By Alex Barkus
The semester is halfway over and in a few short weeks we will be sifting through grant proposals, struggling to decide which organizations we will be awarding money to. Right now, we can put that out of our minds and instead discuss the idea of philanthrocapitalism. There was not much disagreement in the class about whether capitalism has a place in the world of philanthropy, it was more a discussion about the guidelines business owners should follow in order to keep it honest. Nobody can deny that money controls the world and access to funds is so beneficial to non-profit organizations trying to make change. It is near impossible for an organization to have a significant impact without money.
One of the readings for the week, by Michael Edwards, discussed a few possible guidelines to best shape philanthrocapitalism. In class, we talked about the ones we felt were most important to include. One student said that making donations more public was important, letting people see where corporate contributions are actually going. Another guideline we discussed was the concept of learning from past experiences. Considering past experiences is important in decision making to ensure organizations are learning from their mistakes. The last important guideline we discussed was giving recipients of the money the opportunity to voice their opinion about where funds should go. They often have more insight about where the money would be most beneficial.
In addition to our discussion about philanthrocapitalism, we watched a TED Talk by William MacAskill and then reflected as a class. This was the most important discussions that we’ve had so far to me personally. MacAskill makes the claim that if you want to make a difference in the world, you shouldn’t work for a charity or non-profit. A lot of students in this class disagree and have plans to work in non-profits following college. Jessica is studying neuroscience and wants to use her love for that field to help make the world a better place. Justina is undeclared, but is most likely going to major in Journalism. As a career, Justina does not want it to work in philanthropy, but wants a career that allows her to give her time to volunteer. In these videos, the two students will talk about their plans after graduation and why they decided to enroll in this class. Everyone has a different dream and an alternate way that they ended up in this class, but each of us wants to make a difference and incorporate philanthropy into our lives.