I am very pleased to announce that Tactical Philanthropy Advisors will be collaborating with Philanthropedia to realize our vision of a “Tactical Philanthropy Knowledge Network” through the launch of a new project called Expertise on Demand. If you are a major donor, philanthropy advisor, foundation, or expert interested in the Expertise on Demand beta, please check the bottom of this post or http://www.myphilanthropedia.org/eod for information on how to sign up.
Philanthropedia’s CEO Deyan Vitanova released the following statement on their blog today:
“I am very excited to announce a new Philanthropedia initiative called Expertise on Demand. This new service will act as a trusted intermediary and connect major donors, philanthropy advisors, and foundations with cause experts who can help fill knowledge gaps quickly and efficiently and channel more money to high-impact nonprofits and projects.
Expertise on Demand is very much a natural extension of Philanthropedia’s existing concept of building expert networks to identify high-impact nonprofits in different social causes. While Philanthropedia currently focuses on providing Expert Funds of recommended nonprofits, we recognize that our 1000-strong expert network may be of value to major donors who wish to dig deeper into an issue area and make a larger financial contribution. That is why we decided to create Expertise on Demand which further promotes Philanthropedia’s mission of knowledge sharing and strategic giving.
To make Expertise on Demand a reality, we are collaborating with Tactical Philanthropy Advisors, a philanthropy advisory firm. Tactical Philanthropy’s CEO Sean Stannard-Stockton is a well-known thought leader in philanthropy who envisioned the Expertise on Demand concept last year when he announced his intention to launch a similar project under the name “Tactical Philanthropy Knowledge Network.” At the time, Philanthropedia was just getting started, but as our organization has developed, Sean and I decided that Philanthropedia was the best home for this initiative because we had already built networks of more than 1000 experts through our own research.
We asked Sean to weigh in on why he thinks Expertise on Demand is so important:
“I think a key problem to solve in philanthropy is how to allow sharing of knowledge while protecting access to individuals and respecting their time and privacy. After the Haitian Earthquake, 45% of Americans made donations to support the country. Yet despite numerous foundation professionals, academic researchers and nonprofit senior staff who have deep knowledge about who is doing the best work in Haiti, few if any donors were able to capitalize on this knowledge.
Philanthropedia has quickly established itself as a leading creator of expert networks in the social sector. My hope is that the Expertise on Demand platform can build the trust necessary to facilitate open knowledge sharing while protecting individual experts.”
Sean has agreed to join Expertise on Demand as chair of the steering committee tasked with designing the service. Other members of the committee are:
The goal of the steering committee will be to help design Expertise on Demand over the next few months, before the official beta launch of the service to coincide with the Social Capital Markets conference in October.
If you are a major donor, philanthropic advisor, or foundation that wants to tap into the Expertise on Demand expert network, please send us an email at eod@myphilanthropedia.org indicating the issue area that you are interested in.
If you are an expert who wants to join the 1000+ strong Philanthropedia expert network, please send us an email at eod@myphilanthropedia.org with your name, areas of expertise, contact details, bio, and photo.
You can find more information, including answers to frequently asked questions, at http://www.myphilanthropedia.org/eod or by emailing us at eod@myphilanthropedia.org.”
I look forward to working with Philanthropedia and the members of the Expertise on Demand steering committee to make our shared vision a reality. I believe that making systematic knowledge sharing in the philanthropy sector the status quo offers one of the very biggest opportunities to enhance impact through out our field.