Philanthropy – “Love of humandkind/humanity”
The Origins of Philanthropy
Andrew Carnegies – Gospel of Wealth : Identifies the imperative for wealthy individuals to give away their money to support the public good
“The ways in which philanthropists have accumulated and protected personal wealth have perpetuated harm,”, with many philanthropic leaders and individuals building their wealth through abusive capitalism and exploitation of the poor. Two examples include:
- The Sackler family, notorious for philanthropy across the art world, secured their wealth through their company Purdue Pharma, “which made billions of dollars in the course of minimizing the addictive tendencies of OxyContin, while a national opioid epidemic raged for decades and killed nearly half a million people.”
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, became richer during the pandemic and endowed the Bezos Earth Fund while his company employees — Amazon warehouse workers — organized against hazardous working conditions.
Speaking plainly, the “people” in “people-focused philanthropy” are white and wealthy.
Darren Walker, CEO of the Ford Foundation
Towards a New Gospel of Wealth
“Philanthropy’s role is to contribute to the ‘flourishing’ of the ‘far greater part’ — to help foster a stronger safety net and a level playing field. With each generation, we should be guided by our legacy of support for social progress and human achievement in the spirit of the Green Revolution, advances in public health and human rights, social movement building, creative expression and cultural innovation, and so much more. Ultimately, this reckoning with — this reimagining of — philanthropy’s first principles and its relationship to our market system will not be easy, but this moment requires that we not go easy on ourselves. Some might see this as a problem or as pressure. To me, however, it is inseparable from our privilege — because with privilege comes responsibility. In this spirit, let us commit ourselves to proffering, and preaching, and practicing a new gospel — a gospel commensurate with our time.”
A New Philanthropy – What is Community-centric Fundraising
“Our donors deserve the right and respect to grapple with what they are learning, unlearning, and seeing clearly for the first time. As a sector, we owe them this time and information. When we do not address how social constructs — such as race — have caused harm, our donors cannot possibly address the problem they seek to solve because they do not understand it.”
“Community-centric fundraising … is an anti-racist movement that seeks to dismantle the power-dynamics that have contributed to systemic racism and inequities, and, true to the nature of the word philanthropy, is deeply rooted in justice, equity, and love of people. “
White Supremacy Tactics in Philanthropy: include poverty tourism, tokenizing, competitive and complicated grant procedures, and other gimmicks that continue to increase the wealth of a privileged few, reinforce a wealth-as-power dynamic, and perpetuate a white savior role that is less than transformational.