Cancer Research UK rang me a little while ago and used what felt like emotional blackmail to try to get me to increase my monthly donation to them. Cold calls from commercial organisations are irritating enough, but I thought this kind of hard sell from a charity was beyond the pale, and it inclined me more towards cancelling my direct debit than increasing it.
I enjoyed an altogether more positive experience of the charity a few months later when I participated in its Race for Life event for the first time. The sense of purpose and achievement involved in training for the run and raising sponsorship felt infinitely more meaningful and satisfying than simply writing a cheque. So I was fascinated to hear Charles Handy’s views about charity recently when I met him to discuss his book, The New Philanthropists, published in October by Random House. The book comprises a series of interviews, accompanied by portraits by Handy’s wife, Elizabeth, of entrepreneurs who have turned their money-making talents to social causes.
The list includes Irish property developer Niall Mellon, building houses in the townships of South Africa with planeloads of Irish volunteers; one-time Sydney restaurateur Jeff Gambin, who now pays for, distributes and helps to cook 400 meals a night for the homeless; Sara Davenport, who sold her art business to create the Breast Cancer Haven; and eBay’s Jeff Skoll, who is sponsoring and underwriting major Hollywood films that raise issues of social justice or moral concern.
Part of a groundswell of increasing generosity from the UK’s rich and not-so-rich, Handy’s “new philanthropists” are distinguished by what he calls “volunteering with leverage”—that is, they “have enough to be able to kick-start an enterprise without going begging.”
Still relatively young and with bags of energy, these people want to give something back to society and want to do more than write cheques to worthy causes. As Handy says in the introduction to the book: “[They] want to be in the driving seat, because that’s where they belong and, being by nature entrepreneurs... they like to fill gaps and to meet needs neglected by others.”
This makes them unpopular in some quarters. They stand accused of jumping into situations without doing enough research or of failing to understand the long-term implications of their initiatives. They also cross swords with established charities that have been working in the same areas for longer and may resent the intrusions of the newcomers.
Not only do those on Handy’s list work in partnership with others to ensure their ventures are self-sustaining, but he believes the Establishment needs the kind of shake-up these passionate, persuasive lateral-thinkers represent. Some of the more traditional charities, trusts and foundations should seek to learn from, and work with, the new philanthropists, he suggests, rather than resisting what they deem to be meddlesome interfering.
“I find it worrying that so many charities operate with no support other than begging, because that is very hard work and demeaning for both sides,” Handy told me in a recent interview. “Lots of them seem to think their supporters owe them a living.”
Yet the corporate world, too, can learn from the new philanthropists, as Handy maintains. “Business’s unhealthy obsession with sales, profits and shareholders does it no favours. By contrast, money is almost an embarrassment to the new philanthropists—it is a by-product of what they do,” he says. New philanthropy will never be more than a niche sector, but he believes its greatest potential impact could be to change the perception of business from being a largely selfish occupation to one that benefits society. If its values infect the rest of the corporate sector, it could redeem capitalism within the next decade or two, he predicts.
Such a prediction from the man who anticipated trends such as contracting-out, portfolio working (his own term) and corporate social responsibility should not be taken lightly. Indeed, it might even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Jane Simms is the former editor of Financial Director and Marketing Business.
