On YouTube, Google reaches out to viewers by broadcasting videos of influential individuals coming by to discuss topics of their respective fields.

Within the channel, located at www.youtube.com/atgoogletalks, you will find videos with presidential candidates who have visited Google, powerful and influential women, well-known filmmakers, and esteemed authors.

Recently, Heather McLeod Grant, the co-author of Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, (voted a top 10 book for 2007 by The Economist), dropped by to discuss what makes a non-profit great. (Also see onPhilanthropy's recent article by Julie Fagnani on Google, "Google: Better at Doing Good?")

To find out more about Heather's book, or hear more about her views on measuring non-profit impact, check out Sean Stannard-Stockton's (onPhilanthropy guest writer) podcast at his website Tactical Philanthropy. There, he interviews Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie Crutchfield about their book, but also on several topics including the potential Web 2.0 brings non-profits.

Click here to listen. (A transcript of the interview is available here.)

We got this video more than a month ago at the Clinton Global Initiative and just rediscovered it. The former President talks aobut why he founded CGI and his goals for it.

Today, the Clinton Global Initiative begins, be sure to watch it live at www.clintonglobalintiative.org.

From the Clinton Global Initiative website: President Bill Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2005 as a non-partisan catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

As a non-profit, 501(c)(3) endeavor of the William J. Clinton Foundation, CGI draws strength from a highly diverse membership base that represents the full spectrum of political, ideological, religious, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds. Members include current and former heads of state, top business executives, preeminent scholars, and representatives of key non-governmental organizations working together for a common cause.

The defining characteristics of the Clinton Global Initiative are its action-oriented nature and its track record of converting pioneering ideas into viable solutions with tangible results. CGI members develop ‘commitments to action’, focusing on practical, effective problem-solving measures that can be taken now. Member commitments are comprehensive, formal plans of action with timetables for evaluating progress. They are developed within one or more CGI areas of focus, which change annually to address the most imperative global issues requiring attention. We have designated education, energy & climate change, global health, and poverty alleviation as the areas of focus for 2007.

In this era of remarkable global interdependence, ensuring more equitable access to existing and future resources is a moral and practical imperative for us all.

At last month's Council on Foundations confab, PhilanthroMedia interviewed select leaders regarding their advice for high net worth donors also looking to address these challenges.  This terrific six-minute video highlights some of what we learned from the heads of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and others.  Definitely a good, quick way to get an overview of what major foundations players are thinking about.

Good on Slate for adding the videos (and some audiocasts) of its Slate 60 philanthropy conference to the website, just a tad on the late side, but we'll take it! We're going to watch these and post selectively, but we thought we'd put up the always interesting Ted Turner as the first installment.

In this talk, Iqbal Quadir explains why "aid does damages: because it empowers authorities instead of people," and advocates a new approach to development from below, "by the people for the people." His own experience as a child in Bangladesh and later a banker in New York brought him to realize that "connectivity is productivity" -- and that a simple cell phone has enormous power. Now his telecom company, GrameenPhone, offers service to most of rural Bangladesh, creating new opportunities by connecting villages to the world.

Jane Wales, President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, interviews Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, at the Global Philanthropy Forum's 6th Annual Conference, hosted at the Googleplex in Silicon Valley April 11-13, 2007.