Pakistanis are a giving nation – a fact established by Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN) individual philanthropy study in Pakistan, which estimates annual giving to the tune of Rs 70.5 billion a year (based on 1998). This has been endorsed by another study i.e. PCP’s ‘Philanthropy by Pakistani diaspora in the US’ reflecting that an average American household contributes 2.7 percent of their annual income to giving whereas an average Pakistani-American contributes 3.5 percent of its annual income to philanthropy. Another inspiring example is that of Pakistani’s mammoth philanthropic response to the October 8, 2005 earthquake disaster.
Philanthropy: dimensions and issues
Eazaz A. Dar
Love for humanity and philanthropy go hand-in-hand reinforced by faith and hope. The concept and practice of philanthropy traces its roots back to the times immemorial. Philanthropy is undoubtedly the most fulfilling altruistic voluntary human activity. The noble notion and practice of philanthropy will continue to exist transcending all geographical borders, races, cultures and religions.
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Kahlil Gibran said, “You give but little when you give of your possession, it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” In the modern perspective, Daniel Borochoff, President American Institute of Philanthropy, has termed philanthropy as a pervasively prevalent phenomenon. He categorised giving on the scale of “lowest-giving begrudgingly, to highest-giving money, especially one’s own precious time to enable recipients to become self-sustaining”. Robert Payton, an authority on the subject, has defined philanthropy as “the activities of voluntary giving and serving, primarily for benefit of others beyond family”. According to Greg Dees of Duke University, modern philanthropy is best defined as “mobilising and deploying private resources, including money, time, social capital and expertise, to improve the world in which we live”.
Over time, the concept of philanthropy has evolved from mere charity to social investing for organised development. Keeping in view the increasing volume, greater impact and vast potential of philanthropy, it has also lately been recognised as a viable social safety net duly acknowledged in various social protection strategies and policy papers. Charity is about easing symptoms of distress whilst philanthropy is about founding solutions to underlying problems. Philanthropy is driven by noble virtues of greater good and munificence thereby enabling the largesse being put to good use. It has evolved and developed over time to the extent that now sophisticated models are associated with it. Philanthropy’s new agenda of creating value is considered as part of natural social contract. Various dimensions of philanthropy include individual indigenous philanthropy, corporate philanthropy and diaspora philanthropy.
According to a research of John Hopkins University, the estimated value of philanthropy (giving) globally is $ 1.3 trillion. In the footsteps of Carnegie and Rockefellers, soaring philanthropic contributions are being provided by High Networth Individuals (HNI). According to Business Week’s annual rankings, the highest ranked HNI philanthropists in 2005 were Intel’s co founder Gordon Moore ($ 7.05 billion) and Bill Gates of Microsoft ($ 5.46 billion). Mark Benioff of Salesforce, another major philanthropic contributor, is also celebrated as the pioneer of the 1/1/1 model – where a company donates one percent of its employees’ time, one percent of its equity, and one percent of its product to philanthropic endeavours. Such trend setting philanthropic behaviour, marked as exceptional in terms of giving, is becoming the norm among the new generation of philanthropists who are giving away their money and time to make this world a better place. Same ethos is needed to be embraced by Pakistani HNI philanthropists.
Further impetus to philanthropy is provided by in vogue terms such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), defined as “corporate contribution beyond its staff and employee institutions” has two dimensions – “minimising harm and promoting social benefit”. From this the concept and practice of ‘Corporate philanthropy’ evolved, becoming an important and established source and driver for social advancement in developed as well as developing countries.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in a conference organised by the PCP in February 2003 encouraged all companies, especially public listed companies to contribute at least one percent of their pre-tax profits for social development. A follow up sequel to its earlier report, Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy’s (PCP) research, ‘Corporate philanthropy in Pakistan: the survey of public listed companies’ estimates that 54 percent of PLCs participate in corporate giving in Pakistan and amount of corporate philanthropy has increased seven times from 2000 to 2005. In a bid to recognise and incentivise PLCs, first-ever ‘Pakistan corporate philanthropy awards’ have been given by the prime minister to top 12 corporate givers at a PCP and KSE joint function recently.
