Philanthropy Ep38: Why the 2024 World Giving Index Matters to You

Have you ever paused to reflect on your acts of generosity? Whether it’s donating money, helping a stranger, or volunteering your time, your actions ripple far beyond the moment. The 2024 World Giving Index, produced by the Charities Aid Foundation, highlights this global generosity and invites us all to consider the role we play.

Although the term philanthropy comes from the Greek phrase “love of humanity,” it has long had associations with wealth and privilege but there is a marked shift in the idea of what philanthropy means. There is self-identification with the term that indicates the shift from traditional associations and understanding the term to apply broadly to anyone giving time, talent, or treasure to make the world a better place. 

Philanthropy can take numerous forms, including long-term giving and one-time donations. Often seen as society's risk capital, it is described as 'the desire to promote the wellbeing of others, often through the generous contribution of money to good causes' - but there is more to uncover about its positive effects on the world at large. Overly, you can argue that the word 𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙮 means love (𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙡) of humanity (𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙤𝙨). Not love of grant-making.

Beyond the confines of the definitions, the World Giving Index majored on three questions as the building block for enlightening you about the art of giving. Have you donated money to charity? Have you helped a stranger or someone you didn’t know who needed help? Have you volunteered your time to an organization? These questions underscore that it is always not about money but rather the small deeds you do to people close to you or come across.

Many a time philanthropy and charity have been taken as one component.  You might be asking yourself, what is the difference between charity and philanthropy?

Well, philanthropy is more long-term and strategic and often involves making multiple gifts to help people over several years. While charity is focused on providing immediate relief to people and is often driven by emotions, philanthropy is focused on helping people and solving their problems over the long term.

Reflection From Data

In 2023, 73% of the global population gave back in some form, their time, money, or helped someone they didn’t know equivalent to 4.3 billion adults. Despite ongoing challenges like economic uncertainty and humanitarian crises, the global giving score matched its highest levels seen during pandemics. Data shows growth since 2019. This matters because it showcases humanity’s resilience and willingness to care for one another, even in tough times.

Giving strengthens communities, nurtures trust, and fosters hope. In countries like Indonesia, Kenya, and Singapore, where generosity is thriving, people’s contributions are deeply woven into the fabric of society. These nations inspire us with stories of extraordinary giving, such as Indonesia's consistent leadership in donating and volunteering, or Morocco’s outpouring of support after devastating earthquakes.

Kenya was ranked 2nd scoring 63 points, leading in helping a stranger and ranked 5th in volunteering time to offer assistance. This shows that cash is not the only ticket in. When you visit Kenya, you will realize it is about engagement. Across the world, helping a stranger is the most common form of giving, with 82% of Kenyans and 81% of Nigerians saying they’ve done so in the past month. A smile, a meal, or even directions can create profound connections.

This can be attributed to the culture of people wanting to understand you first and assist where they can. Mostly it is driven by the fact that at some point you must have received assistance from someone and there is that internal drive to also give back.

It is from the ethos of giving that you can see organizations, governments, donors and individuals offering solutions to prevent or mitigate negative impacts resulting from climatic shocks, food insecurities and harsh economic times. This is anchored in the traditions of philanthropy. Although they have merits and demerits.

Types and Traditions of Philanthropy

There are three distinctive philanthropic traditions: Relief, Improvement, and Social Reform which mainly steer the giving art. Within each of these traditions, the principles and purposes of philanthropy are defined differently. Philanthropy as relief is based on a belief in compassion and tries to alleviate human suffering. Philanthropy as improvement is based on the concept of progress and tries to increase individual human potential. Philanthropy regarded as reform is based on a belief of fairness and attempts to address social problems. Below are details on the aforementioned traditions:

Philanthropy as Relief

There are numerous benefits to the relief tradition. It enables you to express affection or empathy for others, regardless of rank or merit. It emphasizes your responsibility to respond to others to help them meet specific and pressing needs.

However, at its extremes, this legacy of compassion can waste valuable resources by failing to address the root causes of misery. It can also foster indifference toward "the way things are" by pushing us to address acute needs rather than changing the conditions that caused them. Addressing the root cause of a problem is the best thing you can ever do for someone.

Philanthropy of Improvement

This kind of philanthropy allows us to express gratitude for special opportunities we have received by extending the same opportunities to others. It emphasizes individual responsibility and encourages individual initiative. This actually pinpoints the culture of a high percentage of Kenyans.

However, the tradition of improvement, like that of relief, is not perfect. Improving efforts may appear to favor the well-positioned and highly driven people of the community. This can be summarized by the concept that ladders are only useful to those who can climb them, and fishing lessons are only beneficial to those who have access to a pond.

The concept of "individual opportunities" is eroded if entire groups are effectively barred from taking advantage of such opportunities due to social, legal, and economic factors. Your community might deserve some funding but due to some legal constraints, you miss out on securing funding. This can have a ripple effect on fundraising from some donors especially when the voices are less likely to reach them.

