New-school philanthropy

Pierre Omidyar, EBay Chair, is interviewed in the current issue of Business Week. The issue looks at the state of philanthropy in the United States, and how the 'new economy' wealthy are changing the landscape.

The article misses the mark on a few fronts and displays a level of tentative inquiry that failed to articulate the benefits of the Omidyar Network.

Q: Why do you think the traditional philanthropic sector isn't working as efficiently as it could?
A: I think it starts with the false dichotomy issue. It fundamentally limits the impact of the sector. Unfortunately, the measuring side, the feedback mechanisms as to how well you are doing, those types of measurements are hard to do. The sector overall has been working on these issues for a while, but it hasn't come up with a good way to measure how effective they are.

The fact that this engine isn't working at peak efficiency is really too bad because it's a huge engine and if you increased the efficiency, everyone would be thrilled.

That being said, check out the Omidyar Network.