Portfolio Data Management System

The social sector made a big jump forward yesterday with the announcement of the Portfolio Data Management System (PDMS). This set of software tools, powered by Acumen Fund, the Aspen Institute Network of Development Entreprenuers, Skoll Foundation, SalesForce.com Foundation, Google.org and about a dozen other organizations announced they were making available the PDMS to nonprofits. [...]

How are you using them?

I’ve received dozens of emails about the geologic and evolutionary timelines I posted a few days back. Thanks to all who’ve written in and said “wow,” or “thanks” or “you’re wrong about X” or “too inside baseball” or just about anything. Thanks also to those who’ve said they’re citing the documents in their research papers, [...]

More on Giving Change, Changing Giving

OK I started this conversation on Giving Change, Changing Giving, really just put in a placeholder, but I have been on airlines/in meetings ever since. I will get to it in more depth – but wanted to jot a note that connects it, surprisingly, to one of the more familiar philanthropic discussions – read Charles [...]

Pro Publica – philanthropy, media and market failures

Here’s an important new experiment in philanthropy and media – the launch of Pro Publica. Funded by Herbert and Marion Sandler and led by former WSJ editor Paul Steiger, Pro Publica will focus on investigative journalism – the stuff that newspapers continue to cut as profits drop. A team of independent journalists will pitch stories [...]

These are (just two) of my favorite things

© NewsFutures (Chart is of odds of Al Gore winning 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, for 7 days prior to announcement) What two things? Prediction markets and prizes. By now, Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize win is old news. What you may not know is that he was the hands down favorite prior to the announcement [...]

Books, blog, twitter…endowment

My publisher insists that books still matter. In the changing landscape of written media, its easy to see why he may need to convince himself (I actually agree with him, I just like to listen to how he shapes his arguments). Perhaps this quote from Socrates might help… (Courtesy of Thomas West, Thinking Like Einstein [...]

RWJF Prediction market on Avian Flu

(photo: http://www.lifesized.net/images/ithinkuare.jpg) My earlier post on prediction markets stirred a bit of interest and sent me off looking a bit more deeply. One commentator noted a network of universities, nonprofits and foundations in Southern California developing prediction market. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded such a tool focused on avian flu – the Iowa Health Prediction [...]

Predicting success

I received an email the other day from an expert in prediction markets. I’ve read about these – they are a forecasting tool that aggregates the opinions of large numbers of people to predict everything from the winner of the National Spelling Bee to box office hits to Oscar winners to election outcomes. This week’s [...]

Mapping markets for transparency

Transparency and accountability are like the “mom and apple pie” of the citizen sector. Everyone agrees we need them (and that we should value, if not actually love, them). But nobody seems to be able to agree on the recipe for the best pie or what makes a great mom. Last week the IRS announced [...]

Gift economies and virtual worlds

First Monday is a great online journal. This month it has two articles of interest (to me): The first is on alternatives to private philanthropy as a means of support. Examples given include public libraries, the free open source software movement. The second is on the gift economy as it plays out in livejournal communities. [...]