My first post from the AFTA Convention a couple of weeks ago provoked several comments about microphilanthropy, based on Craig Dreeszen’s observation that “support for individual entrepreneurs” is a growing trend in creative economy efforts internationally. I’ve been interested in microphilanthropy for some time, but I recently came to the realization that I’ve never postedRead More
Lessons I Learned in Business School (Or, My Humble Attempt to Save You $150k)
I really didn’t know what to expect when I came to business school in the fall of 2007. I had lived my whole post-college life in the nonprofit sector, and most of that time was spent hanging around musicians. I was brought up by two ex-hippies who, shall we say, did not exactly fit inRead More
Fictional Foundation Fun, part II
So, yesterday we took a look at the $800 million Ortiz Foundation for the Arts (OFA), a hypothetical new organization focusing on promoting cultural vitality in New York City. After some discussion, we settled on a mission statement as follows: The Ortiz Foundation for the Arts (OFA) works to foster the visual, musical, theatrical, andRead More
Revisiting GiveWell
I’ve been following the story of GiveWell pretty closely for about a year now, and continue to find the organization a seemingly inexhaustible source of entertainment and life lessons all wrapped up into one. In case you’re joining us late, GiveWell was started in 2007 by a couple of young hedge fund refugees who wereRead More
Thoughts on “Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy”: Lessons from my Summer Internship
As the twenty or so regular readers of this blog will note, I debuted Createquity last October with a rather brash six-episode litany of “Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy” in the realm of the arts. I say brash because, at the time, I had no experience running a philanthropic program; all I had were my outsiderRead More
Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy: Part II – Philanthropy and Experimentation
Note: This is the second of a multipart series on the arts and philanthropy. I hope these ideas are of interest and welcome suggestions and feedback. To view the rest of this series, click here. When we left off last week, I noted that it’s hard to measure the effectiveness of the arts when weRead More