A thousand points of control
: Go read Business Week’s terrific interview with Pierre Omidyar on his unique model for charity. Or maybe it’s not unique; it merely takes the model that works in commerce and media and politics and brings it to charity: Give the people control and they will use it. (Where have I heard that before?)
Omidyar is pioneering a third way, a philanthropy that’s fanatically bottom-up. It’s anti-vision. Anti-dictate. And, in a sense, Omidyar isn’t even choosing how his $10 billion is given away — or to what causes it goes. He wants you to do that.
See also an online Q&A with him here.
: This is what Jim Hake is trying to do with Spirit of America: Letting the people who know identify needs and letting the people who contribute answer them.
: Which reminds me: Please join in the Spirit of America Blogger Challenge and give something, anything. You can contribute via my team and the money will go to building and hosting an Arabic-language blogging tool. You’ll merely be changing the world. Or you can join my team with your blog or give via someone else’s team. Whatever. Just give, please. It’s important for Iraq and America and blogs and the world.
