This notion of a GivingMarket emerged for me in the process of hosting and facilitating and participating in the GivingConference last month. I’ve had a number of conversations with friends and colleagues and digested my current thinking here.
The essence of the idea is that an eBay-like online auction space might be opened for individuals to bring social service and community development projects and for individuals to offer funding and other resources, all for the common good. This sort of a market would have immediate implications for organizers and givers, and could have tremendous long-term implications for philanthropy and the global money supply.
The most interesting discovery thread so far is the InterraProject, an attempt by Dee Hock and friends to reconnect human values and the marketplace via a new kind of community-based credit card system.