social welfare research institute - Boston College

From, our readings, we assembled a list of the features commonly attributed to
venture and new philanthropy, which we hoped to later explore and challenge in the
interviews. Among the stereotypes promulgated by the media are:
• that engaged, impact-driven philanthropy is a new phenomenon in history;
• that high-tech donors are highly critical of the nonprofit world, regarding it as
inefficient, bureaucratic, old-fashioned, and ineffective;
• that despite knowing little or nothing about the world outside business and their
computers, they arrogantly claim to know better than seasoned professionals in the
nonprofit world;
• that they are Lone Ranger types, usually preferring to go it alone and set up a new
charity, rather than work with an existing one;
• that hands-on involvement is the only way high-tech donors wish to contribute, and
they are certainly not interested in simply writing a check;
• that when they do work in groups, they prefer to partner with peers from the high-tech
industry in Social Venture Partnerships (SVP);
• that they are "cyberstingy": miserly about charitable contributions despite being
obscene wealthy;
• that they want to apply the lessons learned in business to every non-profit, namely,
strategic thinking, measurable results, scalability, accountability and sustainability;
and
• that they are conservative in their choice of causes, focusing primarily on education
and the environment.
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