Philanthropy Daily Digest

On Feb 20, in Wash DC, Paul Light, Lester Salamon, Perla Ni, Peter Frumkin and William Schambra will discuss Paul Light's recent excellent article about the "Four Futures" that lay ahead for the nonprofit sector. It was a great article and Schambra has put together a great panel.

Matthew Bishop responds to the criticisms of Phil Buchanan (CEO of Center for Effective Philanthropy) of his book Philanthrocapitalism. I like Phil a lot, but I think he got his review of Matthew's book very wrong.

Andrew Wolk, CEO of Root Cause, has launched a blog. He writes: "Somewhere, right now, in different parts of the world, we know what works to solve many of society's critical issues. But what we lack is the infrastructure, systems, policies, institutions, and measures to advance those solutions in ways that can benefit many. It will take all three sectors of society – public, nonprofit, and private – working together to better invest taxes and philanthropic dollars, as well as to better utilize markets in more creative and strategic ways." I love it!

Bill Gates affirms his focus on "giving while living" and says in regards to legacy planning "I don’t think anyone optimizes for having a good funeral." The Gates/Buffett focus on "giving while living" was a theme of my FT column yesterday.

The nonprofit/philanthropy market is being "stress tested." It will be interesting to see what models still manage to thrive.