Idea #27 Virtual Stock Market for Non-Profit Initiatives

Always, too many initiatives chasing too little resources, and attention.

Big world-changing impact requires large long-term investments and razor-sharp focus. Think about what it takes to fight against AIDS, hunger, climate change, energy shortage, ......

Here's an idea:

Create a world-wide virtual stock market for non-profit world-change big initiatives.

Contributors "donate" for an initiative, based on her judgement of the potential impact, through purchasing its virtual stock.

Virtual stocks are traded among contributors.

Virtual stocks are measured by P/I, price / impact, ratio.

Funding flows to the initiative that has the biggest impact. The price of a virtual stock would not fluctuate much, think about Berkshire Hathaway. However the long term impact and steady progress of big initiatives will stand out from the crowd.

This is a capitalistic way of doing social reform. Much of the sophistication involved in the world financial market can be applied to the non-profit initiatives. As Alan Greenspan rightly pointed out in his book, The Age of Turbulence, the hedge-fund industry is like lubricants that ensures the machine of the world economy runs smoothly.

Thus in the same way, we make sure that the limited resources that we have today are most effectively used for making the world a better place.

Let me know your thoughts, or how feasible this is.

photo credit southernpixel