Weekend Links (March 1-2, 2008)

Not sure why, but many of this week's links are related to science and technology issues. Enjoy.

Writing in PhilanthroMedia, Susan Herr argues that the Slate 60, the buzz-worthy list compiled by Slate magazine of the year's biggest philanthropic gifts, would be more interesting if the editors could figure out a way to "slice and dice the list to advance donors who are meeting unmet need, whose efforts are characterized by 'experts' as innovative, or who systematically capture and communicate data that demonstrates the impact of their efforts...." Not an easy task, as Susan notes, but well worth trying.

Susan's blogging partner, Carla Dearing, deconstructs the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Philanthropy 50 survey of the country's biggest donors.

Mike Burns, blogging at Nonprofit Board Crisis, takes a closer look at the efforts of the "Ivy-Plus" schools to deflect criticism of their swelling endowments and asks, Is it enough?

Doing what she does best, Lucy Bernholz speculates about how technology will change the way we give.

Barry Ritholtz, market and macroeconomics blogger extraordinaire, calls out the global warming "denialists" who argue that the recent "twelve-month drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming."Be sure to check out the debate in the comments section. Fascinating.

I love a good anti-technology jeremiad (see Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, by Lee Siegel), but what if much of our Internet anxiety (at least as far as our teenagers are concerned) is unfounded? That's the subtext of the Frontline documentary, "Growing Up Online," which has been packaged into eight manageable segments on the PBS Web site. (Hat tip to Alison Fine and the New York Times' David Pogue.)

Old friend Nancy Schwartz, who writes the Getting Attention! blog, explains why she's going to the NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network) Conference in New Orleans later this month -- and why you should, too. (Hat tip to Rosetta Thurman, who hosted last week's Nonprofit Consultants Giving Carnival.)

Over at Gift Hub, Phil Cubeta serves up the perfect take on Oprah's Big Give.

And the line of the week: "More likely, it is with diversity as it is with expenditure of university endowments: that nothing concentrates the mind so wonderfully as the prospect of being hanged...." That's Kelly Kleiman (aka The Nonprofiteer) challenging Michael Seltzer's argument (in this blog) that it's a mistake for state governments to impose diversity quotas on foundations.

-- Mitch Nauffts