Gunther leaving biz journalism to write about philanthropy

Marc Gunther, a business reporter for Fortune and the Guardian Sustainable Business US for the past two decades, blogs that he is leaving business journalism to write solely about philanthropy.

Gunther writes, “So after 20 years of writing about business — most of that time at FORTUNE magazine and more recently as editor-at-large of Guardian Sustainable Business US — I recently gave notice at the Guardian so that I can spend most of my time writing about philanthropy. I’m excited to begin a new adventure. I hope to approach the work with what Buddhists call a beginner’s mind — that is, an attitude of openness, eagerness and humility, and a lack of preconceptions.

“It would be disingenuous, however, to pretend that I don’t bring a point of view to my reporting. It is, put simply, that donors and NGOs need to focus more strongly on impact, evaluation and learning, so that we can do as much good as we can with the $350 billion or so that Americans give each year to charity.

“In my ideal world, institutional and individual donors would have a much deeper understanding of nonprofits and their effectiveness, so that more money would flow to high-performing organizations and less would be spent on those that are average or subpar. Nonprofits would learn from one another, and donors would share their knowledge.”

Read more here.