Press-releases
24.01.2008
Participants of Davos Philanthropic Roundtable discussed a new philanthropic model
Davos Philanthropic Roundtable organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation closed its work in Davos, Switzerland. Participants thereof discussed a new, accountable to society philanthropic model allowing to achieve long-term measurable results.
The key speakers and Roundtable Participants discussed a range of relevant problems of philanthropy development, including philanthropy relations with business and state, philanthropy development progress in "The New Democracies" of Central and Eastern Europe, former USSR and countries of Central Asia, estimation of philanthropic projects' social effect.
"We have to develop the best model of what to do and how to endow", Bill Clinton, 42nd President of USA and one of the world's greatest philanthropists, mentioned in his video-address. "The sense of philanthropy is to make living conditions better for the others. And we are to dedicate ourselves to the initiatives that would give a good result. This might be a climate change tackling. This might relate to the countries suffering from poverty. The most important is that, thinking of future, we should consider all the challenges and all the problems but do our best to achieve results".
According to the discussion participants' opinion the new philanthropic model, the XXI century model has to be based on three key principles. The first is a necessity to systematically approach social cause employing the best managerial business practices.
"It is the first time when we live in the world where the role of government is decreasing and will continue decreasing, and the role of individuals and companies tends to increase. That is why we are facing the new stage of philanthropy development", mentioned Matthew Bishop, The Economist Magazine editor and one of the leading philanthropy researchers.
By him business may not only bring donations to philanthropy, but also knowledge, experience, methods and managerial tools. "This is a field of activity where a business sector may introduce the highest managerial standards. And in which every business may be successful". Besides that entrepreneurial philanthropy has serious advantages over the state-led redistribution of public benefits: "Money let businessman be free from corruption", mentioned Bishop.
According to Victor Pinchuk should philanthropy set itself a goal of solving serious problems, it has to be highly professional. "It is necessary to attract professional managers able to manage huge philanthropic projects". Victor Pinchuk mentioned a case of Robert Harrison, CEO of Clinton's Global Initiative, who shifted to this position from the post of big investment bank director. "The task of attracting professional managers is not an easy one. It is hard to be solved even in the Western Countries, let alone in our region. That is why we consider creating our own staff base in Ukraine. In particular, educate social project managers on the basis of the Kyiv School of Economics".
The second basic principle of the new model is that a philanthropist should have a personal attachment to the cause and a personal benchmark of the results. "Philanthropy does not have a measure or accountability," mentioned George Soros. "I could not find reliable means and ways of estimating what's successful and what's not. Ultimately, everything depends on a person and his/her attitude". It is possible to build a proper social projects system, but it might not be successful without being backed up by personal participation, emotions and philanthropist's aspiration to make the world better.
Finally, the third principle is that a field of philanthropic activity should be expanded to involve not only non-governmental organizations and business, but also a broad public.
Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk said that he considers developing of philanthropic infrastructure to be one of his main tasks and that Davos Philanthropic Roundtable is a first step on the way.
Dr. Tadataka Yamada, the President of Global Health Care Initiative with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, thinks particular attention should be paid to promotion of philanthropic activities among the young generation. "Just some twenty years ago the youngsters had no interest in philanthropy," he mentioned. "Today the situation is completely different, and the interest is much more expressed. It is through our actions young people may learn to do good things".
Kateryna Yushchenko, the Head of Ukraine 3000 Foundation's Observation Committee, also spoke about consolidation of efforts. In particular, Mrs. Yushchenko mentioned that the essence of civil society is exactly in the fact that people from different fields take part in philanthropic activities and participate in a common cause.
