Philanthropy Blogs Getting Attention

The Chronicle of Philanthropy article about philanthropy blogs has brought our emerging field to the attention of some new people. Over at Butts in the Seats (written by a theatre manager who says, “The perennial effort of most arts organizations is to get butts in the seats”) the author related both how he was “excited and engaged” as a new reader of our blogs as well as a bit confused by Phil Cubeta’s many alter egos (he’s not the first!). For anyone who has read Phil for a while you’ll laugh out loud (and maybe remember your own similar experience) at this excerpt from Butts in the Seats:

"As I began to plumb a little deeper into the blogs I became convinced that the philanthropy industry blogs were the site of contentious debate. First was this entry on Gift Hub about the writer of Wealth Bondage calling philanthropy bloggers Uncle Toms beholden to the wealthy.

I got so wrapped up in reading both sides of the story on the entry and learning about the Wealth Bondage blog that I found myself short on time to do an entry. White Courtesy Telephone notes that WB writer Happy Tutor styles himself as a modern day Diogenes challenging all who linger too close to the blog while on the information superhighway.

It wasn’t until I happened to go back and read the comments section on Gift Hub that I saw the author, Philip Cubeta, claim to be Happy Tutor. The satire tags on the entry seem to bear it out as far as that goes. Apparently he is a man at war against himself, casting aspersions at his alter egos. Or maybe not.

I am still a little confused and unsure about the truth of the matter. It is intellectual elitism or intellectual rigor rarely seen in these days. Let’s just say I walked in a little late on a joke and caught the last line and punchline. I thought I would just shed a little light on the situation, as dim a bulb as I might be, in case others were exploring those blogs and were also taken in/confused."