The Dawn of Modern Philanthropy

Philanthropy comes from the Latin word philanthropia which means "love of man". History will reveal many manifestations of philanthropic impulse in many ancient societies in Rome and Greece. Several thousand years ago social responsibility was a vocation that the church took upon itself. Great religions like Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism have nurtured a culture of extending aid to those living life of deprivation. Many religious orders eventually became more organized in the way they extend these aids in the form of giving food, shelter, clothing, education, and in many occasions organizing communities. When monarchies started to disappear and the church wielded less and less influence over royal families, wealth was no longer the sole dispensation of a few families. The French and the Bolshevik revolutions have introduced new political order and the world had to contend with a new form of power: the power of the mob or the power of elections.

Governments have started to put in place social support structures like welfare services, public education, health services, and others where centuries before came exclusively from the church.

After World War II and during the height of the expansion of economies of the Allied countries between the 1950s to the very late 60s, tremendous wealth were created and with these a growing affluence swept the upper and middle classes of industrialized societies. This excessive wealth created enough surplus for the wealthiest of families to set aside funds for philanthropic purposes. Our world have received more than $300 million from Andrew Carnegie, the American industrialist. You can add a few more hundred millions from Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates, and a lot more.

Philanthropy was not a monopoly of wealthy families, fraternal organizations also started initiating fund-raising for the same purpose. Greek letter fraternities from Ivy League universities played quite a part in philanthropic work for many years.

Since the early 90s deliberate efforts have been initiated to put focus and integrate programs of the different philanthropic organizations. Initially the efforts were towards creating a network to communicate and share sentiments about philanthropic work. Later on these efforts moved towards concerns about organizational development, integrating programs with other programs for synergy, sharing best practices, instituting standards of measuring outcomes, and in more concrete terms the creation of guidelines for implementing programs and projects.

It was also in the era between the last World War and the early 90s that the impact of the operations of Transnational Corporations or TNCs was put in the limelight. Bulging surpluses of cheap goods from highly industrialized countries have not been absorbed by their existing population so that consumers from other markets outside their home countries were explored. In nations still crawling to find their place among their neighbors and still reeling from the impact of a world war and from their own civil wars, the prospect of jobs and cheaper source of goods became irresistible.

The changing climate of business and the pressing problems of energy, environment, geo-political crisis, increasing impact of labor unions, and the increasing number of nations seeking independence and national identity have put both philanthropic work and corporate response to these problems on a crossroad.