What is Philanthropy? How can one see it? How does one define it? These and other questions that come to our mind when we talk about the word philanthropy. Philanthropy means “action for the benefit of the human race”. Philanthropy includes “charity, especially for the less fortunate people”.
The term charity, as we know it, has different meanings for different people. For some it is simply giving to a charity, while for some it is the involvement in social action or politics. This involvement can be in various forms such as political lobbying, financial contribution, participating in politics etc. Therefore, what I will show in this article is how Philanthropy can be defined and put into the right perspective, as it directly impacts the quality of life.
First, let us look at some of the organizations that make up the major parts of the major philanthropy organizations. Among these are the United States Philanthropic Association, Ford foundation, Komen foundation, Oxfam America, Planned Parenthood, YMCA International etc. All these organizations have different ways in which they pursue their agenda of charitable activities, but they all have one thing in common that all of them have a strong focus on reducing the global poverty, improving the conditions of women, improving education and promoting economic development for the under privileged communities in the world.
In recent years, the United States Philanthropic Association has been one of the key driving forces behind the movement for creating charities and has actively pushed for its passage in the United States Federal legislation. The act defines the ways in which charitable giving can take place, with specific regulations to ensure that it can take place according to the best interests of the donor and those who will be benefited by the charity. This means that the IRS regulations for tax-exempt organizations like the US Philanthropy Association are being made more stringent in order to ensure that the philanthropy they give is not misused for other purposes. One of the reasons that is being cited by the associations for this is that the giving of large amounts of money by foreigners to charity organizations in the form of donations is very difficult to monitor, and so the laws are being proposed to make it easier to track such foreign donations.
There are many other areas that philanthropy is being pursued today. One of the major areas in which philanthropy is pursued is in the field of scientific research. Many prominent philanthropists have in the past given large donations to the major universities to help them carry on with their research. These institutions employ many researchers and they use the money to do important research, sometimes at taxpayer’s expense. There are many philanthropists who now want to contribute to such facilities so as to improve the quality of the research that is being done.
Another area of philanthropy that is frequently discussed today is the medical field. Several prominent donors say they want to give to medical research so as to alleviate the suffering of many people. However, there are some problems with the medical industry, and so philanthropy is often channeled into projects focusing on AIDS and other diseases. In this regard, the charities providing aid to Africa are becoming increasingly important.
