History

Understanding the history of charity and philanthropy is important for making sense of these topics in today’s world. This brief overview cannot possibly demonstrate the complexity and volume of the history of charity and philanthropy, but it gives a basic outline. To start this discussion of history, the words charity and philanthropy need to be defined. According to Dictionary.com, philanthropy is “altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work.” Charity more specifically refers to giving and helping the poor. These words are often used as synonyms, but I will attempt to be as accurate as possible and stick to their actual meaning.

In his book, Giving: Charity and Philanthropy in History, Robert Bremner uses The Odyssey and The Iliad to analyze how ninth century B.C. Greeks felt about beggars. Bremner concludes that people generally were only charitable if it was in their best interest. This idea is expanded upon in Deborah Taggart’s essay, “Charity.” Taggart says that the Greeks helped the poor laborers because they were necessary to the economy, but the “destitute and beggars were abhorred.”

Besides Homer’s epics, the Bible can be used to get a glimpse of the charity and philanthropy of ancient people. In the Bible, God frequently commands his people to be charitable and philanthropic. For example, in Isaiah 1:17, God says “Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” This shows that God expected the Israelites to take care of those who, in their society, could not support themselves. People probably followed these instructions so they could be in the right with God. It seems as though people in ancient times participated in charity and philanthropy for selfish reasons (which, it could be argued, continues today).

A change happens in the Bible when Jesus comes into the picture. In Matthew 22:37-39, when asked what the greatest commandment is, He says that the first is to love God and the second is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” One can assume that loving your neighbor as yourself also includes helping them if they need it. Therefore, the early Christians were supposed to help those in need because they love them which is very different from helping others to advance yourself.

Later, however, this changed again as the people of pre-modern Europe had some new ideas. As Zygmunt Bauman explains on page 87 in his chapter “Prospects for the New Poor,” these Christians viewed charity as a way to “practice self-sacrifice, to live a virtuous life, to repent sins, and to earn heavenly bliss.” Charity became a fairly common selfish activity, at least among the churchgoing upper class.

The sixteenth century brought the explosion of scientific thought. People started thinking about Social Darwinism and many governments in Europe began passing laws against the lower classes. Bremner talks about “efforts to license and regulate begging by people unable to work.” While the governments did not have any social welfare, there was a lot of action from the churches to be charitable to the poor.

Eventually, governments started instituting social welfare which can be thought of as a form of charity. Also, in the realm of philanthropy, institutions such as hospitals became prevalent and justice systems were set up that would benefit all kinds of people. Now, many charities and philanthropies still associated with various churches or with the government. The developments of charity and philanthropy through history have shaped how these topics look today and can frame our analysis of them.

Bauman, Zygmunt. “Prospects for the New Poor.” Work, Consumerism and the New Poor. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1998. 83-104.

Bremner, Robert. Giving: Charity and Philanthropy in History. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1994.

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Introduction to Charity

Throughout this semester, I will be focusing on charity. I will look at its history, evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of charity, and examine other details relating to this topic. I decided to investigate this subject because I like helping people and I often feel like the best way for me to help others is through charity. I wanted to find out about the harm that charities do, the good that they accomplish, and see if the good outweighs the bad.

The theme of charity is an important one in our world because, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) from the Urban Foundation (nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/profileDrillDown.php?state=US&rpt=PC), there are 973,354 charities in the United States alone. These charities have $2,569,061,700,990 in total assets and brought in $1,393,401,601,582 in revenue in 2009. An incredible amount of money flows through charities and they do a lot of work in the world. Because of this, it is important to analyze how important, efficient, and helpful various organizations are to see if they really are doing good in the world and to figure out which charity to donate to.

Besides money, people donate a lot of time to various organizations. The NCCS’s Nonprofit Almanac (http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/kbfiles/797/Almanac2008publicCharities.pdf) cites that in 2006, 26.7 percent of the population of the United States volunteered for some type of nonprofit organization. These people volunteered for a total of 12,864,875,000 hours- that is almost 13 billion hours! If people are going to put so much time, money, and energy into a nonprofit group, they should make sure that the group is really helping people.

This blog is for a class titled Globalization and Inequality. The concepts we learn in class have a lot to do with the topic of charity. First of all, many charities are international in scope. Charities that help in developing nations are often based in a different country. This means that money from the home countries goes across the globe to other countries. Additionally, Zygmunt Bauman’s ideas of lower classes being failed consumers play into charity in a large way. Many charities serve people of lower classes so how they are viewed is important. The themes of globalization and inequality are very involved in charity.

I am hoping to find out about the effect that charity as a whole has on the world. I would also like to delve into ways to evaluate charities to find out which do the most good. The subject of charity is more complicated than it would seem at first glance so I hope to learn about the complications and have a better rounded idea of charity in our world.