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As a result, a far higher proportion of hospitals, libraries, universities and welfare services in America is funded by private donations than in other rich countries, where governments are spending proportionately more yet are still struggling to meet growing public expectations. Still, the differences can be exaggerated. America's basic health research is largely funded by the government, whereas in Britain much of it is paid for by the Wellcome Trust, a charitable foundation based in London, albeit set up by an American.
Britain's government has recently been trying to foster the philanthropic spirit, and other European countries are starting to follow suit. Even in China, the government seems keen to build up a non-profit sector that caters to social needs, and appears to be relaxing some of its rules to allow philanthropy to play a bigger role. The exception is Russia, where President Vladimir Putin, averse to concentrations of power outside his government, has cracked down on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their backers. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former boss of Yukos, a big oil company, was reportedly Russia's leading philanthropist before he was jailed after a show trial.
But just as the world's wealthy and powerful are discovering the joys of giving, students of the American model of philanthropy are becoming increasingly critical of its flaws. This is not just a private concern for the donors: because of America's huge tax breaks for charitable donations, it is a matter for public scrutiny too. The cover story of a recent issue of Stanford University's Social Innovation Review is entitled “A Failure of Philanthropy”. It argues that those American tax breaks are of most benefit to things like elite schools, concert halls and religious groups. “We should stop kidding ourselves that charity and philanthropy do much to help the poor,” says the author, Rob Reich.
A series of scandals at charitable foundations—mostly over excessive pay, jobs for family members and other extravagances—has attracted the ire of Congress, which is threatening tough new legislation. State attorneys-general are taking a greater interest, too.
Mainstream charities that rely largely on donations from the general public have also come under fire. The American Red Cross was exposed for diverting money raised for the families of victims of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks to other purposes. And after the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, two fund-raising former presidents, Bill Clinton and George Bush senior, found themselves having to reassure the public that they would monitor how the money was used.
One of the many things exposed by the collapse of Enron was that corporate philanthropy is often pretty sleazy too. A firm's executives can ingratiate themselves with business partners, and even with their own board members, by supporting their pet causes with funds from the company's charitable foundation, without breaking the law.
Wasting a fortune
But the problem lies far deeper. “Foundation scandals tend to be about pay and perks, but the real scandal is how much money is pissed away on activities that have no impact. Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy,” says Michael Porter, a management guru at the Harvard Business School. “Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money.” Mr Porter believes that the world of giving can be transformed by learning from the world of business. Many of the leaders of the new generation of philanthropists agree with him, so “there is a big opportunity over the next 20 years to figure out how to make philanthropy effective.”
Many of the new philanthropists are well aware that traditional philanthropy is not sufficiently businesslike. They want to bring about a productivity revolution in the industry by applying the best elements of the for-profit business world they know. That has prompted the industry to adopt (and adapt) some of the jargon familiar from the world of business. Philanthropists now talk about “social investing”, “venture philanthropy”, “social entrepreneurship” and the “triple bottom line”. The new approach to philanthropy is “strategic”, “market-conscious”, “knowledge-based” and often “high-engagement”, and always involves maximising the “leverage” of the donor's money.
Leverage is particularly important to the new philanthropists. They know that however large their personal fortunes, they are dwarfed by the financial resources at the disposal of governments and in the for-profit marketplace. So to make a real difference, they need to concentrate their resources on problems that are not being dealt with by governments or for-profit organisations. Being constrained by neither voters nor shareholders, they can take risks to find pioneering new solutions that can then be adopted on a larger scale by governments or for-profit firms.
But not everyone is convinced that philanthropists must become more business-minded. “We must reject the idea—well-intentioned, but dead wrong—that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become ‘more like a business’,” wrote Jim Collins, a bestselling management author, in a recent monograph, “Good to Great and the Social Sectors”. His reason is disarmingly simple: “Most businesses are mediocre.”
Still, even Mr Collins agrees that the way in which money passes from philanthropists to the organisations that put it to work leaves much to be desired. Here there is some reason for hope. In recent years, a host of new firms and institutions have been created that, with luck and good management, will provide the infrastructure and intermediaries of a philanthropic capital market, an efficient way for philanthropists to get their money to those “social entrepreneurs” and others who need it. These newcomers include management consultants, research firms and a philanthropic investment bank of sorts.
Plenty can still go wrong. There is no market discipline to force philanthropists to adopt innovations, however desirable. And the new philanthropists, along with the innovators who are trying to help them become more efficient, may find the going harder than expected. “The new rich have often made their money very fast, and get intoxicated with their own brilliance into thinking they can quickly achieve results in the non-profit sector. They forget that their success may have been due to luck, and that the non-profit sector may be far more complex than where they have come from,” says Mario Morino of Venture Philanthropy Partners, one of America's leading venture philanthropists.
One obvious risk is of a political reaction against the philanthropic rich. The new philanthropists are not just into spending money. According to Greg Dees of Duke University, today's philanthropy is best defined as “mobilising and deploying private resources, including money, time, social capital and expertise, to improve the world in which we live.”
Peggy Rockefeller Dulany, who runs the Global Philanthropists Circle, makes a similar point. “With wealth comes education, decision-making power, links to elites in other countries and enormous convening power,” she says. “We are helping philanthropists to make use of all these advantages. It is using money and connections—whether personal, family or business—to create public benefit.”
A global elite, seeking to change the world by combining lots of money with new ideas, cutting-edge business techniques, media and marketing savvy, the mobilisation of citizens and helpful political connections: all this is bound to set alarm bells ringing in some quarters even as it spreads hope in others. Already George Soros, a famous hedge-fund philanthropist, has become embroiled in controversy over the role of some of the organisations he funds in various former communist countries as well as in America itself. And last year Bob Geldof, Bono's philanthropist partner in rock activism, provoked demonstrations in Uganda when he suggested that the country's president should not stand for re-election. Philanthropy seems sure to become an increasingly hot political potato. |
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