthropy that could be considered, where the number of "Digg" votes for a given cause, help determine whether it gets funded?

I guess what I'm wondering about is whether one can adapt the lessons learned from technology and people-powered internet services to re-think how philanthropy could be done better.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[pitdesi]

I think that www.kiva.org is the organization/technology that you are searching for. Kiva allows anyone to participate in microcredit, and they have a track record of excellence. It is sort of a web 2.0 app in that it is community based to a degree. I find it pretty interesting, you may also.

[kareem]

you should take a look at what Tom Williams is doing with GiveMeaning.com.