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Kings of Philanthropy and Princes of Micro-Philanthropy

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In July 2007, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) posted two radio documentaries about the philanthropy of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Skoll, and other billionaires. The recordings originally appeared on a radio program entitled Ideas. The two part series is called "The Kings of Philanthropy" (part i and part ii).

Here's a brief description:

Some have called it the natural fall-out of a hyper-capitalist society; billionaires who've made more money from media and technology enterprises than anyone in human history. There's Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft; Jeff Skoll, the founder of e-Bay; and, of course, Warren Buffet, who has been dubbed the "Oracle of Omaha." Now, they've reinvented themselves as philanthropists, giving away billions to help the poor. Freelance broadcaster Richard Phinney asks: can they re-make the world?

What's interesting about these podcasts is that they discuss the work of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Jeff Skoll in terms of a generational shift in attitudes toward philanthropy. These billionaires, according to the reporter, represent a new wave of philanthropists, wealthy grant-makers who emphasize transplanted business practices and social entrepreneurship over charitable giving for purely humanitarian relief.

"The Kings of Philanthropy" is an excellent documentary and casts new light on the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in particular. But from my perspective, the philanthropists described in this program (perhaps Jeff Skoll aside) represent an 'older' generation of philanthropy, one in which great wealth is amassed first and distributed later.

"The Princes (and Princesses) of Micro-Philanthropy" are from generation Y. They are the founders of sites like GiveMeaning, DonorsChoose, Change.org, and Project Agape. They write blogs like Tactical Philanthropy. And create mash-ups like the Social Actions search engine. The young people behind these sites have committed themselves to changing the institutions of philanthropy, with or without huge amounts of money, and certainly before reaching middle-age.

Next time the CBC does an investigative report on new trends in philanthropy, I think they should look to the off-spring of Boomers. That's where they'll find the greatest generational shift in attitudes toward philanthropy.

Here are some leads:

As far as I know, everyone listed above is under 30, and often well-under 30.

A moment ago I referred to them as the The Princes (and Princesses) of Micro-Philanthropy. But come to think of it, since the aim is to democratize philanthropy, I should abandon feudal language altogether.

If you know of other young people using the web to democratize philanthropy, please post their names and projects below.

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