Super-sized Philanthropy? Brilliant Social Enterprise? Or just good business?
I found it strangely appropriate that the head of Google's Philanthropic arm is named "Dr. Brilliant":
Official Google Blog: Google.org's new director
Google.org is an interesting creation -- its goals would generally be considered charitable in nature, but it was established as a for-profit corporation. More about this can be found here:
Philanthropy Google’s Way: Not the Usual - New York Times
Google.org now has an official blog that's worth paying attention to:
http://blog.google.org/
It will be very interesting to see where this organization goes, and how it will shape philanthropy over the coming years.
There is also an interesting article on Dr. Brilliant here...written in a style reminiscent of Phil Cubeta's Gift Hub:
Dr. Brilliant Vs. the Devil of Ambition:If baby boomers had their own Faust, he'd be Larry Brilliant, a man who's found himself at the center of almost every defining moment of his generation. His biggest battle: taming the devil of ambition.
On a slightly unrelated note... it's interesting that the "sixth-largest charity in the nation today, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, is in fact Fidelity's Charitable Gift Fund, which last year sucked in a record $1.3 billion, a 23% increase over 2005, and paid out $1 billion in grants to good causes":The Gathering's "Charity Made Efficient" article describes how this growth has been driven by allowing Fidelity's clients the ability "with just a couple of keystrokes.. (to) move shares in a bond fund into the house charity and secure a tax write-off."
