I’ve been earning my living as a professional fundraiser for almost 15 years. I’ve worked with some awesome donors and volunteers to support important causes, but I’ve often thought that the cause I’m most passionate about is philanthropy itself. I recall hearing this word for the first time when I was in my late teens. I remember thinking, “I want to be a philanthropist!” and calculating how much of the income from my retail job I could afford to give away to others. (It did not occur to me to make as much money as possible so that I would have more to give away, a strategy espoused by some in the effective altruism movement.) 

But philanthropy has gotten some bad press lately. Writers like Anand Giridharadas, Edgar Villanueva, and Rob Reich have argued there’s a hypocrisy to making your fortune in ways that harm others and then being celebrated for giving (some of) it away. They’re not wrong. How many know that Carnegie and Rockefeller were ruthless industrialists but now are mostly remembered as benevolent patrons of libraries, universities and concert halls? And sure, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have promised to direct 99% of their Facebook stock to curing every disease, ever. But should that give Facebook license to mine our data and undermine our democracy?  [Read more…]