Writing a paper on Philanthropy in China, I had the opportunity to learn about the initiative of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to invite Chinese and Americans billionaires to donate their fortunes to charity. They have been echoed! In China at least two billionaires have made arrangements to have their fortunes donated to charity after death. In USA the list is growing. Recently Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to give away half his wealth to charity joining Gates and Warren and 40 more American billionaires. Thinking that it was a sense of greed (according to Prewitt, 2006) that prompted these people to amass billions of dollars, what is encouraging them to give it away? For psychologists, giving is much more complex than it seems. They states that it is often the giver, rather than the recipient, who reaps the biggest psychological gains from a gift. Researchers say “who is on your gift list is telling you who is important in your life.” ... Could this mean that philanthropy is an indication that, at last, human being is becoming important for man?
Hi, Richard,
ReplyDeleteI think we do have the same problem when we are raising the Charity: Water campaign, in which we need to raise $5000 to set up a well in a developing country. In the very beginning, we thought that it would not be that hard because five of us have our own social network. It will be easily done if half of our friends are willing to donate $5. But things are not going as well as we imagined. I contact all my friends who have VISA card and ask them politely to donate. However, it turns out that only one of them made the donation. It is not because that I am a loser in making friends of course, then I thought about it and I found that it ask friends to donate money might have the risk to harm your friendship. I really think that this should be the only time that I ask my friends to donate money to a nonprofit organization or they might consider me as “using” them to achieve my own purpose. It might be a culture difference but I started to rethink the possibility to use social network to extend donation.
Richard,
ReplyDeleteYou've posed an interesting question. My opinion about why so many rich Americans give away their wealth is that it is not necessarily because they care about the well-being of others (although I think that does play a part in it, for sure). I think a big part of it has to do with what (Prewitt, 2006) stated about wanting to avoid taxation of wealth, and also has to do with a sense of obligation to give back to the community. In American society, I think it is expected that rich Americans will donate to nonprofit organizations. If someone like Mark Zuckerberg decided not to donate a large portion of his wealth, I think he would be viewed by Americans as greedy. I'm not sure if the same sense of obligation is true for billionaires in other countries. I would be interested to hear Xiofei's opinion on whether or not she feels Chinese billionaires donate just because they want to do good for society, or if it is because they feel social pressure to do so.
Hey, Kate,
ReplyDeleteI would say it is definitely the same thing in China, too. After the earthquake in 2008, people even make charts to campare the billionare and celebrities' amount of donation. On the other hand, those who made a large amount of donation will gain more respect from the public.
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ReplyDeleteI would agree with Kate that billionaires do not donate only because they care about others. Sometimes they donate to avoid taxation of wealth or to creat positive reputation or to get power. Gagaik Tsarukyan is one of the richest businessmen and politicians in Armenia. He is the owner of the major businesses in Armenia, he is the leader and founder of the second biggest political party in Armenia and he is the president of the Armenian Olympic Committee. He does charity but not through non-profits he does it directly as a businessman and politician. He contributes in the infrastructure development in rural villages but only in the villages of the region where he was born. Second charity he does it is gifting Olympic champions houses, cars and money. And the last thing, his political party has offices in all 11 regions of Armenia and he gives financial support to people who request support from him especially closer to the elections. What is this philanthropy or “preparation” to the new elections?
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