Jane Siebels’ eureka moment came in September 2007, during the third annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. Former president Bill Clinton had assembled leaders from around the world in an effort to pool their financial, political and economic resources in the fight against poverty and climate change and the campaign to promote health care, education and clean energy.
“But there were only so many people there,” recalls Siebels, who manages Bermuda-based Green Cay Asset Management, a socially responsible emerging-markets hedge fund. “There are so many more people out there to reach.”
For Siebels, 48, a good part of life is about helping others. A protégée of the late Sir John Templeton, the famed global investment manager and philanthropist who became one of her first investors when she set up her firm in 1997, Siebels was looking for a way to reach out and create synergies between philanthropies around the globe. Her brainstorm led to the development of iGivingWorld.com, a social-media Web site that crosses Facebook-style networking with a highly secure resource exchange.
Even before attending the Clinton conference, Siebels had wanted to share fundraising ideas with like-minded people. In her roles as trustee of the Templeton Foundation in Bermuda and director of Accion International, a microlending organization based in Boston, she had come to realize that many groups were striving separately to accomplish similar goals.
But the inefficiencies created by the fact that each of those organizations works in isolation troubled Siebels, who tapped several experienced Web site developers and donors to help establish iGivingWorld, which is still in the early stages of development.
“We’re slowly getting in touch with over 6,000 philanthropies, starting with the first 1,000 right now,” says Greg Demirjian, the Nassau, Bahamas–based CEO of iGivingWorld, who seems unfazed by the task ahead. “We’ve designed this community to grow out organically,” he explains, which can be a difficult mandate anytime, maybe, but especially in a recession. Demirjian and Siebels nonetheless seem determined to unite foundations that want to collaborate, opening a new frontier, as they see it, that will allow them to pool ideas and resources. Philanthropy experts see potential in the notion.
“If you think of philanthropists as investors in something they are passionate about, right now there are no market feedback mechanisms about how different projects perform,” notes Barnaby Marsh, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Templeton Foundation. He points to frequent duplication of efforts and notes that iGivingWorld is designed to enable donors to collaborate on their work in similar areas.
The site will host roundtables and online discussions and will post video, Web links and supporting documents. Exchanges can be kept private and secure on iGiving, and donors may retain anonymity if they wish. Unwanted visitors — like marketers and fundraisers — are screened out.
Much of the initial effort will be promotional. To encourage users to work toward more efficient philanthropy, iGivingWorld will award cash grants to the best projects in various categories.
Marsh says it’s a model that could break the mold: “This can revolutionize giving.”
For more information go to igivingworld.com.
