I led a discussion last night with a group of major donors and a handful of social entrepreneurs about the impact of the web on philanthropy. One of the big take aways for me was that to the extent the web makes philanthropy more transactional (which was the point of Web 1.0) it is not particularly helpful. But to the extent the web can bring people together to participate and collaborate (the concept of Web 2.0), it offers unique potential for the future of philanthropy.
For me, the value of the web to stimulate participation and collaboration was on display last week during the debate around Charles Bronfman & Jeffrey Solomon’s guest posts regarding their new book The Art of Giving.
It seems that Charles and Jeffrey felt the same way. Today, I’m happy to announce that Charles and Jeffrey were so inspired by and appreciative of the thoughtfulness and candor of the discussion held here that they would like to send a signed copy of their new book to each person who contributed to the conversation. So if you left a comment on one of the Art of Giving posts last week (Wednesday-Friday), please email me your mailing address to receive a personalized copy of the book.