Mandela's Birthday

Viva Philanthropy!

Generosity was a fact of life long before the industrial revolution - there have been plenty of kind and altruistic people over the ages.  But philanthropy as we know it is a construct of capitalism.  It is the “feedback” loop that allowed great capitalists - better know by posterity as great philanthropists – to give back a lot of what they gained from economic success.  Names like Carnegie and Ford come to mind – the role models for today's foundations set up by the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Shuttleworth and so forth.

In the years following the demise of communism (the Second World), philanthropy was viewed, in the words of one charity worker, as a “cynical act of capitalism”.  The implication was that if it were not for capitalism, the inequities that underpin philanthropy would not exist.  That attitude is really a socialist hang-over – a good example of sour grapes.

A term has emerged that is very familiar – corporate social investment or CSI.  This is evidence that  philanthropy is more than a personal inclination or agenda.  It is a system.  Corporates takes profits from society – so they plow back “social investments” through foundations set up for this purpose.  This is more than personal, it is structural.

A good example of this is a South African Internet site called Greater Good.  Visit it on <www.GGSA.co.za>  It is a place where individuals or corporates can review various charities and  contribute.  GGSA has boiled it down to four ways of giving – money, goods, time (i.e. volunteering) or buyer-related spin-offs.  For example, when you buy coffee at Starbucks, you help out small-scale coffee growers in targeted countries.  By the way, C4L is now registered with Greater Good, so one can give (anonymously if preferred) to its work through this mechanism.

The point is that philanthropy is taking hold.  This is good to see, because one way of stating the ambition of C4L would be: “A secure future for African philanthropy”.  The mission of capacity building has always been to reach an end where the “third sector” (not government or commerce which are the other two sectors) is functioning as well as the other two.  That is why it needs quality leaders and managers, after all.

That is why we rejoiced this week to see the establishment on Nelson Mandela's 89^th birthday of a group of elders for the Global Village.  Indeed!  It was nice to see Jimmy Carter there, and Kofi Annan too.  Also Richard Branson, an eminent philanthropist, and others representing the arts.  This was more than another extravaganza for Africa's favorite son.  The tectonic plates of African economics shifted.  This was deeper than politics, this was like an upper house being formed.  The African Union becomes a lower house of state representatives engaged in day-to-day affairs.  It met recently to debate Gadaffi's idea of a United States of Africa with one president over all.  That paled in significance to the global eldership of eminent persons.  Mandela is now at senator level, no mere politician.  He is still shaping Africa's future, and that is reassuring in the light of the endless slugging matches between mere politicians like Zuma and Mbeki.

Ever since the Second World secured its footholds in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Angola, the socialist model has been on the rise in Africa.  Even with the collapse of communism elsewhere, Africa has not let go of its structures easily.  The efforts to scrap socialism as a development model have been largely imposed.  Even Stephen Lewis in his book Race Against Time lambastes the way that this was done through structural adjustment programmes and all.

So it is good to see capitalism emerging in a way that is fresh and upbeat.  Philanthropy, let there be no doubt, comes with capitalism.  It is part of that model.  When you see an old ANC stalwart like Cyril Ramaphosa establishing the Shanduka Foundation you realize that while the ruling alliance may still include the SA Communist Party, it certainly has other strong elements in it as well.  These support a more sensible approach – strong economic development with a “feedback loop” for social investments.  So when you see philanthropy on the rise in the very same week that the SACP suggested that Mittal Steel and Sasol should both be nationalized, you realize that the ANC is trying its best to hold together some very diverse points of view.  Its youth league in particular is seen as militant in terms of leaning to the left. 

So the emergence of a good African tradition of village elders for the global village is wonderful.  It   challenges that cynical view of philanthropy that socialists espouse.  It says no to socialist ideology and yes to a market-driven economy with a strong element of corporate responsibility and social investment.

Dave Thomas is the founder of Wendy's.  His success led in due course to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.  Through its influence, it is estimated that in 2007 fully half of all employers in the USA provide benefits to employees that will adopt.  Within a few years, it will be standard in America for an employer to offer such benefits to prospective employees – in part because Dave Thomas Foundation publishes a list of adoption-friendly workplaces.  Africa should follow suit - not just because of its “deluge of orphans” but because it is this kind of deep social ethic that is contained in today's market economics. 

This becomes a challenge to the so-called “black diamonds”.  That is, to those emerging capitalists who are amassing fortunes in Africa.  Tokyo Sexwale and Patrice Motsepe are among the South Africans at the forefront of this new philanthropy.   People like them have the inequities of apartheid in such recent memory that their social conscience will not be dulled by wealth.  Sexwale spent time on Robben Island with Madiba, after all.  Success is just going to fuel his social conscience, as it has done for people like Bono, Gates and Warren Buffett.

So while it was nice to see Pele back on the football pitch on the occasion of Mandela's 89^th birthday, the real prize was to see the gathering of elders or statesmen seeking peace and prosperity.  Too often, African politicians are looking for how they can benefit from their positions of influence.  That is the dynamic driving Africa's corruption levels...  an all-too-familiar African proverb says: A goat eats where it is tethered.  To complete the metaphor, a goat is eventually prepared to be a feast – to feed people.  That is when it gives back, providing nutrition and satisfaction for the hungry.

It is nice to see African leaders who – in looking out for others - are no longer bogged down in socialist rhetoric and doctrine.  Long live the elders of our global village, and happy birthday Nelson Mandela!