The World We Want

Peter Karoff has written a not-very-big book giving voice to multiple viewpoints on private philanthropy, and describing through conversations with various people their views of the goals and means of private charitable giving.

For 20 years Peter has given himself to organizing thoughts around philanthropy, and as the philanthropic world as at once become more diverse and more donor-centered, Peter through The Philanthropic Initiative has been tailoring giving programs to individual donors and expanding the types and degrees of philanthropic giving. A list of the “good guys” might start with Peter.

In contemplating The World We Want Peter has assembled voices who speak from different perspectives on different issues, people who have devoted their resources or their professional lives to envisioning and working toward The World We Want. How those different peoples’ visions compare and contrast is really quite interesting, and at the end of each discussion Peter presents “Reader’s Guide Questions”, challenging the reader to put himself in the book, and not infrequently subtly challenging his interviewee’s views.

Karoff’s conversations are probing, and although they may to some extent beg the question of exactly what world we want, there is enough communality of issues and a common perhaps bourgeoise sense that there are things which can be done to make it better.

Likewise each of the conversations reveals something about the world, more about the speaker and something about the philanthropic system. It seems, for example that dollars are not the scarcest resource. Programs with measurable and sustainable results and an appropriate ideological underpinning seem to be in the shortest supply. It is clear that India and China have made strides in the last decades towards reducing poverty, largely through private economic growth. In Africa, even according to Peggy Dulamy, poverty is increasing notwithstanding the considerable and reasonably well funded efforts of so many groups.

But perhaps the clearest thoughts are the expressions of the speakers – donors, program managers, social workers, and what motivates them. I was occasionally troubled by the combination of entitlement and its opposite but fellow-traveler, guilt, and a political anger and the obligatory race-baiting which seemed to be the lingua franca. The United States, great Satan, takes a general pummelling from all, and perhaps unsurprisingly to the greatest degree from those who have enjoyed its fruits to the greatest extent. What I would have hoped for, the missing ingredient was – humility, except, perhaps in the case of Sister Margaret Leonard, and perhaps gratitude.

Ultimately the visions of the world we want vary. Pierre Omydar, founder of Ebay credits the auction site with “economic self-empowerment”, and his charitable foundation expects to invest in initiatives that promote individual self-empowerment. Why are we not surprised that a person who had made a reported $10 billion from Ebay might find that Ebay is the solution to the problems of the world?

Amy Goldman believes that philanthropy can make poverty disappear, all evidence to the contrary. Good for her. Shirley Strong is not happy with the human species and seeks transformation of inner instincts. That is a harder vision. John Abele believes in doing well by doing good, which is hard to deny, if ultimately convenient to the highly respected Mr. Abele. Melinda Marble of The Philanthropic Initiative matches resources with needs to allow donors to express their own visions. The donors, providers, facilitators, experts and the neediest people of the world intersect, and it is little wonder that the visions vary. It is nice to have a chance to hear them.