Mass media interest in philanthropy has accelerated a lot this year. The dramatic Warren Buffett and Bill Gates collaboration brought philanthropy onto the front page, but the interest seems to have have legs.
In the new issue of Fast Company, there are two philanthropy related articles. New Profit, by Cheryl Dahle profiles Good Capital’s social enterprise fund and the review of The New Capitalists talks about the growing power of individual investors to spur social responsibility at public companies (both articles require a subscription until next month).
A more striking example is Wired Magazine’s July issue coverage of Google Foundation CEO Larry Brilliant. In the article they proclaim:
"Larry Brilliant has the coolest — and hardest — job around."
In other words, a magazine that covers technology believes that the CEO of Google’s Foundation has a cooler and harder job than the CEO of Google the company.