Has big money hijacked philanthropy?

Eleanor Cater
Philanthropy and Membership Services Director
Community Foundations of Aotearoa NZ
10 December 2024

‘Money has hijacked philanthropy’ – this caught my eye in a recent LinkedIn post (see it here). This tendency to align the word ‘philanthropy’ with big dollars has been on my mind for some time. Recently, I presented to financial advisors in a series of presentations around the country and I asked them "who do you think of when you hear the word ‘philanthropy’"? My next slide showed a picture of Bill Gates, and the many nods in the room were very telling!

In reality, across the world and in NZ, philanthropy (or giving for the public good) looks very different to the big giving strategies of the likes of Bill Gates. In the community foundations world, we help local people discover how they can most effectively contribute to building and strengthening their local community. What we find – and it really is incredible to witness - is that local giving can be very empowering, for both the givers and for their local community.

And that this doesn’t necessarily involve big money, at all.

Collective local action is powerful, as Margaret Meads articulates so well:

It’s true that shifts in community outcomes most effectively come about from local community action. There is immense power that comes from the energy that resonates from community philanthropy – from the people who care and know their communities, working together to build the future. Research[1] - along with our experience - tells us that often this involves a shift in perspectives as people draw closer to communities, understanding more deeply local needs and aspirations, who is doing great work and investing wholeheartedly in community champions. And what we are seeing across NZ is that forms of more participatory philanthropy, which involve community and share decision making power (explained so well here by Lani Evans), are steadily growing across the country, shifting away from the top-down approach of clichéd big philanthropy, towards being much more community and human centric.

It’s really very hard to give well into communities, and at Community Foundations of Aotearoa NZ we are discovering all the time effective ways to develop and to help to guide giving, assisting locals to be the changemakers that our communities need.

Meri Kirihimete Aotearoa NZ, ngā mihi nui to all the givers and community champions who work with us through the 18 community foundations across the country, together we are building stronger and more cohesive communities.

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[1] Meaningful Philanthropy: The Person Behind the Giving, Shang & Sargeant 2024.