from the Case Foundation blog:

The era of outsourcing good is over

We are seeing a sea change in philanthropy. Traditionally, philanthropy and international development was left to the big guys – governments, multi-lateral institutions, and foundations. While the 20th century was the era of the Rockefellers, MacArthurs and Fords, the 21st century will see the rise of the new philanthropists or Citizen Philanthropists – students, young professionals, and retirees that don’t want to outsource ‘doing good’ to large organizations. They want to do it themselves, to bring their social networks together and to see the direct impact they are having on a community in need.

The traditional players dominated philanthropy in the past, not only because they had the money, but because they also had the access and the expertise required to go half way around the world to provide critical services to communities in need.

… Now, we are seeing two critical changes in the development and philanthropy world. First, communities in need are asking for small projects that they can control and complete themselves if given access to the required financial resources. Second, citizen donors no longer want to just give, they want to build relationships with the community that receives their financial contribution and they want to see their direct impact.

from onPhilanthropy:

Happy New Media Year

According to a new report from the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, 51 grantmakers said they expect to give fewer grants in 2010 than in 2009. They also ranked “technical assistance support and support for organizations that propose partnerships, alliances and/ or mergers” among their chief focus areas for 2010.

from Altitude Branding:

Will The Business People Please Stand Up?

I don’t care about social media gurus or experts or mavens or whatever. That whole thing is going to settle itself out eventually, when the good work starts getting more concrete, and the people actually doing the work continue demonstrating and illustrating their learnings and results.

What concerns me far more than some nerd slinging his Facebook skillz around the fishbowl is the fact that in so many disciplines – social media included – we’ve got legions of people out there that are missing fundamental business acumen.