Community e-Banking: An On-Line Service Model for the Not-for-Profit Sector

There is a group of enterprises that exist to combat poverty, cure illness, clean up the environment, promote literacy, feed the hungry, and in general, to make the world a better place. Within their vaults are liquid assets worth over $3 trillion. These enterprises are not-for-profit foundations which together make up such a large part of the economy that they have been called the third sector, the first and second sectors being private business and the government itself. What is shocking is that these U.S. third sector enterprises, intent on being helpful, are so limited structurally that they have failed to do what any one of us would do with similar liquid assets – harness them conscientiously in support of our mission. In one way or another, virtually every U.S. foundation in the 21st century has subscribed to some form of philanthropic banking if for no other reason than because virtually anyone moving, holding, investing, or dispensing money, has been swept up in the new century’s internet economy. But not a single foundation has formally crossed that line from repository to depository institution.