PHILANTHROPY: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, ADVANTAGES AND EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The philanthropy is the love for the human race and all that concerns humanity, promptly expressed through actions that have no other interest than to help others.

In other words, philanthropy ranges from financial aid, work for non-governmental non-profit organizations or individual gestures, as long as it does not seek to obtain an economic return, benefit or specific recognition through them. As Jeffrey Gitterman points out, "When I think of giving, I think not only in terms of money, but also in terms of time, energy, and attention."

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characteristics

The etymology of the word "philanthropy" comes from the Greek "philosophers", which means "love", and "anthrophos", which means "man." Hence the word means "love for humanity."

That said we can assume that philanthropy and charity are the same, but no. Broadly speaking, charity solves the immediate problem, while philanthropy seeks to solve that problem forever.

A good example of the first is to give a beggar a handout, while the second would be to give him the necessary tools so that he can generate his own income.

Philanthropy can be exercised from a person or a company. In the last century, a huge number of non-governmental organizations (known as NGOs) have proliferated, and associations that, through large donations of money, help a large portion of the population.

But as the saying goes "not all that glitters is gold", since there have been cases in which people used the good press generated by giving, donating or doing for others, to "clean" their personal image or acquire certain tax benefits. We will see that later, first let's see a little history.

Origin of philanthropy

It was in Classical Greece that "philanthropy" was first spoken of. For example, in Plato's Academy it was defined as an educational ideal, closely associated with democracy and freedom and whose objective would be none other than excellence.

Closer to these times, the Roman emperor Julian in the 4th century wanted to re-establish paganism in the territories of his vast empire. To do this, he copied some institutions of the Catholic Church and also took part of its doctrine, such as that relating to charity. He replaced this with philanthropy, which became one of the greatest virtues of the new religion.

But what most closely resembles what we know today as philanthropists took place in the 17th century at the time of the Enlightenment. At that time famous thinkers from Scotland and England, such as Thomas Coram, William Willberforce and Lord Shaftesbury, penetrated the highest echelons of society with their progressive thoughts, convincing them to organize gentlemen's associations and clubs whose sole purpose would be to help the least favored.

John D. Rockefeller

If there was a pioneering businessman in corporate philanthropy, it was John D. Rockefeller. It was in 1889 when he was influenced by Andrew Carnegie's book The Gospel of Wealth, when he began to donate money to different causes.

From him, there were hundreds of high-caliber entrepreneurs who turned to philanthropy, most of them Americans (something that we will see later).

So we begin to see that there may be a certain expediency in this "helping" business. Let's see.

The "B-side" or downsides of philanthropy

"Philanthropy is a way of exercising power," says Rob Reich in his book Just Giving. Why Philantrophy is Falling Democracy and How it can be Better.

In this title, he goes into depth indicating that money donations from private institutions can be a way of exercising plutocracy (form of government where power is in the hands of the richest or highly influenced by them) in a society in order to change certain public politics.

He also argues that growing inequality is an enemy of society but a friend of private philanthropy. And this is reflected with hard data: in 1930, in the United States alone there were about 200 private foundations with donations below 1 billion dollars. In 1959 there were already more than two thousand; in 1985, about 30 thousand; and in 2014 there were already close to 100,000 organizations with a capital close to 800 billion dollars.

Another interesting reflection on these powerful entrepreneurs who "give without asking for anything in return" was made by the editor of The Economist, Matthew Bishop, who called them "philanthrocapitalism", a play on words between "philanthropy" and "capitalism."

The benefits of philanthropy

When a person helps, he or she feels better emotionally, and we do not want to indicate that companies feel that way too, but they have other "incentives" to do so.

On the one hand we can say that they have an improvement in the brand image. Either the perception that people have about a specific entrepreneur, or an institution.

Thus, it can be ensured that they take advantage of the competition if it does not provide the same good, and somehow strengthens the relationship between employee and company.

On the other hand, it should not be ignored that in many countries, the companies that help receive tax advantages. For example, in the United States, a tax deduction equal to the marginal tax rate applies to donations, which increases the more money enters the philanthropist's account. Is that why there are so many charitable billionaires in there? Let's see.

Examples of philanthropists

According to the specialized site The Chronicle of Philantrophy, the top 50 donors in 2018 gave on average 50% less money compared to 2017.

The ranking is headed by Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos (the first being the CEO of Amazon), who through the "Bezos Day One Found" fund, donated 2,000 million dollars to non-profit organizations that help homeless families.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Source: Amazon press.

In second place is the businessman and former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, who donated 767 million dollars to various causes. Meanwhile, Pierre and his wife Pam Omidyar (the first is the founder of eBay) climbed to the third step of a virtual "podium of philanthropy", who delivered 392 million.

In this count, there are unique cases, such as that of Bill and Melinda Gates (Microsoft), who managed to top the ranking in 2017 with a sum of 4.8 billion dollars, but that the 138 million dollars donated in 2018 relegated them to twelfth place..

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder of Facebook) and his wife Priscila Chan, donated 213.6 million, much less than the 2 billion that earned him second place in the 2017 ranking.

References

1. The Power of Philanthropy. (2015). Justin Sachs. Recovered from: books.google.bg
2. Our history (2019). Rockefeller Foundation. Recovered from: rockefellerfoundation.org
3. Just Giving. Why Philanthrophy is Falling Democracy and How it Can be Better. (2018). Rob Reich. Recovered at: play.google.com
4. "Philanthrocapitalism". (2013). Matthew Bishop. Recovered from philanthrocapitalism.net
5. Top Chronicle List of the 50 donors who gave the most to charity. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Recovered from: philanthropy.com