Di Pier Mario Vello
Adapted from The generous company by Pier Mario Vello and Martina Reolon, Published by Feltrinelli, Milan, February 2014.
Philanthropy constitutes the third ethical area, after the state and the economy, and represents the space in which free social bonds are created and evolved between individuals and the single identities that make up society.
We define philanthropy as the area of institutionalized and organized generosity, which therefore goes beyond the merely psychological and moral meaning of the generous subject.
We define three essential characteristics of philanthropy: a) it is an expression of man's original instinct for generosity in involving, with no other interest than that of inclusion, everyone else similar to common happiness; b) it is born neither in the state nor in the economy, but primarily in civil society, which is the union of all men in a free and democratic association of thought and identity; c) in the modern sense, philanthropy arose in Europe in the eighteenth century, with the affirmation of civil rights, with the declaration of the equality of men and with the emancipation of public opinion and civil society.
In recent years, the most important philanthropic organizations throughout Europe have begun a path of strategic focus and, at the same time, of transparency and improvement of social innovation approaches, with the increasingly decisive use of scientific methods based on experimentation, verification and critical validation of the results. Today's philanthropy totally abandons, in the awareness of the complexity of the natural and social world, the myth of infinite progress and the project of scientific-technological domination over nature. The awareness of the need for new paradigms of complexity emerges where, rather than a search for a complete and definitive totality, the holistic vision of reality is pursued, starting from phenomena that are irreducible to the dominant ratio but containing strong elements of innovation.
Starting from these new positions, some theses that refer to the themes of equality, economics, the role of the state and philanthropy need to be rethought. It is clear that within runaway economies, income opportunities are growing and, presumably, with them also the average unit value of wages. However, the global scenario of economies that are all and for long periods of strong growth is unrealistic: not only are the periods of growth of opportunities limited in time, but they are also always limited to some dominant nations. Therefore, social inequality of income is a reality that is tangible even in rich nations. In this scenario, philanthropy is determined as a civil movement, in the ethical sense of the term. The thesis that philanthropy serves as a servant of the status quo and a buffer of the flaws of an insufficient social system must be rejected. It cannot be considered either as the rescue team to be brought into the field when the stench of iniquity reaches the nostrils of the affluent classes, or as the bizarre impulse of altruistic psychology. What philanthropy across Europe has undertaken is a mighty summation of strategic experiments, attempts at cultural and social innovation to civil society tales.
The postulates of the new philanthropy
We are now in a position to summarize the salient points, that is, the guiding principles, which essentially address the best philanthropic experiences in the world.
- 1. Philanthropy bases its justification on the principle of the universal right of every man to happiness. From this principle derives the need to work to improve living conditions for all, setting objectives such as, for example, the recovery of weak people, dialogue between different cultures, the fight against poverty and class inequality, the spread of culture, universal access to education, the defense of nature, the promotion of self-sustainability, the growth of skills.
- Philanthropy was born and developed as a free decision by subjects who combine visions, professional skills, skills and financial resources to support civil improvement projects. In this sense, these organizations are free expression of civil society.
- Philanthropy is an expression of human generosity, which, through strategic and organized action, also expresses the meaning of social and ethical entrepreneurship.
- Unlike the state, which redistributes common resources, and the for-profit sector, which works for the production of profit, philanthropy works in a prevalent regime of gratuity. When you choose to initiate non-repayable loans, it acts with the intent of soliciting local entrepreneurship and the self-sustainability of projects over time.
- Although philanthropy derives the resources employed by for-profit activities - as in the case of corporate foundations or foundations of banking origin - and although it deploys social and economic projects that have an impact on the political fabric, it must be independent both in the strategy and in the operations of the organizations. state and political, and economic and financial ones.
- Since philanthropy is an expression of autonomous subjects and civil society, it is also an advocate of democracy and represents an important prerequisite.
- Philanthropic subjects have as their purpose the common good and, despite being independent from the state and the economy, their actions often have a significant ethical, political, social, cultural and economic impact. In addition to being supporters of democracy, they are therefore also facilitators and experimenters of social cohesion in the broad sense and promote the economic and civil development of local communities.
- From what has been said in the previous points it follows that philanthropic organizations act, both for the projects they initiated and for those financed, in a regime of non-discrimination of skin color, sex, religion, and a regime of political and party independence .
- Given its secular and sometimes pioneering approach, and given its rational position with respect to problems, philanthropy is strongly oriented towards using scientific methods of investigation and experimentation, through which it attempts to understand the causes of the evils that afflict societies and of solve them.
- Since the problems addressed are complex, philanthropy favors interdisciplinary approaches. Since it operates in a non-competition regime, it is able to favor a total dissemination of its projects, thus contributing to the circulation of ideas, the comparison of experiences and the dissemination of knowledge.
Sensible and far-sighted political managements, instead of ignoring philanthropic action or trying to use it for their own ends by diverting its resources to their own advantage, have in some cases sporadic and avant-garde begun to dialogue with philanthropic subjects to address complexity of social and economic problems.
Long before the laws, which regulate relations between citizens, and much more extensively than economic relations, which move relations between interested parties, generosity is at the basis of the "being together" of civil subjects, be they people or institutions. There is a concrete possibility of creating companies that are creative, efficient and profitable and at the same time based on explicit relationships of unconfined generosity.