Philanthropy of Social Reform

Philanthropy as social reform has its practitioners believe that societal circumstances are often more powerful in shaping human destiny than the actions of individuals themselves. It has great strengths where it acknowledges the power of societal circumstances and seeks to change them. It intentionally experiments with alternative solutions to social problems and seeks to learn from those solutions.

However, according to Paul Ylvisaker in The Handbook on Private Foundations, their modern philanthropy has been dedicated to finding systemic solutions to underlying causes of poverty and other social ills, and over time has become a recognized social process, in effect a set of private legislatures defining public problems, setting goals and priorities, and allocating resources toward general solutions.

There is a need to change this by recognizing the unique challenges that affect each community when defining their needs. You must look at the different sociocultural structures before decentralizing the solutions. You can look at it this way, in a household, the members face unique challenges because of age and gender and should be addressed in unique ways.

Moving Toward a Fourth Philanthropic Response

Currently with the increased complexity and ambitions of the philanthropic enterprise, philanthropy’s relation to its public, its capacity to hear and learn from the public has, if anything, to be scaled.

Foundations and other philanthropic organizations have to begin turning toward a fourth philanthropic way, which some people refer to as civic engagement. This works well through partnerships for goals with community-serving organizations, who can give authentic stories and scenes.

This can allow investing resources in strengthening relationships and nurturing conversations among citizens with communities in cultivating local resources for addressing challenges such as poverty, food and nutrition insecurity and climatic shocks.

Ultimately, the goal of these investments has the potential to relieve, improve, or reform the communities they serve. The focus of the work, and the standard of success, is building up connections among all people.

Aligning With Giving and Taking Action

World Giving Index offers unparalleled insight into global trends in generosity. It aims to support growth in global giving by enriching your understanding of how people engage in social activities for the benefit of their communities. It is a call to governments, policymakers and international funders to ensure the building blocks are in place to enable cross-border giving and to create sustainable, resilient local giving structures

FSPN Africa addresses systemic issues that cause food insecurity and malnutrition, challenges exacerbated by climate change, economic instability, and societal inequality. These efforts resonate with the philanthropic tradition of social reform, which aims to address root causes and create lasting change in communities.

Working with digital tools to provide production advisory to women and youths through meaningful collaborations with local communities has scaled decision-making enhancing local ownership of solutions. They are also at the frontline in enhancing climate resilience as adaptive leaders to the solutions that are now improving their productivity. This exemplifies this approach by fostering long-term agricultural productivity and nutritional health.

FSPN Africa fosters community resilience and sustainable livelihoods by focusing on women and youth. This aligns with the philanthropy of improvement, through which we seek to unlock human potential by extending opportunities to underserved populations.

To pinpoint one of our initiatives funded by the European Union, the HD4A Agribusiness Accelerator program, for instance, is committed to scaling food systems innovations and currently supporting over 100 innovators. There are promising innovations that will change the food system landscape. Your financial support can expand agricultural training programs, enable digital innovation, and provide critical resources to farmers and Agri-innovators.

Additionally, the integration of technology ensures scalability, efficiency, and inclusion, particularly for rural communities that may otherwise be excluded from development efforts. This reflects the evolving fourth philanthropic way, civic engagement; which emphasizes partnerships and locally-driven solutions. Kenya’s culture of generosity and engagement, as highlighted in the Index, creates fertile ground for thriving.

When you co-invest with FSPN Africa, as a conduit for local and international philanthropic investments, you can harness this ethos to amplify its initiatives through dialogues and partnerships with local communities. By understanding local contexts you will be able to support tailoring of solutions to the unique challenges faced by African communities, from climate-resilient farming practices to nutrition education.

The 2024 World Giving Index is more than a report; it’s a call to action. FSPN Africa embodies the spirit of modern philanthropy addressing root causes, leveraging local strengths, and empowering communities. As a driver of food and nutrition security, it offers a tangible pathway to ending hunger in Africa. By investing in FSPN Africa, you can not only address immediate needs but also contribute to systemic, lasting solutions that align with global trends in giving. Visualize the impact if each of us embraced generosity as a daily practice. So, as you read this, ask yourself: What will you do today to make a difference?

References

World Giving Index 2024 Report

Four Traditions of Philanthropy by Elizabeth Lynn, Susan Wisely

For more information, contact info@fspnafrica.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Philanthropy?

The word 𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙮 means love (𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙡) of humanity (𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙤𝙨)

What is the difference between charity and philanthropy?

Philanthropy is more long-term and strategic and often involves making multiple gifts to help people over several years. While charity is focused on providing immediate relief to people and is often driven by emotions, philanthropy is focused on helping people and solving their problems over the long term.

What qualifies someone as a philanthropist?

A philanthropist is someone who donates substantial resources, often including time and expertise but always including substantial financial resources, to a particular cause, area or social issue. They do this in a way that is focused, sustained and designed to support meaningful change within a given issue or problem.