First, Get a Worthwhile Cause; Then Get Wired

Those new types of organizations and activists encourage an abandonment of the kind of top-down paternalism that has institutionalized much of mainstream philanthropy. They rely on full access to information, on the public's expectations of openness in transactions, and on the new activists' insistence on expansive public disclosures in political campaigns and government. Donors at even the smallest level of commitment are gaining access to information about the successes or failures of the projects they support, and, on occasion, direct access to the people they seek to help. This doesn't simply lower boundary walls, it destroys them. Groups that understand the new world of connected activism thrive on experimentation and risk; they encourage the flow of capital to projects that may carry the promise of world-changing success, as well as the possibility of failure.