Betterplace.org – reducing philanthropic barriers?

One of the questions that the wave of new philanthropic marketplace tools is how to control quality and ensure donor confidence in the organizations in which they invest. While people tend to be comfortable with brand-name humanitarian organizations like CARE acting as stewards of their donations, its less clear how your average individual donor becomes [...]

Devastated socialites lose their philanthropic playground

It’s hard for me to make it through an article in the NYTimes today without choking on cynicism. “In Hamptons, Slump Means Less Glitz per Gala,” narrates the simply heart-breaking story of the devastating impact the economic downturn has had on the social life of the Wall Street philanthropic elite, so used to carefree summers [...]

Kristoff column on micro-giving

CX Chua, one of the students from the Northwestern University ENGAGE Uganda Program 2007, celebrates with his Global Youth Partnership for Africa soccer/peer mentor team after finishing a 5-week after school program in the Namuwongo slum of Kampala, Uganda.
Nick Kristoff’s column today, “The Luckiest Girl,” tells the story of Beatrice, a bright girl from Uganda [...]

From ReadWriteWeb: “Software Company Ditches AdWords for…Kiva?”

In a stunningly intriguing idea, Portland, Oregon based Jama Software is ditching Google’s AdWords program, feeling that their return on investment simply wasn’t high enough. Instead, they’re donating the money they would have spent to Kiva.org, the direct peer2peer micro-lending nonprofit that allows individual users to fund global enterprises.
They believe that the buzz they generate [...]