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Philanthropy

Insight into the Future of Philanthropy

 

Chinua Achebe - Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic.

“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary."

"Charity... is the opium of the privileged."
 

Nelson Mandela - was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings."
 

Muhammad Yunus - Social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“When we want to help the poor, we usually offer them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid recognizing the problem and finding the solution for it. Charity becomes a way to shrug off our responsibility. But charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our own lives without worrying about the lives of the poor. Charity appeases our consciences."
 

Katherine Fulton - President of Monitor Institute

“Philanthropy is reorganizing itself before our very eyes. And even though all of the experiments and all of the big givers don’t yet fulfill this aspiration, I think this is the new zeitgeist: open, big, fast, connected, and, let us also hope — long."

"What we’re seeing is people wrestling to describe this new thing that’s happening. Words like ‘philanthrocapitalism,’ and ‘natural capitalism,’ and ‘philanthroentrepreneur,’ and ‘venture philanthropy.’ We don’t have a language for it yet."
 

Clay Shirky - writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies.

“We have lived in this world where little things are done for love and big things for money. Now we have Wikipedia... Suddenly big things can be done for love."
 

Michael Edwards - Writer and activist, from the Bellagio blog

“If those of us in philanthropy spent more time arguing about a broader range of outcomes and less time debating how to measure the small number we’ve already selected, maybe we could become a more creative force in society."
 

Lana Volftsun - Executive Director of the One Percent Foundation

"For many millennials, affordability, knowledge and impact are very real barriers to a more sustained, deliberate approach to giving. Many do not think they can afford to give, do not know where to give or how to evaluate the effectiveness of organizations, and do not believe their modest donations can make a difference."
 

Dan Pallotta - Entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian activist.

"When you fund programs, you buy something. When you fund fundraising, you build something."
 

Steve Case - Businessman, philanthropist and Chairman of the Case Foundation

“We live in a world that is increasingly networked, interlinked, and interdependent, where old divides of boundary and belonging are getting blurred. We're seeing the way cooperation across barriers of distance and culture is bringing about advances inconceivable not long ago. Likewise, we need to expand perceptions of how to engage in philanthropy -- to bring in new actors and forge new alliances that leverage our collective abilities."

"There's no logical reason why the private sector and the social sector should operate on separate levels, where one is about making money and the other about serving society."
 

Rob Francais - Financial advisor and Chief Executive Officer of Aspiriant

“There is much greater emphasis now on really leveraging dollars to effect change rather than simply gifting them as a transaction and forgetting about it."
 

Dean Karlan - Professor of Economics at Yale University and President and Founder of IPA

“In the aggregate any investment that improves competition and efficiency without causing negative externalities is likely to make people better off. If impact investing is to be anything more than a marketing slogan, it must be more than an ordinary beneficial market transaction."

"If our goal is to make a dent in societal problems, we owe it to our future selves and to future generations to make the time and effort to sort out what is good from what only sounds good."
 

Mark Zuckerberg - Web entrepreneur of Facebook, computer programmer, and philanthropist.

“With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts."
 

John D. Rockefeller - Business magnate and philanthropist

“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it."

"Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege."
 

 

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