Well, I’ve just checked with a few people and apparently it isn’t me.  According to my daughter I score “zero” on the cool-o-meter.  So it must, therefore, be the world of charity.

At the weekend, business woman, Mary Portas observed in the Observer that: “Our cultural G spot has moved. It used to be greed. Now it’s giving.”

Only a couple of years ago, when I mentioned that I did work for charities it brought a quick, embarrassed silence to the conversation.  Now the same people look at me as if I’m some sort of saint (if only they knew!).

Charity, it seems, has become like rehab – everybody who’s anybody is going there.

So what’s happened?  Well for one thing the rich and famous are still at it.  This morning the papers were full of Madonna adopting a second orphan from Malawi.  Comic Relief has just had its best year ever.  Everywhere you look someone famous is involved in a little judicious giving.

In an article in the New York Times, Naomi Levine, an expert on philanthropy at New York University, said young people, “more than ever want to do something.”  Judging from the calibre of the people who want to come and work with us, this is definitely true.

Of course, social media is playing a role in this as well. Earlier this year Hugh Jackman (better known to many as Wolverine) offered to giveaway $100,000 to whichever charity could make themselves most appealing in 140 characters:

This is exciting stuff.  Anyone could play and many of us did.

Politicians are also doing their bit (albeit unwittingly) by making such a public display of  greed and incompetence.  Enough to drive anybody in the opposite direction.

Then of course there is the recession, forcing all of us to re-examine our values. Finally there is the environment.  The once cranky idea that you don’t just consume but need to put something back is now mainstream.

These may be hard times but, in many ways, people want to give back more than ever.  Now that’s cool.