Fantastic article by Alex Steffen on Worldchanging that digs into conundrums and conflicts inherent in the current world of giving. One brief excerpt:
This is the dirty secret of much philanthropy: often foundations and individual donors continue to directly invest in actions which undermine and contradict the change they are trying to bring into the world through their philanthropy. The relative silence about this point may stem from our inherited attitudes about “charity”: that charitable action is always virtuous (when we in fact know that some actions, even untaken charitably, bring more misery than inaction would have), that it is an act in imitation of the holy (and thus small gifts, even if relatively meaningless and insignificant in relation to the wealth of the donor, should be praised) and that it cleanses (and therefore we mustn’t criticize the behavior that lead to a charitable person being in a position to be charitable in the first place).
These three attitudes may offer a valid interpretation of the nature charity within the moral framework of certain religious traditions, but as guidance for effectively using money towards worldchanging ends, they are pretty worthless.
Instead, we might suggest three new rules for major philanthropy:
- Practice holistic assessment.
- Seek transformative impact.
- Offer utter transparency
Definitely worth a read…
