Philanthropy redefined: the world’s most generous people.
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Same content for you, same focus for you, new name for me.
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Money has hijacked philanthropy.
Generosity doesn’t require wealth.
And people in many ‘poorer’ Global South countries give more than ‘rich’ Global North donors.
Look at the 2024 World Giving Index.
↳ How citizens donate, volunteer, and help strangers:
🇮🇩 Indonesia tops the list for seven straight years.
🇰🇪 Kenya, 🇬🇲 The Gambia, 🇳🇬 Nigeria, 🇺🇦 Ukraine, 🇱🇷 Liberia, 🇬🇳 Guinea, 🇹🇭 Thailand, 🇲🇲 Myanmar, and 🇲🇾 Malaysia are among the world’s most generous people. So low- and middle-income countries are half of the top 20.
🌍 Africa also boasts 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone, 🇬🇭 Ghana, 🇪🇹 Ethiopia, 🇹🇩 Chad, 🇱🇾 Libya, and 🇸🇳 Senegal in the top 45.
🇺🇸 USA is the sole ‘Western power’ in the top 10.
🇪🇺 Europe has only two in the top 15, far fewer than Africa.
🇬🇧 The UK ranks just 22nd most generous, and trending downward.
👍🏾 Across the globe, immigrants are more likely to give than nationals.
Why does this matter? ⤵
The word philanthropy means love (phil) of humanity (anthropos).
Not love of grantmaking.
So once again, we have a storytelling opportunity. A chance to shatter the illusion of the Global South’s dependency.
A chance to rebrand philanthropy.
“Sixteen years in the field have shown me that actual philanthropists … are much more prevalent among the regular population and are only rarely found inside the field’s formal institutions,” says Edgar Villanueva in his book Decolonizing Wealth.
In other words, many people already practice real phil-anthropos.
Sending remittances back home.
Donating money to charity.
Helping out a stranger.
Volunteering time.
All philanthropy. ☝🏽
Because generosity isn’t a VIP club.
Cash isn’t the only ticket in.
Philanthropy is an ethos.
Not a financial transaction.
So if we monetize the story of giving, we risk bankrupting its very soul.
💪🏽💛
The daily bonus
A few additional quotes from the book mentioned above, Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance.
(One of my favorite reads in the last decade.)
“When we hear of massive donations from the super-rich, we should consider it less a sign of goodwill and more an indication of a system that is far out of whack.”
“Philanthropy moves at a glacial pace. Epidemics and storms hit, communities go under water literally and metaphorically, Black and brown children get shot dead or lose their youth inside jail cells, families are separated across continents, women are abused and beaten and raped, all of Rome burns while we fiddle with another survey on strategies, another study on impact. Other sectors feel the heat of competition. Not us. We politely nod at the innovations of the business sector; it takes us a half century to implement one of them. We indulge those who say that diversity is important by conducting several decades of analyses, hiring consulting groups with absurd price tags. We publish reports. We create a task force and debate mightily over what to call it. We do not actually change, not more than superficially.”
“Most critiques of philanthropy point the accusing finger at things like funding priorities, grantmaking decision processes, the tax code, and payout percentages. As far as I’m concerned, a focus on reforming this stuff is certainly valid, but ultimately it is about as effective as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Why? Because those are mere symptoms of a virus that has pervaded every aspect, every cell, every interaction. What remains unexamined with those kinds of reforms are frank conversations about where that wealth came from, why it’s held back from public coffers, how it’s invested as an endowment, and who gets to manage, allocate, and spend it.”
“To sum it up: when it comes to getting or giving access to money, white men are usually in charge, and everyone else has to be twice as good (or more) to get half as much (or less).”
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