PHM-Exch> How philanthropy benefits the super-rich

[Claudio Schuftan]

 There are more philanthropists than ever before. Each year they give tens
of billions to charitable causes. So how come inequality keeps rising? By Paul
Vallely <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/paul-vallely>

Philanthropy, it is popularly supposed, transfers money from the rich to
the poor. This is not the case. In the US, which statistics show to be the
most philanthropic of nations, barely a fifth of the money donated by big
givers goes to the poor. A lot goes to the arts, sports teams and other
cultural pursuits, and half goes to education and healthcare. At first
glance that seems to fit the popular profile of “giving to good causes”.
But dig down a little.

The biggest donations in education in 2019 went to the elite universities
and schools that the rich themselves had attended. In the UK, in the
10-year period to 2017, more than two-thirds of all millionaire donations –
£4.79bn – went to higher education, and half of these went to just two
universities: Oxford and Cambridge. When the rich and the middle classes
give to schools, they give more to those attended by their own children
than to those of the poor. British millionaires in that same decade gave
£1.04bn to the arts, and just £222m to alleviating poverty.

The common assumption that philanthropy automatically results in a
redistribution of money is wrong. A lot of elite philanthropy is about
elite causes. Rather than making the world a better place, it largely
reinforces the world as it is. Philanthropy
<https://www.theguardian.com/society/philanthropy> very often favours the
rich – and no one holds philanthropists to account for it.

The role of private philanthropy in international life has increased
dramatically in the past two decades. Nearly three-quarters of the
world’s 260,000
philanthropy foundations
<https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/as-philanthropy-grows-what-are-the-rich-spending-their-money-on/>
have been established in that time, and between them they control more than
$1.5tn. The biggest givers are in the US, and the UK comes second. The
scale of this giving is enormous. The Gates Foundation alone gave £5bn in
2018 – more than the foreign aid budget of the vast majority of countries.

Philanthropy is always an expression of power. Giving often depends on the
personal whims of super-rich individuals. Sometimes these coincide with the
priorities of society, but at other times they contradict or undermine
them. Increasingly, questions have begun to be raised about the impact
these mega-donations are having upon the priorities of society.

There are a number of tensions inherent in the relationship between
philanthropy and democracy. For all the huge benefits modern philanthropy
can bring, the sheer scale of contemporary giving can skew spending in
areas such as education and healthcare, to the extent that it can overwhelm
the priorities of democratically elected governments and local authorities.

For the full piece, go to:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/08/how-philanthropy-benefits-the-super-rich?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
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