Wednesday, October 11, 2006

globeandmail.com: Competitive philanthropy: ' Good is getting really sexy'

globeandmail.com: Competitive philanthropy: ' Good is getting really sexy': "Ben Goldhirsh, 26-year-old heir to his father Bernie Goldhirsh's magazine publishing fortune, wouldn't have raised any eyebrows by starting up his own vanity glossy about skateboarding or indie culture. So why did he launch a magazine about doing good?

Goldhirsh makes the analogy to Wired magazine, which documented technology's shift from nerdy to 'sexy as all hell.'

'Just the way the transformation of technology in the cultural landscape affects how much money, interest and human capital goes into it, the same thing with good,' he says from his West Hollywood office. 'Good is getting really sexy.'

No kidding. His timing is red hot, right on the heels of a spate of almost competitive acts of philanthropy by the likes of Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, with big donations being earmarked for African aid, global warming, global health and AIDS. Celebrity charity à la Angelina Jolie and Bono has never been hotter. Being good is the new citizenship, particularly in the corporate world: A group of Toronto CEOs led a 600-person brigade last week in building a new playground in the needy Lawrence Heights neighbourhood, for instance."

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