On October 30th, the Ethos Roundtable had the incomparable privilege of playing host to Keith Taylor of the Modest Needs Foundation.
As readers of my blog (and folks who spend more than a few minutes in my company) know, I regard Keith as a rock star, an idol in online philanthropy. While the rest of were wondering how we could do something new in social enterprise and community building with web tools, he simply dreamed up distributed philanthropy and made it a reality. Thanks to Keith and the Modest Needs Foundation, anyone with internet access and a few bucks can make a real and timely difference in the lives of people who are at risk of poverty and homelessness. For me, the ultimate proof of concept is that 65% of Modest Needs grant recipients (i.e., folks on the verge of poverty and homelessness) become Modest Needs donors.
Naturally, I've been nagging him to come to the Ethos Roundtable and give a presentation ever since it started meeting on a regular basis. Tuesday was a very special day, not only because he was traveling in Massachusetts and able to join us, but because the Modest Needs Foundation was on the verge of relaunching its web site, with a new model that represents a new revolution in donor advised funding. We lucky few were privileged to have Keith walk us through the new web site.
Although the Modest Needs team has always wanted to offer donors full participation in decisions about each individual grant request, there have been a number of regulatory stumbling blocks. With a lot of effort, Modest Needs and its well-wishers were able to formulate a point system that allows donors to review vetted grant applications and authorize Modest Needs to make grants to applicants they deem appropriate by using the voting power given to them by their Modest Needs points.
When Keith first told me about the point system, I immediately exclaimed that he had invented micro donor advised funds. He liked that term, and added that he felt that Modest Needs is really about investing in people - in a way that is transparent, well-vetted, and unpatronizing.
The usual drill with members of the Ethos Roundtable is that we spend the first half of each session telling our guest speaker about the deep flaws the model being presented, and the second half vociferously offering to filling the obvious gaps by deploying our resources, skills, and connections. (One recent presenter, Allan Benamer, described this as "friendly fire.") There's no doubt that, as audiences go, we are a strenuous experience. I was therefore quite amused by the friendly and shockingly subdued reception that Keith was accorded. Here was a brilliant concept, which seemed perfectly obvious now that Keith explained it, but which had somehow had neglected to occur to anyone else on the planet. Moreover, here was a concept that was being brilliantly implemented in real life! The group was so taken aback that we actually allowed him to talk uninterrupted for several increments of more than a few seconds.
Keith also mentioned that the engine behind Modest Needs' online operations had been specially developed at his behest at a very low cost. It can easily be customized for use by others who raise money for a cause or a campaign. He is considering ways to license it at a cost that will be reasonable for other nonprofits but will at the same provide a revenue stream to support his organization's administrative expenses.
What can I say? I'm in cyber-yenta heaven.
