A New Approach to "Giving" and Philanthropy

Dr. Don Beck wrote a timely piece about the different types of Philanthropic foundations with a specific focus on the newly emerging form called "MeshWORKS."

Beck says: "Different foundations exist for different reasons, and serve multiple purposes for the people who create them, the folks who manage them, and the populations and causes they were designed to serve. Historically, foundations can be grouped into six overlapping categories. Each category has a different core motivation and priority for existence, with different reasons that “matter most."

The Meshworks Foundation: A New Approach to Philanthropy

"Giving: How each of us can change the world," is the highly acclaimed book written by Bill Clinton. The description of the book on Amazon.com says "Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers, representing a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as contributions of money. From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old California girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised drives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton introduces us to both well-known and unknown heroes of giving."

The Fall 2007 issue of Stanford's Social Innovation Review, names the 12 high-impact Nonprofits and the secret of their successes: enlisting and inspiring partners outside of their organizations, rather on focusing on strengthening their internal operations.

Everywhere you look these days, it seems that philanthropy and giving are becoming a theme in our cultural value-systems. The most talked about 'giving' in 2006, was Warren Buffet's sizable donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And of course the generous giving that happened after the Tsunami in South Asia and Katrina.

For many entrepreneurs who made their fortune during the boom of the last decade, the new consumerism is evolving into social entrepreneurship. People who made a a fortune, large or small, and instead of buying more stocks, more yachts and more stuff, they now want to 'buy' and invest in a service that can help others in their neighborhood and all over the world. Many businessmen and women have started their own personal foundations that send money to Darfur, Peru and Nigeria or to programs in local schools and local non-profits. Large corporations have their charitable funds, and some are trying to be directly involved in the projects they are funding.

Dr. Don Beck wrote a timely piece about the different types of Philanthropic foundations with a specific focus on the newly emerging form called "MeshWORKS."

Beck says: "Different foundations exist for different reasons, and serve multiple purposes for the people who create them, the folks who manage them, and the populations and causes they were designed to serve. Historically, foundations can be grouped into six overlapping categories. Each category has a different core motivation and priority for existence, with different reasons that “matter most."

In the Seventh emerging category of Foundations, Dr. Beck talks about the "Third Win Purpose" ... "a foundation that possesses an uncanny ability to morph itself to find rapport, identify with, and shape itself to connect with a number of different organizations, interest groups, political groupings,and professional societies..."

To read the full description of the emerging foundation please click here:

http://www.humanemergencemiddleeast.org/meshworks-foundation-philanthropy.html