I had the opportunity to have coffee with Gretchen Wallace this morning in Hanover. Gretchen is a very cool member of 85 Broads. She is the founder of an organization that helps, and therefore profits, a lot of women in Rwanda which is why I'm hard pressed to call her org a "non-profit." Global Grassroots is truly best of class.

As everyone knows, donor dollars are extremely hard to come by. Thousands of organizations have been launched in the past decade to help make the world a better place but "more" is not necessarily synonymous with "better."

What we need: consolidation and strategic alliances and partnerships across the best organizations and smarter, better funding strategies.

Here are my two --

MILES TO GO: In 1993, while at Goldman Sachs, Sara Weinheimer and I came up with a great way to raise a ton of money for the Robin Hood Foundation. We ran it by David Saltzman, RH's Executive Director, and he loved the idea. He loved it because it was elegant in its simplicity.

Back then, Goldman had its own in-house travel department. We had one question -- was it possible to give GS execs the option to fly coach instead of first or business class and have the difference in ticket price applied to a special account which would be earmarked for great orgs like Robin Hood?

The travel department folks estimated that the savings, based on in-house travel data, would generate several million dollars for charities annually!

Sara and I presented our idea to Bob Rubin but sadly, MILES TO GO never took flight. Anyone can write a check or attend a gala but few people in a tux or a ball gown ever experience what it's really like to "go without." This would have been the ultimate arbitrage -- you fly from one destination to another but get to your destination from seat 25 instead of seat 2 -- having no leg room would never have felt so good!

Okay so here's my other idea: STAMP OUT POVERTY.

Over the last decade, the US has raised the price of stamps, sometimes several times in the same year. Some stamps have no price on them which makes people crazy because they have no idea whether they have enough postage to mail a letter.

What if all those stamps could be given to charity? I have at least $20 worth of stamps that are part of the flotsam and jetsam on my desk. I would LOVE to give my stamps to charity. Just think how cool it would be if every person in the US could use their unused, unwanted stamps as "currency" to fund their favorite charitable organizations?

Next up: Rachel Sklar's awesome funding strategy: "charitini."