The Long Tail of Philanthropy

Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail, asserts that we are turning from a mass market back into a niche nation, defined now not by our geography but by our interests. He chronicles the economic and cultural impact of organizations such as e-Bay, iTunes, Google, Amazon, Netflix and the phenomenon of blogs.

While there is debate about the theory of the Long Tail---most notably by Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal---Anderson captures an idea that makes one think about how the Long Tail not only affects not only commerce, but community.

At the core of Anderson's premise is this: "Our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of mainstream products and markets at the head of the demand curve (think of a tall ski slope - the top is the head of the tail or demand curve), and moving a huge number of niches in the tail(the long running bottom of the ski slope).

While I think Anderson is onto something, it does make me wonder about the impact of the expansion of self interest, special/niche interest, and institutional interest. My belief is the trend is here to stay. Yet, I carry a strong point of view that we must strengthen our collective interests and our community interest. It is then and only then that broad progress will be made.

The fact of the mater is non profits are proliferating in America-- adding 35,000 new ones each year -now totaling over 1.9 million. The Long Tail of Philanthropy is happening as we add more niche and special interest organizations to attract the commerce of the charitable gift. I don't view this as bad, just something we all need to navigate as we strive to improve and strengthen community.

Questions that come to my mind as I read the The Long Tail: Do you believe we need to strengthen our collective interest in community? When you think of the word community, how would you describe it? How does geography play a role in today's society?

Your thoughts?