Originally posted to sCNN – the smallChangeNewsNetwork
There has been a huge discussion and debate going on at Omidyar.net recently, regarding how to allocate $25,000 of potential funding. In one of the downstream conversations, springing from Tom Munnecke’s micro philanthropy notes I posted a few items back, Tom was made the distinction between old (macro) philanthropy and the new (micro) philanthropy we’re working to invite and support:
…one of the major differences between this approach and the other award/proposal models is that it is driven by the process of giving and attracting attention to what works. The proposal and grant-giving/fundraising approaches are driven by those seeking donations and promoting their causes… [and] cash donations are but one tool in the Better World Toolkit – money is an amplifier, not a motivator in this model.
This is such a critically important distinction and shift, this focus on attention as the primary source of power in philanthropic giving and receiving. Each of us, with the power of our attention, has something to give to the process of making good things happen. This power is, of course, inside everyone, already distributed through human birth, but allocted or available only in direct proportion to one’s ability to direct and refine, focus and expand, move and sustain — and act — on one’s own attention.
The opening of sCNN to public posting is intended to be an open and direct invitation to refine our individual and collective attention in order to support smaller and smaller changes for the good.
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