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CONTRIBUTE BLOGS
04/02/2009 18:22
by Marcia Stepanek
When in Britain last week at
the Skoll World Forum, I was
referred to a recent article
in The Observer written by
Joss Garman, the 24-year-...
03/02/2009 22:35
by Marcia Stepanek
As the recent copyright woes
of Obama poster artist Shepard
Fairey show, there's a war
raging over what some now are
calling a new art form in ...
02/16/2009 07:24
by Marcia Stepanek
I just finished reading an
advance copy of "The Blue
Sweater: Bridging the Gap
Between Rich and Poor in an
Interconnected World,&qu...
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Top Stories:News
SPECIAL REPORT
The Cause Web
Time was, the Internet just distributed information. Then it
evolved into a sort of electronic connector, linking everyone in a person’s social
circle. Now? Fasten your seatbelts. Think social networks, dozens or hundreds
of them — yours, your best friend’s, your coworker’s, your company’s —
all connected together digitally by six degrees, then organized around a single
cause or idea, or a multitude of causes and ideas. Save The Whales. Pave
My Street. Elect John Doe. End Global Warming. But don’t stop there. Raise
some money. Ask each one of these dozens, hundreds, thousands whom you’ve
cause-wired to pitch in a dollar, an idea, a Saturday afternoon — from Delhi
to Detroit. And then keep everyone posted by the hour or by the day on how
much money they’re raising, how their ideas are being harnessed (or not), or
how their time translates into someone else’s health or opportunity, or into
everyone’s clean air. Show them perpetually — with the simple click of a mouse.
Sound far-fetched, like some warmed-over 60s’ social change rhetoric?
Guess again. This stuff is already happening, and maybe faster than you think:
As of June, some 41 percent of all Facebook visitors were over the age of 35.
Suddenly, it seems, the world of philanthropy doesn’t look or feel the same
anymore. Maybe your favorite charity now seems a bit out of touch — or, if it’s
just as connected, it’s now the coolest thing on the planet.
Call it the Cause Web. It’s turning the philanthropy world on its ear. Are
you ready for the revolution?
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