Some kooky alum has an op-ed in the Record on EphsChoose. Other discussion here. Even though I think that this is a great idea, my prediction is that nothing meaningful will come of it because Williams administrators will be able to cajole/trick the interested students into dropping the project. The College is happy to have students fund-raise for projects that the College already approves of. It will do everything it can to prevent students from contacting alumni about projects it would not otherwise fund.

With luck, students will prove me wrong.

Just back from a fun speech and dinner. More details later. In the meantime, here is a copy of my prepared remarks. I will probably take these down in a couple of days (since I plan to give the same talk next year), but feedback on the substance is always welcome. (Apologies for the formatting.)

Also, for those interested, I will be speaking to the Purple Bull Investment Club at 1:00 PM Sunday in the Rogers Room at the top of Hopkins Hall. I don’t have prepared remarks but will be happy to talk about whatever the members are interested in. I will certainly try to sell them on the idea of working more closely with EphBlog to create a forum at which students and alums might discuss finance. 

(more…)

Why not cut out the middle man from this?

Help support the Alumni Fund and earn additional funds for your Williams student athletic team, club, or organization. Each hour that is spent by each student sending Thank Yous to Williams Alumni for their contribution to the Alumni Fund is counted toward the 25-hour goal, which is necessary for each reward.

So, I send in money to Williams so that it will fund student organizations that I care about. Great. The College then bribes students from those organizations to send me a thank you note. Perhaps we should cut out the middleman by having me send my money directly to those student organizations. Remember Ephs Choose? Read that post. Most of my goofy ideas are too nuts to work. But not that one! That one was genius. More to come in 2008 . . .

By the way, it’s the last day for 2007 charitable donations. Feel free to suggest worthy Eph-related causes in the comments. I’ll start with A Window Between Worlds, founded by Cathy Salser ‘88. Other recommendations welcome.

Hey Gargoyles! Have I got a project for you . . . (or anyone else who wants to fundamentally alter the relationship between Williams and its always-loyal alums).

Upon reading that Matt Furlong ‘10 lacked funding to participate in an unpaid internship this summer working for a “NYC-based NGO, uNight, which advocates and runs programs for the victims of Northern Uganda’s 20-year-long civil war,” Brent Yorgey ‘04 offered

to support his cost of living while doing the internship with uNight. If other readers of EphBlog were willing to do the same, we could probably raise a good amount of money. Do others think this is a good idea?

I think that it is an amazing idea but one which applies much more broadly than just to Matt and Brent. Consider the work of Donors Choose, “the future of American philanthropy.”

DonorsChoose has won several awards as the most innovative nonprofit in the United States. Best’s brainchild was to create a market in teacher proposals, which are posted on donorschoose.org in informal, non-grants-proposal language by the teachers themselves. So for example, this week a teacher in Richton, Mo., posted a request for a $392 camcorder for her kids to act out stories they’re reading; a teacher in New York City asked for a rug on which to read stories to kindergarteners ($474); and a teacher in a 100 percent low-income school in Los Angeles wants a $414 telescope to teach astronomy to her students. Donors scroll through the hundreds of proposals (searchable by region, subject, level of school poverty, etc.) and fund them in whole or in part with a couple of clicks. If there’s no market for the proposal, it doesn’t get funded, though most eventually do. DonorsChoose handles all of the discounted purchasing from vendors, so no money goes directly to the teacher.

Genius. If there had been a way for Matt to post his proposal (quick — someone check the domain status of www.ephschoose.org), Brent would have already donated him the money, and gotten a tax deduction. But, without a mechanism to easily coordinate the transaction, this is tough to pull off. More comments below:

(more…)