Individuals, charities, foundations, donors and government agencies keep pouring money into efforts to help the poor people improve their standards of living. Governments are spending ever more but are still struggling with the staggering challenges of development. Society depends on philanthropy and Non-profit Organisations (NPOs) to channelise the philanthropic contributions to provide essential elements of development. The NPOs are considered as useful tools of mobilisation of civic empowerment in social institutions and national life.
Sustaining development and eliminating poverty have the highest priority on the global development agenda. The necessary condition to address the formidable and daunting problems of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, human rights, environmental degradation, peace and security, etc. is synergetic partnerships amongst all stakeholders. In this way policies become inclusive so as to take account of value differences and the impact on society is positive and effective. With this shared vision, the world leaders at the largest-ever UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, unanimously adopted a comprehensive set of development targets known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to galvanise coordinated world action. Another UN-led partnership arrangement is ‘Global compact’, to bring companies together with the UN, labour and civil society to support universal environmental and social principles.
Practical micro-level examples of all three sectors working together are the public-private partnerships in Pakistan. Under such a programme, the PCP has initiated successful interventions in rural Sindh where the district government provides public primary schools for adoption and corporate sector provides resources for school improvement. NPOs such as the PCP provide technical input, facilitate the process, sensitise communities to create a sense of ownership and do the monitoring and validation on behalf of two partners. This demonstrative model can be replicated for other sectoral partnership intervention.
In a society like Pakistan, the tradition of giving is largely driven by religious injunctions such as zakat, sadkas and fitranas. But studies have shown that though giving is faith-based, the bulk of it goes to social causes – mostly to education and health. Pakistanis are a giving nation – a fact established by Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN) individual philanthropy study in Pakistan, which estimates annual giving to the tune of Rs 70.5 billion a year (based on 1998). This has been endorsed by another study i.e. PCP’s ‘Philanthropy by Pakistani diaspora in the US’ reflecting that an average American household contributes 2.7 percent of their annual income to giving whereas an average Pakistani-American contributes 3.5 percent of its annual income to philanthropy. Another inspiring example is that of Pakistani’s mammoth philanthropic response to the October 8, 2005 earthquake disaster.
A viable mechanism to address the issue of credibility gap that exists between donors/philanthropists and civil society organisations – which is a major impediment in the promotion of philanthropy, is introduction of some kind of institutional credibility assurance system. The PCP’s NPO certification model is a good example of addressing this need, which has been incentivised by the government through its linkage with tax exemption. Not much data is available that estimates the accurate size and scope of philanthropy (individual, corporate and diaspora) in Pakistan but the PCP’s philanthropy-related research provides baseline figures and the centre’s lead role in evidence and the knowledge-based research to help informed policy decisions is appreciable as being monumental.
The CSO sector in Pakistan suffers from many impediments and challenges/issues such as lack of good governance, financial transparency, proper documentation, disclosure of information, accountability and organisational and programme effectiveness, lack of trained quality human resource, capacity building, wider coverage and outreach, financial sustainability, public approbation and effective advocacy and marketing, etc. This has been the raison d’être of birth of the only philanthropy focussed organisation in the country – Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP). The initiatives of lead organisation like the PCP to increase the understanding of philanthropy and improve its practices, setting standards in the non-profit sector, commitment to strengthening civil society through public-private partnerships, evidence-based philanthropy research, advocacy and leadership training are well recognised by civil society and the government and are inspiring examples for other actors.
New enlightened breed of social entrepreneurs working for non-profit organisations like the PCP are trying to professionalise giving and fostering the philanthropic spirit among givers through creating synergetic linkages. The new approach to philanthropy, especially by corporate philanthropists should be strategic and knowledge-based, thereby promoting social investment. Because why they give is not important but the act of giving, how effectively they give and how effectively it is utilised to maximise social returns, is more important. To increase the volume and effectiveness of philanthropy and to tap the immense philanthropic resource pool for social development, the proactive synergised partnerships and provision of more incentivised enabling environment are the need of the hour.
The writer is a civil servant, consultant and development practitioner
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