Putting Philanthropy in Perspective
Posted by Allison Fine on September 3, 2008
Peter Levine, the director of CIRCLE, a research group now based at Tufts University that focuses on youth and civic engagement, does a brilliant job of putting philanthropy and government aid for disasters like Hurricans Gustav and Katrina in perspective on his blog. Peter writes:
“When Hurricane Gustav set its sights on New Orleans, the national political campaigns and parties instinctively started to raise money for NOLA charities. They were following the example set after Katrina, when the private sector contributed at least $6.5 billion. (And that doesn’t count the market value of volunteer time.) For comparison: the storm did an estimated $150 billion in damage; and the federal government has spent about $120.5 billion on relief. So the total value of Katrina philanthropy equals about 5% of federal funding” [Please note that I removed links to research reports that are on Peter's blog that you can access directly from his site.]
The myth that philanthropy can or should replace government funding is starkly laid bare with this analysis.
peterlevine said
Allison,
Thanks very much for reading! I kind of obscured my main point. I meant to emphasize that the value of charity depends on what the money is used for. If it just buys goods and services, the value is trivial. But it can be important if it supports independent citizen action.
Peter