At 29, Michael J. Greene of Chicago is a young philanthropist in the making, though he hardly fits the stereotype. He doesn't drive a Porsche; in fact, he just sold his VW Passat with 90,000 miles and uses public transit to get around.
Nor does Greene have a huge bankroll to back his pet project, a new website called WorldPennyJar dedicated to disaster relief, health, education and the environment.
Yet Greene is light-years ahead of many in his age group to grasp how high-tech...

In 2010, Americans contributed about 2 percent to 3 percent of their net incomes to charitable causes. With government services shrinking and demands upon nonprofits rising, is this enough?
The answer to the question "What is my full giving potential?" is deeply personal. For America's 400 billionaires, Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet created the Giving Pledge. The pledge invites America's wealthiest families "to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to the...

This blog has been primarily dedicated to giving one's time. But today, I got to hear about giving one's money.
I had the good fortune to listen to a lunch-time chat
at the Oregon Community Foundation with Jason Franklin, Executive Director of Bolder Giving. Bolder Giving is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people of means increase the amount of money they are giving away, and increase the effectiveness and influence that money can bring. A snapshot of the ...

Jason Franklin, a leading voice of the philanthropy world and executive director of Bolder Giving in NYC, will address America's brightest at Mensa's 2011 Annual Gathering July 1st, 2011.
Mensa attendees, with membership requiring a top 2% IQ, will discover how anyone can expand social impact through well-considered philanthropy. Franklin's message is that outrageous generosity is an expanding trend for donors across the economic spectrum, many of whom give well beyond the...

I met Jason Franklin years ago through Resource Generation and other philanthropy-related organizations in which I was involved. Jason is one of my favorite examples of a next gen philanthropist. He's educated, thoughtful… not to mention fun. Jason is now the Executive Director of Bolder Giving, but has served in so many different leadership roles and integral efforts in philanthropy. For his full bio, click here or read on!
Below are highlights from my interview with...

On Monday evening a small group of Liberty Hill donors gathered with Jason Franklin, Bolder Giving's executive director, for an intimate conversation about philanthropy.
This is the beginning of an organizational partnership between Liberty Hill and Bolder Giving, whose mission is to inspire and support people to give at their full life potential.
During the evening Jason guided us through a series of questions and stories from their workbook that are designed for...

Tom Hsieh is among a new breed of philanthropists whose fixed income doesn't stop them from helping others Tom Hsieh is  a philanthropist who owns his own company.
Tom Hsieh lives in a two-bedroom South Pamona apartment with wife and daughter on a $46,000-a-year income.
If you consider these two sentences mutually exclusive, you haven't met Tom Hsieh.
Hsieh, 39, a former EartLink executive, had an annual salary of $125,000 a year, plus stock options, and gave...

Speaking of The Giving Pledge, there's another effort gaining attention for encouraging everyone to give what they can and to give BOLDLY.   Bolder Giving shares stories, resources and advice to inspire all donors to give at their full lifetime potential.
In fact,  Bolder Giving and the Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted another in their series of teleconferences with bold givers today.  The live discussion "Inspiring African-American Donors to Give" featured Cheryl...

Toby Ord counts himself among the world's wealthiest men, but don't be surprised if you have never heard of him.
He makes $52,000 a year as a philosophy researcher at the University of Oxford, so he is no tycoon. Yet that relatively modest salary places him in the top 1 percent of earners on a planet where 800 million people go to bed hungry every night.
It is a troubling income bracket for a man who spends his days thinking about ethics.
So a little over a year ago, Mr....