Philanthropy and Democracy: Two Perspectives

Philanthropy has long played a vital role in supporting efforts to improve the lives of Americans, ranging from funding abolitionism to zoos and everything in between. Some are concerned that wealthy philanthropists may be playing too large of a role in affecting and influencing their fellow citizens’ lives, and even suggest that this giving is distorting of and dangerous to our basic notions of democracy. Advocates for philanthropic freedom counter that efforts to limit the ability of Americans to support the organizations and causes they believe in will diminish freedom and politicize charitable giving. Rob Reich, director of the Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford University and co-editor of Philanthropy in Democratic Societies: History, Institutions, Values, and Heather Higgins, president of the Randolph Foundation and co-founder of the Alliance for Charitable Reform, discussed the issue at the Roundtable's Annual Meeting, with a particular focus on the issue of philanthropic freedom and whether it strengthens or undermines democracy.