“PRODUCING SOCIAL change is not a simple matter.”
This was Alan Feinstein’s message in the talk “Old Foundations, New Philanthrocapitalists: Trends in International Funding in Southeast Asia” held at the Faura Audio-Visual Room on July 29.
Organized by the Nippon Foundation Asian Public Intellectuals (API) Fellowships Program, the talk focused on new philanthropy, its trends and difference from old philanthropy.
Philanthropy is defined by former United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John W. Gardner as “private initiatives for the public good.”
New philanthropy or philanthrocapitalism is different because it applies business practices in achieving goals.
Feinstein, an API Fellowships Program Senior Fellow, said his work “is still in progress,” based on his experiences while working in philanthropic foundations and his readings of literature.
The API Fellowships Program website says that it “provides a grant to successful applicants to carry out a project during the fellowship period of one month to one year in a country,” mostly in Southeast Asia.
Feinstein began by presenting current articles about the foundations of “philanthrocapitalists” who are mostly successful businessmen.
According to him, the growth in number of American private foundations can be due to the celebrity status of the philanthrocapitalists, the foundations’ huge size and their impressive claims of changing the world.
Old and new
Feinstein then stated the differences between the American’s old and new foundations.
The old foundations in the US are undergoing changes and retrenching their programs. “The old foundations have been going through a period of being scared by the likes of the new foundations…scared into thinking they are old-fashioned…with rickety programs that fail to produce measurable, short-term [results],” Feinstein said.
Feinstein further added that in new philanthropy, “grants are seen as investments, and are thus expected to give measurable results in a short time.”
He said that new foundations have little patience for soft fields like humanities because its results are hardly measurable and it counters technological solutions.
Feinstein also said that old foundations have been influenced by the business sector to look for solutions that will show immediate results. “If results are difficult [to achieve] after three to five years, then they will move on.”
Historically different
Feinstein then focused on non-American foundations, especially those in Western Europe and Japan.
The main point he brought up was that foundations in Europe and Japan are “historically different” from those in the US. “[In the former,] there’s more of a social welfare role for government…and higher personal and corporate taxes,” said Feinstein.
However, European organizations are now influenced by new foundations, he added.
While philanthrocapitalism seems to be the way to solve world issues, Feinstein pointed out two main problems. “First, producing social change is not a simple matter. Second, the model may need more work on some certain problems.”
He also said that philanthrocapitalism is greatly unable to handle other systemic problems and that systemic change requires social movement.
Feinstein offered some suggestions regarding this new philanthropy. He encouraged a more critical examination of philanthrocapitalism and recognition of the humanities. An open forum followed to answer questions and clarify things.
Opportunity for sharing information
Patricia Dacudao, History Department Instructor, attended the talk and said, “I’ve been reading about Bill Gates and Warren Buffett so I was just curious on his [Feinstein’s] comments on the new trends of philanthropy.”
Resmi Setia Milawati, an Indonesian API Fellow said, “the topic is really relevant…because I’ve been working in [an] NGO…so there’s a big fear of what the interest for them [is].”
Isabel Nazareno, Program Coordinator of the API Fellowships Program, said the talk was an opportunity to share information on that topic. She added that people involved in this field “might find some insights into the trends…what they have to be more watchful for, especially when dealing with various grant-giving organizations.”
