Is "The Philanthropist" Good for Philanthropy?

Last night the third episode of NBC's new show The Philanthropist aired. One would think that a prime time TV show focusing on philanthropy would be good for promoting the work of foundations and funds around the world who generally struggle to make their work seem exciting to a wide audience. However, the show really misses the mark and in fact provides a rather counterproductive depiction of today's philanthropy.

Where to begin...

The show has already been labeled racist and neocolonial, and I think it can also be called sexist and comes off as an unrealistic and unsustainable model of "philanthropy" -- which is portrayed on the show as random acts of charity rather than social change philanthropy. I am hoping that the story and characters develop out of this macho and imperialistic form of giving, but from the first couple of episodes I am not convinced.

Here are some of my reactions to the first couple of episodes:

• The show reinforces a very patriarchal model of philanthropy (white man giving to poor people). The philanthropy is not democratized and it fails to lift up voices and solutions besides those of the western world.

• It upholds what I consider an “old model” of charity -- where solutions come top down and are not necessarily sustainable (all of the “philanthropy” that the show actually depicts is very much random acts of charity rather than sustainable systemic philanthropy, like getting a little girl in Burma/Myanmar a kidney transplant, or delivering vaccines to a village in Nigeria).
  

• It also portrays a linear model of development where the global north is “saving” or “helping” the global south, not lifting up and providing resources for solutions from on the ground. The show also reinforces very negative stereotypes of the global south, portraying countries like Nigeria and Burma/Myanmar as dangerous, primitive, corrupt and unable to help their own people, which perpetuating a negative view of these places.
  

• And the show seemed sexist to me. The women who were in the show were all secondary characters and didn’t offer much in the way of solutions to the problems the main character faced. The story line also continually circled back to the achievements/concerns/emotions of the main male lead.
  

It is also rather disappointing because the work of Bobby Sager, who the main character is based off of, is really inspiring work. Lets hope that NBC takes The Philanthropist away from this James Bond type charity and focuses on sustainable philanthropy.

Have you seen the show yet? What is your take?

News Round Up: June 23, 2009

Here is our news round up of yesterdays coverage - www.womensfundingnetwork.org/News-June-23. Women's Funding Network made the news for our new report, and continued coverage and discussion of women in Iran.

Check it out, we updated our News Round Up page - www.womensfundingnetwork.org/Daily-News.

New Report: Women's Philanthropy on the Rise!

The Women's Funding Network and the Foundation Center released a new report on Monday, June 22 called Accelerating Change for Women and Girls: The Role of Women's Funds. The report discusses trends in philanthropy for and by women. Read a short excerpt from the executive summary below:

The report finds that in recent years funding for women and girls by the broader foundation community has grown at a faster rate than foundation giving on the whole, although as a share of overall foundation giving, it has remained below 7.5 percent for over a decade-and-a-half. Giving by women’s funds in particular has grown even more rapidly.

What this suggests is that funders are becoming increasingly aware of the potential for accelerating social change by investing in women and women-led organizations. Nevertheless, the relatively small share of foundation funding focused on women and girls indicates that this awareness could be further strengthened.

Although the report clearly states that women have been making an impact in and through the world of philanthropy, we all know, our work is far from over. Click here to read the full executive summary and order a hard copy of the full report. Thank you to all of our member funds who participated in the research for the report.

Check out press coverage of the report here, here and here.

News Round Up: June 22, 2009

Here is the News Round Up from Monday, June 22 and the weekend - http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/News-June-22.

We will be posting the our news digest on our news page daily (just click where it says Daily Coverage of Issue Affecting Women)!

Happy reading!