Thursday, August 24, 2006

Network-centric philanthropy

Michael Gilbert's has provided an analysis of a survey he conducted on using RSS to stream grantmaking data. He notes impressively high interest rates (greater than 70% of respondents, with or without grantmakers themselves in the mix). Here is the link to the paper from Gilbert on why he thinks this is a good idea.

OK, it seems like a good idea. But the universe of the interested seems rather small. Who really cares about where foundation grants go - anyone but the professional staff of nonprofits and foundations? If you take the time to aggregate, mash up the data onto maps, and any of the other dozen cool things you can/could do with online grants data - does anyone outside the inner sanctum care?

Thanks to my colleague for sending me the link to Gilbert's survey. You know who you are.

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