The Future of PhilanthropyKatherine Fulton: You are the future of philanthropy | Video on TED.com.Philanthropy as defined by Wikipedia is “the effort or inclination to increase the well-being of mankind, as by charitable aid or donations.”What is it today? Is it just the Bill Gates of the world that have 100’s of millions of dollars to give away or is it something else. Is it something more than we understand or are even aware of? Is it something that is growing, changing, evolving – becoming it’s own social movement that is spreading globally? Since I am in the social business of giving in this blog, I am searching out interesting and informative angles on philanthropy. TED is always a wealth of information featuring unique speakers that inspire on every topic you could ever imagine.The featured talk I chose – link above – is of Katherine Fulton who has made her business from the study, advisement and advancement of the New Philanthropy. Her TED talk focuses on the New Philanthropy and how it is evolving and how all of us can be philanthropists through business. She focuses on innovative ideas that step us out of our boxes on how we have been brought up to think about giving.Have you even heard of these terms: philanthrocapitalism, social entrepreneurs, natural capitalism, venture philanthropy, microphilanthropy. I hadn’t heard of all them and I am doing a blog on giving. New ideas that are cropping up all over the world and spreading virally to create the change the world needs to survive.These are just a few examples Katherine refers to in her talk and worth taking taking the time to look at and consider.Kiva:The micro loan business changing the way giving money is done. Alleviating poverty by empowering people to take control of their lives rather than giving hand outs that keep them in their poverty stricken lives. We all know the metaphor – give a man a fish or teach him to fish.YouthGive:Believes that anyone can give back. By teaching our children to become philanthropist in their youth they will be our next generation of givers and global citizens.Network for Good:You can give any time of day or night on this site. You can search out, find and give everyday. You can be a philanthropist every day.Katherine’s business philosophy for her company Monitor, is a great example of dong business in a new way. Quoted directly from her site, “We are organized as a business in order to best leverage Monitor’s global resources without restrictions—and we operate for public benefit, aiming to advance our mission and to serve the global social-innovation community of which we are a part.”It is the fine art of balancing our passions for giving back and still making a living. If we all made this business model part of the companies we own, the companies we work for or the ideas we create, wouldn’t the world be a different place. We could still profit but so could the causes we affiliate ourselves with.This was a quote from Katherine’s talk I will leave you with:“We have lived in this world where littel things are done for love and big things for money.Now we have Wikipedia – suddenly big things can be done for love.”Author: Clay Shirley Share Article: