Friday, September 2, 2011

Where's the Pandora for Charity?

Friday morning is Pandora morning for me.  As the week winds down, I am trying to finish up any desk-based projects that I have on my plate, and a little music helps me through. 

I have fairly predictable musical tastes, and Pandora understands me. Pandora almost always knows what I want to listen to - even when I don't.  For instance, I would tell you I never want to listen to the Grateful Dead, but Pandora once knew that it was ok to slip in "Friend of the Devil."  It gets my alt-country, gospel, hip-hop proclivities.  And when it doesn't, I give the song the "thumbs down" and it goes away - forever.

My husband, a musician with much more extensive, sophisticated, and unusual tastes, has become obsessed with Spotify.  Spotify has a simple musical model. (I'll leave the economics of both of the services, and what it means for musicians, to another blogger).  Enter a song, hear the song.  Pretty much any song.  With Spotify, if you know what you want to listen to, you can hear it.

And the husband knows.  He reads about music.  His musician friends make recommendations.  His world is music and when he hears about something, or remembers a song from the past, he knows what he wants to hear and is thrilled to be able to dial it up.  I don't, though.  I don't read the music press.  I don't have friends who are constantly suggesting new albums.  I might know what I want to listen to on my ipod, but for new music, I need someone to make recommendations for me.  Which Pandora does.

Two different business models - two different consumers.

The same thing exists in the nonprofit world.  Some donors know exactly what they want to buy, and some don't.  There are many good internet models to support the "Spotify" group of those who know what they want to buy: Guidestar, Network for Good, Donors Choose, and several others. 

Where's the Pandora for charity?  Where's the website where I can type in a list of all the organizations I gave to last year and have it suggest others that I might be interested in?  Where's the Facebook app that knows that many of my facebook friends live in Northern New England, that I like to ski, that my sister went to UVM, and suggests a post-hurricane donation to the Vermont Food Bank disaster relief efforts?  Will Jumo serve this role?

What do you think?  Do we need a Pandora for charity?  Does it exist already? 

1 comment:

  1. What a fascinating idea - yes, a Pandora for charities would be SO useful. Liz, already I love your blog and the innovative connections you make.

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