Best of the Blogs

Sean Stannard-Stockton, arch blogger and founder and CEO of US based Tactical Philanthropy Advisors reviews his top five philanthropy blogs.

Change.org’s Social Entrepreneurship Blog

http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org

Nathaniel Whittemore maintains one of the most frequently updated blogs in the social impact space. He offers an optimistic, yet realistic, view on social entrepreneurs, philanthropy and the potential of for-profit enterprises to create social impact. With a fresh, irreverent writing style, Nathaniel writes one of the few philanthropy themed blogs that breaks free from the academic, jargon filled language used by so many in the field.

Philanthropy 2173

http://philanthropy.blogspot.com

Lucy Bernholz has been blogging philanthropy since 2002, before most people even knew what blogs were. A keen observer of philanthropy, Lucy is especially prescient in understanding how philanthropy (and many adjacent fields) is evolving. Her writing at the beginning of the last decade accurately predicted many of the key developments that came to pass. Read Philanthropy 2173 and you’ll get a peek at what’s coming next in philanthropy.

The GiveWell Blog

http://blog.givewell.net

Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, refugees from the hedge fund industry, founded charity analysis group GiveWell in 2006. Their blog offers an extremely analytical look at how to evaluate non-profits. But these two analysts also have some of the sharpest tongues in philanthropy and frequently criticise many of the industry’s sacred cows. Love them or hate them (there are many people in both camps), their blog offers extremely insightful, logical commentary on grant-making.

The Intrepid Philanthropist

http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/blog

A new blog from The Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at Duke University, The Intrepid Philanthropist features regular, weeklong guest blog authors who are some of the most senior and respected people in philanthropy. Recent guest authors have included the heads of the Skoll Foundation and Edna McConnell Clark Foundation as well as influential academic Paul Light. The blog offers a rare chance to hear from many senior philanthropic leaders who do not maintain their own blogs.

Give & Take

http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake

With the explosion of philanthropy, nonprofit and other social sector blogs, the Chronicle of Philanthropy has created the Give & Take blog to track the most interesting and important items from across the field. This excellent resource helps readers see across domains and pick up on key insights from nonprofit consultants, fundraisers, 'next generation' leaders and others whose writing they might otherwise miss.

Sean Stannard-Stockton is CEO of Tactical Philanthropy Advisors. www.TacticalPhilanthropy.com

Twitter.com/TactPhil