Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Funding infrastructure


Infrastructure is foundation-speak for "organizations that support philanthropy." The current infrastructure for philanthropy in the US (and probably around the world) is in desperate need of a new city planning effort, IMHO. To kill the metaphor, we have a mix of public utilities and telephone lines in a place where cell phones are the norm and most everyone is trying to function off-the-grid. Roads extend where there are no homes, inner-city brown fields sit empty, and so on and so on (yes, the metaphor is now dead).

Funding "infrastructure" isn't sexy. Yet even CJ Craig knew that it was roads and sewers that were most needed to help poor African nations fight AIDS (see The West Wing, penultimate Episode).

So, why others are writing about Skyline Public Works because of its "hybrid" venture capital/political philanthropy approach, what I want to know is - do the cool name and great logos really equate to funding the "plumbing" of the progressive movement?

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