Philanthropy not far removed from business

Philanthropy by the wealthy has been called many things. Some have called it a responsibility; some have called it a necessity; some, more uncharitably, have called it vanity. However, others - including ourselves - call it an opportunity.

"Opportunity" seems like a strange word to use when talking about giving. It is a word more readily associated with investment; a word that executives use when casting a calm, clear eye over the financial markets. "Look at this young company," they may say, "I see an opportunity there. I see an asset which, with careful application of time and money, will yield returns and rewards that none could have imagined." The world of philanthropy - where money is seemingly given away with no thought of return or reward - seems many miles removed from the world of business.

However, that distance is not so vast as many executives might imagine. We direct a program, the Philanthropy Workshop, which educates wealthy donors in something that we call "strategic philanthropy"; or, simply put, how to make their giving as effective as possible and how to leverage the greatest possible social return on one`s philanthropic giving. The program, now in its 15th year, has seen us work with over 200 high net worth and ultra high net worth people from places as diverse as the United States, the U.K., Sweden, Lebanon, Nigeria and Taiwan: each of whom pursue their philanthropy with a rare rigor and passion.



Again, "rigor" and "passion" are not two words that sit so easily together. For many people, giving money away is an emotional matter: When they see a terrible crisis on television, it is not their heads that causes them to reach for their checkbooks, but their hearts. Yet, at such a moment, we would say: "Excellent. Your hearts are engaged with the issue at hand. Now, let`s engage our heads; and think broadly and deeply about how to make a lasting difference with your money."

We encourage our donors, much like the executives in the preceding paragraphs, to cast a calm, clear eye over an area of social need; to examine the root causes of the problem at hand, with a view to providing a solution that creates multipliers of social benefit. Each year, in addition to meeting a week in London and a week in New York, we travel internationally with a group of donors to make this examination; previous visits have taken us to Brazil, Ghana, China and Vietnam, and this year we will visit Rwanda. In all of our weeklong modules we give them the skills, knowledge and personal networks to be truly effective in their giving - all with an eye toward identifying opportunities to bring about positive social impact.

In the work we have been privileged to lead we have seen that successful investors and strategic philanthropists share the same qualities: a keen appetite for innovation, and the wisdom to step in where others fear to tread. And, from our experience, philanthropy is as rewarding an opportunity as executives can find.





Dr. Salvatore LaSpada is the Chief Executive of the Institute for Philanthropy, which has offices in London and New York.- Ed.



By Salvatore LaSpada