Knowledge from Above..

No, folks. This post is not about God. Or any other divine being that gave me knowledge. In fact, I am talking about the "above" of the seemingly worst kind... the above of the rich and influential. The people that have the jobs and experiences that I want, and the types of stores of knowledge that I will hopefully one day acquire. We had a lecture in my Philanthropy in the 21st Century class by our Dean, Fred Hochberg. He himself is an extraordinary philanthropist and man, combining the modern liberalism that it takes to run a university such as the New School, with the sensitivities of someone who has been in all types of circles--from the disenfranchised to the incredibly powerful. He himself identifies as a Jewish gay male, something that is not necessarily as familiar a position as one would think.

We had a symposium where he was able to answer questions from both our professor, as well as from us. I still have some questions I would like to see answered, I think, although it was very comprehensive.
He discussed some of the following things:

• Difference between philanthropy and charity
• Doing something as opposed to just observing a problem at work.
  
• FINCA (micro credit organization that I am going to need to look into further...)
  
• Relationship between philanthropy and politics--aka creating change through both nonprofit work and political candidates.
  
• Political reality versus policy issue
• social entrepreneurship
  
• The benefits and challenges of working with micro lending in a very formal economy like the U.S.
  
• Amount of money you are giving away should be relative to the demands you make on program evaluation
• program replication being a good benchmark for success
• Development is, ultimately "Over analyzed and under-thought."

• "Some of us like to be loved, some of us like to be feared."

I really need to look into the micro-lending process more in depth, however I am very skeptical that the micro-lending is something that can blossom in the U.S.

Micro-lending is based on the Grameen model

These are my random non-profit thoughts for the day...there is a lot in my brain right now. I'm not quite sure how to handle it... I hope that I can create the calm within myself...sooner rather than later!