A comment from Bill Gates' annual letter on using the Web for giving

"One thing that really struck me in both the Giving Pledge meeting and the
India get-together is that a key factor holding people back from being even
more generous is finding philanthropic endeavors that make them feel like
they are having a significant and unique impact. *It has me thinking a lot
harder about how we can use the web to make it easier for givers of all
sizes to connect to causes and see the results of their giving*."

The Gates' foundation saved an estimated 100 million lives last year.  I
really do think frictionless payments can play a big role in this.  I
wonder if between the Gates Foundation, Web Foundation, Linked Data,
Provenance and Web Payments, we can reduce friction to such an extent that
helping reduce poverty can become incredibly easy.

We can go further.  It's not just through giving money, but through all
kinds of activity on the Web that can have a positive impact.  People go on
fun runs, organize events etc.  Wouldn't it be nice if the Web were able to
facilitate a routing of positive action and transfer it to the places that
need it most, while a realtime log is kept to know you are making an
effective Impact