"He's used to doing $100 million deals, and the combined budgets
here were $2 million or less," says Lunsford. "But there's no way
they could have found the resources to help them do this. They're
both stronger for it."
Austin-based Girlstart, a nonprofit that offers programs in math
and science to girls ages 9 to 15, used its $50,000 grant from ASVP
to build a technology center. Founder Rachel Muir says that ASVP's
support has had a "phenomenal" impact on Girlstart.
"We have girls who come in not knowing
potato chips from computer
chips," says Muir. "They've seen all this technology as something
for boys, not for them. By the end of the week, they've built their
own Web site and they're putting their
Christmas lists online with
embedded Web links."
Morino applauds the financial and intellectual commitment of the
new philanthropists, though he believes it's far too early to
measure their full impact. As critics have noted, the stubborn
problems of hunger, illiteracy, and disease may not yield at
Internet speed. And as Kanter points out, the volatile stock market
has forced some of her peers to downsize their dreams of changing
the world. "There are not as many millionaires as there were a year
ago," she says.
Despite the ailing NASDAQ, Wagner believes that many more of his
peers will turn to philanthropy in the coming years.
"Remember, they're still running the companies, fighting the stock
market," Wagner says. "Over time, as they free up, they'll say,
'Wow, I've still got a lot of great years left and a lot of energy.
What can I do to make an impact?'"
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