Craig Newmark—better known to the Internet at large as Craig of Craigslist—would like your attention and energy. He’s starting a social-media philanthropy venture to demonstrate and guide his efforts towards buttressing nonprofit organizations that he sees worthy of praise and attention by using his fame and fortune to direct eyeballs and dollars.

According to the craigconnects.org website,

I’ve been doing this for nonprofits, but much more informally, for maybe 10 years, applying a lot of what I’ve learned doing customer service for craigslist.  Now I think it’s time to get deadly serious.

I guess I got myself a “bully pulpit” of sorts that I don’t really want or need, but it’s good for getting the word out about people of good will who get stuff done.  It’s a voice for the grassroots, the rank-and-file, for people who never had a voice until now.

My strong gut feeling is that this isn’t altruism, at least not for me, it’s just what feels right.  Over time, we can figure out what works, find people who are better than me at this, and persist. And here’s where you can read more about the purpose of craigconnects.

Essentially, he’s starting a foundation of sorts; but it will be more about directing attention than throwing money—although he personally says that he’s done plenty of that and will continue to do so. What he wants to do now is get the word out on how to get the lead out when it comes to bringing charities, sustainable efforts, and in-community activity into the limelight.

And limelight is something he has in spades. This is an examplar of crowdsourcing philanthropy and if anyone is in a position to make it happen, it’s Craig.

He makes it obvious that his effort is not about giving out grants so much as it’s about getting grassroots exposure. Having worked in a community wrapped around funding and exposure—mostly volunteer exposure—I know how important this can be. I have been knees deep in the animal welfare community for quite some time and a lot of the problems that shelters and awareness organizations have always needed was powerful marketing strategies on a shoestring budget. Social media has become the next strategy for keeping the public informed, exploiting the willing man-hours of people who otherwise don’t know where they can go and what they can do, and social media celebrities like Craig have a lot of social currency to spend on good things.

To conclude, here’s Craig himself on the subject: