Man’s Desires are limited by his
Perceptions; none can desire what he has not
perceived.
William Blake
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Philanthropy: dimensions & issues
Eazaz A Dar Love for humanity and philanthropy go
hand in hand reinforced by faith and hope. The concept and
practice of philanthropy traces its roots back to the times
immemorial. Philanthropy is undoubtedly the most fulfilling
altruistic voluntary human activity. The noble notion and
practice of philanthropy will continue to exist transcending
all geographical borders, races, cultures and religions.
Khalil Gibran said “you give but little when you give of
your possession, it is when you give of yourself that you
truly give”. In the modern perspective, Daniel Borochoff,
President American Institute of Philanthropy has termed
philanthropy as a pervasively prevalent phenomenon. He
categorised giving on the scale of “lowest - giving
begrudgingly, to highest - giving money, especially one’s own
precious time to enable recipients to become self-sustaining”.
Robert Payton, an authority on the subject, has defined
philanthropy as “the activities of voluntary giving and
serving, primarily for benefit of others beyond family”.
According to Greg Dees of Duke University, modern 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”. Over
time, the concept of philanthropy has evolved from mere
charity to social investing for organised development. Keeping
in view the increasing volume, greater impact and vast
potential of philanthropy, it has also lately been recognised
as a viable social safety net duly acknowledged in various
social protection strategies and policy papers. Charity is
about easing symptoms of distress whilst philanthropy is about
funding the solutions to underlying problems. Philanthropy is
driven by noble virtues of greater good and munificence
thereby enabling the largesse being put to good use. It has
evolved and developed over time to the extent that now
sophisticated models are associated with it. Philanthropy’s
new agenda of creating value is considered as part of natural
social contract. Various dimensions of philanthropy include
individual indigenous philanthropy, corporate philanthropy and
diaspora philanthropy. According to a research of John Hopkins
University, the estimated value of philanthropy (giving)
globally is US$ 1.3 trillion. In the footsteps of Carnegie and
Rockefellers, soaring philanthropic contributions are being
provided by High Networth Individuals (HNI). According to
Business Week’s annual rankings, the highest ranked HNI
philanthropists in 2005 were Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore
(US$ 7.05 b) and Bill Gates of Microsoft (US$ 5.46 b). Mark
Benioff of Salesforce, another major philanthropic
contributor, is also celebrated as the pioneer of the 1/1/1
model— where a company donates 1 percent of its employees’
time, 1 percent of its equity, and 1 percent of its product to
philanthropic endeavours. Such trend setting philanthropic
behaviour, marked as exceptional in terms of giving, is
becoming the norm among the new generation of philanthropists
who are giving away their money and time to make this world a
better place. Same ethos is needed to be embraced by Pakistani
HNI philanthropists. Further impetus to philanthropy is
provided by in-vogue terms such as Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR), defined as “corporate contribution
beyond its staff and employee institutions” has two dimensions
– “minimising harm and promoting social benefit”. From this,
the concept and practice of Corporate Philanthropy evolved,
becoming an important and established source and driver for
social advancement in developed as well as developing
countries. A considerable body of literature provides
theoretical and empirical evidence to increasing contribution
of philanthropy. For instance according to a study, Americans
(individuals and corporates) donated US$ 250 billion – 2.5% of
their GDP in 2003 by way of philanthropy. With globalisation
and expanding markets, the concept of ‘global philanthropy’
has emerged. A national survey conducted by Action Aid India
in 1999 explored the corporate philanthropic practices and
found that 69% of the companies were involved in social
development activities of some kind. Pakistan’s Prime Minister
Shaukat Aziz, in a conference organised by PCP in February
2003 encouraged all companies, especially public listed
companies to contribute at least 1% of their pre tax profits
for social development. A follow up sequel to its earlier
report, Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy’s (PCP) research
“Corporate Philanthropy in Pakistan: the survey of public
listed companies” estimates that 54% of PLCs participate in
corporate giving in Pakistan and amount of corporate
philanthropy has increased 7 times from 2000 to 2005. In a bid
to recognise and incentivise PLCs, first ever “Pakistan
Corporate Philanthropy Awards” have been given by the Prime
Minister to top 12 corporate givers at a PCP & KSE joint
function recently. The rankings in two categories i.e by
volume of donations and by percentage of profit before tax
were based on the results of the PCP’s survey report. The then
Finance and present. Individuals, charities, foundations,
donors and government agencies keep pouring money into efforts
to help poor people improve their standards of living.
Governments are spending ever more but are still struggling
with the staggering challenges of development. Society depends
on philanthropy and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to
channelise the philanthropic contributions to provide
essential elements of development. NPOs are considered as
useful tools of mobilization of civic empowerment in social
institutions and national life. Effective philanthropy and
nonprofit management are instrumental in creating and
maintaining public confidence in the philanthropic traditions
of voluntary association, voluntary giving, and voluntary
action. The challenges of a dynamic and continuously changing
world, particularly of development, make worldwide
collaboration and action oriented partnerships among
stakeholders (governments, donors, corporates & CSOs,)
imperative. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are the
recognized drivers of development and work hand in hand with
governments and international agencies. They are now seen as
equal partners with government and the corporate sector.
Sustaining development and eliminating poverty have the
highest priority on the global development agenda. The
necessary condition to address the formidable and daunting
problems of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, human
rights, environmental degradation, peace and security etc, is
synergetic partnerships amongst all stakeholders. In this way
policies become inclusive so as to take account of value
differences and the impact on society is positive and
effective. With this shared vision, the world leaders at the
largest ever United Nations Millennium Summit in September
2000, unanimously adopted a comprehensive set of development
targets known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to
galvanise coordinated world action. Another UN led partnership
arrangement is “Global Compact”, to bring companies together
with UN, labour and civil society to support universal
environmental and social principles. Practical micro level
examples of all three sectors working together are the public
private partnerships in Pakistan. Under such a programme, PCP
has initiated successful interventions in rural Sindh where
the district government provides public primary schools for
adoption and corporate sector provides resources for school
improvement. NPOs such as PCP provide technical input,
facilitate the process, sensitise communities to create a
sense of ownership and do the monitoring and validation on
behalf of the two partners. This demonstrative model can be
replicated for other sectoral partnership interventions.
In a society like Pakistan, the tradition of giving is
largely driven by religious injunctions such as zakat, sadkas
and fitranas. But studies have shown that though giving is
faith based, the bulk of it goes to social causes – mostly to
education and health. Pakistanis are a giving nation - a fact
established by Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN)
individual philanthropy study in Pakistan, which estimates
annual giving to the tune of Rs 70.5 billion a year (based on
1998). This has been endorsed by another study i.e PCP’s
“Philanthropy by Pakistani Diaspora in the US” reflecting that
an average American household contributes 2.7% of their annual
income to giving whereas an average Pakistani-American
contributes 3.5% of its annual income to philanthropy. Another
inspiring example is that of Pakistani’s mammoth philanthropic
response to the October 8 Earthquake disaster.
