HuffPost Game Changers: Who Is The Ultimate Game Changer In Philanthropy?

(VOTING IS NOW CLOSED)

HuffPost's Game Changers celebrates 100 innovators, visionaries, and leaders in 10 categories who are harnessing the power of new media to reshape their fields and change the world. With your help, we've picked 10 people who are changing the game in philanthropy. We honor and salute them.

Now it's up to you to pick the Ultimate Philanthropy Game Changer. Click through the slideshow below, get the lowdown on why we chose them, then VOTE. We'll reveal the Ultimate 10 in November.

PERLA NI

Current Status: Yelping the nonprofits



Changing The Game By: Creating a social network for the nonprofit community. User-generated reviews and Zagat-like ratings make GreatNonProfits.org a destination site for the philanthropic -- as Ni puts it, “a place to find, review, and talk about great -- and perhaps not-yet-great -- nonprofits.” Donors, volunteers, and the beneficiaries of their largesse are all part of the conversation. Ni’s site gives nonprofits a free -- and effective -- marketing tool by providing a forum for sharing the stories of those they’ve served -- the most authentic type of advertising.



Herstory: “My family had $100 when we immigrated and countless nonprofits helped us. If you look at photos of me when I was a kid, practically everything I wore came second-hand from nonprofits. My cavities got filled for free at a nonprofit community dental clinic.”



Must Click Link: GreatNonProfits.org

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Comments

[RichardWalden]

11:07 AM on 11/19/2009

I agree with the majority of comments above. Why lionize very rich people who are no doubt clever in morphing profit making ventures into what they themselves are terming "philanthropy". It's really marketing to donors as their main objective, not necessarily those in need.

Remember, even Bill Gates, for all his great recent work attacking major diseases, not so long ago said he'd wait til he was much older before giving away his money. He and Microsoft funded mostly projects at the Univ. of Washington and matched his employees' donations to various charities. It was only in the late 1990s that Melinda Gates--the real engine of Bill's turn toward philanthropy--got Bill to refocus. Warren Buffett sealed it by giving Bill and Melinda's foundation a second $30 billion when Buffett realized he was too old to spend it himself.

"Game Changers" is a pornographic name or marketing term masquerading as charity or philanthropy. Albert Schweitzer, Tom Dooley, Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Pasteur, Muhammad Yunus and the thousands of similar but unknown ("unmarketed"?) people whose stories have yet to be told are the genuine forces for change.

[darker]

02:22 AM on 11/02/2009

Too much of philanthropy is PUBLIC RELATIONS ADVERTISING NARCISSISM.

[Ziona Etzion]

01:11 PM on 10/31/2009

Philanthropy is not a creative model.

It separates the haves from the have nots to start with making some feel superior.

I would like to see the model of Social Entrepreneurship as one being more solid
with many working and being stake holders.

[Ziona Etzion]

01:08 PM on 10/31/2009

The day that people take Philanthropy to the next level is the day that they should be labelled game changers?

The new Social entrepreneurs might be taking the new direction teaching the needy to be part of the solution and bringing others up with them in turn making a web of support that teaches people to have dignity.

Philanthropy in itself separates the haves and have nots.

I do not only mean in money, those that have drive and those that don't, those that are educated who are able to support a group and change their world.

Philanthropy is not creative as a model.

It needs to be a creative business that connects in Innovative ways with people giving them a stake and a chance to progress.

[dstoke]

08:47 PM on 10/30/2009

This list is far too limited to people using technology and media and not recognizing those that created the environment and movement that made it all possible. There never would have been a Matt Flannery without a Muhammad Yunus. Bill Drayton's brilliance is not the specific platform of Changemakers but building an entire movement and legitimatizing the field of social entrepreneurship. Fazel Abed should definitely be on this list at transforming the role and vision of a nonprofit as a key player in a national economy. Gates' vision to get computers in every home and office has made all of these models possible. Then it was the google, ebay, wikipedia and craigslist founders who revolutionized how the internet could be used. All of the folks in this list are great changemakers but most are benefactors of the ultimate changemakers who preceded them.

[Natasha Khan]

06:28 PM on 10/30/2009

Where are Bill Gates and Fazle Abed.

Fazle Abed, leader of the largest nonprofit in the world BRAC, is changing the equation in poverty, healthcare, housing, and education...around the world.

[ETSpoon]

09:35 AM on 10/30/2009

In the Eighteenth Century Dr. Samuel Johnson, essayist and father of the dictionary, said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
http://www.samueljohnson.com/refuge.html

In the Twentieth Century Lisa Simpson said, "Prayer. The last refuge of a scoundrel."

In the Twenty-first Century add philanthropy to the list.

[AmandoB]

01:02 AM on 10/30/2009

I admire their energy, creativity, and solutions, but the category seems flawed.

[Verified]

11:58 PM on 10/29/2009

Would've been nice to see Colin Firth on this list. Not a Wall Street or dotcom billionaire; not at all a "look-at-how-charitable-I-am" person, yet one who has done a tremendous amount of work on behalf of social change and protection of innocents. His media contribution is a new organization called Brightwide which is set up to link documentary film making with everyday people who are interested in acting on the social problems illuminated in films. So much of philanthropy is charity, which has a tendency to promote dependence. But more importantly there's action which looks at opportunity for cooperative involvement, dignity and sustainable solutions.

[Sylvia Ng]

11:20 PM on 10/29/2009

I suppose this means that nobody is doing any game changing offline? Seems to me that the list has a high index of microphilanthropies (kiva, vittana, the extraordinaries, facebook causes). I'm very curious to know what people's favourite microphilanthropy organization is. Let me know at http://charitychamps.wordpress.com/vote-fav-microphilanthropy/!

[Damon Hedman]

10:52 PM on 10/29/2009

Does it bother anyone else that you have to click through the entire slideshow to read a description of each "Game Changer?" Does Huff Post make more money every time a page is loaded?

I want to be able to read a summary of all ten on one page. I don't need to look at their pic....

[Rrichboy]

09:06 PM on 10/29/2009

Ok, here is my issue with this,. If u live in a mansion, what kinda philantropist are u? u r michael bloomberg with bazillions of dollars, but u hold onto so much of it while people r dying..
People ask me to contribute money, and I do, but, why should i give money of the little i have to survive, when others have multiple homes??
Like Hillary Clinton, she wanted obama to pay her campaign debt, but she can pay it from her pocket. so gross to me. people are dyhing, so give up your 6 homes and give it all away now. it is a pyramid scheme

[Palemoon]

08:52 PM on 10/29/2009

I'm sorry, but this category and it's nominees are nothing but fraud and charlatans. Of them all, only 2 of them could even come close to being philanthropist. An entrepreneur is NOT, never has been, never will be, a philanthropist as they are 100% concerned about their profits and their well-being, not the well-being of others.

[FrankenPC]

08:50 PM on 10/29/2009

Where's Bill Gates? His war against malaria is legendary.

[NeuralLink]

09:29 PM on 10/29/2009

Bill Gates should be on this list. His application of innovation and followup to the act of giving has literally saved millions of lives.