I am not even almost smart enough to say where this melding of for-profit businesses with philanthropy is going, but this NYT story is a terrific primer on the evolving phenomenon.

I’ll say this — the robber barons of the 1890s invented philanthropy 1.0 as lasting monuments to their status as masters of the universe — but good things did happen. While vanity and megalomania are unquestionably at work with the 2006 robber barons, is it possible they are on to something big and useful?

And can we all agree that “philanthropeneur” is a horrible horrible buzzword???