Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 4 | Rethinking Progressive Philanthropy

George Reid MSP is the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. This article is adapted from remarks he delivered on October 4, 2005 at the Scottish Parliament, which hosted the third biennial Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy ceremony. The Carnegie Medal award was created in 2001 at the centennial observance of Andrew Carnegie’s official career as a philanthropist and is given to those who, like Carnegie, have dedicated their private wealth to public good and sustained an impressive career in philanthropy.

Introduction
Welcome to Holyrood. Welcome to the new Scottish Parliament. Failte gu taigh an Roid. Failte gu Parlamaid ur na h’Alba.

We meet this morning in a special place. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, where the thousand years of Scottish history in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile fuses with the land of Scotland in Holyrood Park.

Engaging in the Enlightenment
This is a special place for America too. The fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment—the economists, jurists, philosophers, political theorists and scientists whose ideas gave birth to the modern world, and shaped the United States—were up and down the Mile long before any of us.

The men whose thoughts gave intellectual rigor to the American Revolution—David Hume, Francis Hutcheson, Thomas Reid—walked the pavements outside where we sit. Benjamin Franklin twice came to Edinburgh to engage in dialogue with them. James Witherspoon—first Principal of the Presbyterian College of New Jersey, now Princeton, and the brains behind the Declaration of Independence—was here too. And so were the bridge-builders, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, free thinkers and wealth creators—the Scottish shock troops of American modernization—who did so much to make the U.S. what it is.

Andrew Carnegie came from that get-up-and-go tradition. He was shaped by the Scottish Enlightenment and its principles. By its common sense utilitarianism: the need for social conscience and commitment to the greatest happiness of the greatest possible number. By its cosmopolitanism: the ability to be comfortable in different cultures. And, above all else, by its confidence in the future: the innate optimism that the world was not only getting better but offered extraordinary opportunities to those who set out to achieve them.

Carnegie and the Community
Carnegie’s first achievement was to become the richest man in the world. His second was to give the bulk of his wealth away—to stop accumulating, as he put it, and to start distributing.

His money went, in a very Scottish way, not to the great and mighty…or to advance the cause of rampant capitalism, but to the community…to offer opportunity, and enrichment of life, to millions of ordinary men and women.

Three thousand free libraries around the world to open the minds of the workforce of the future. Public parks and swimming baths and children’s health programmes to nurture the body. University endowments to push the limits of knowledge. A pension plan for teachers. Concert halls to bring excellence in the arts. A peace foundation to help end the scourge of war…

No man can be truly rich, he said, unless he first enriches others. It was a radical programme deemed wildly socialist by his peers on Wall Street. But a century on, gathered here at Holyrood, we can take pride that a son of Scotland gifted progressive philanthropy to the world.

The Carnegie Awards and Symposium
No one should doubt the global importance of this week’s Carnegie Awards and Symposium. The organizations represented in this Chamber have given away over $6 billion to their fellow men and women over the last decade. Outside this Chamber, watching what is happening here, are over 20 million philanthropic organizations in the world’s 22 most developed countries. According to Johns Hopkins University, their annual spending is in the region of $1 trillion.

Why is Holyrood important to this process?
Not because we have an Awards Ceremony, central though that is in recognising extraordinary achievement on behalf of the poor and the marginalised people of the planet.

But because progressive philanthropy faces major strategic challenges in our compressed global economy…in its relationships with the state…in its partnerships with civic society…in its advocacy work…and in its key role of ensuring change for good.

Lessons for Scotland
There are lessons here for Scotland—and for a Parliament, which prides itself on its commitment to create a sustainable society founded on enterprise and compassion.

We have to get back the entrepreneurial, get-up-and-go spirit that we exported to America. We must recognize that we cannot redistribute the money until we have made it.

We should note that, here in the Chamber, are representatives of the Hewlett and Packard families who currently invest around $500 million a year in civil, environmental and health programs—but who started small, with $853 in a garage in Palo Alto, California.

And we should recall what Tom Hunter said when he gifted £55 million to the Clinton Global Initiative: “I’m a Scotsman. I don’t do handouts. I’ve not given anything away. I’ve invested it—in people who will maximise it in the service of their communities.”

Lessons for America
There are maybe lessons for America too.

If we can benefit from some of the entrepreneurial spirit we took to the States, maybe they can benefit from some of the communitarian values that remain valid in Scotland.

The progressive foundations in America are under challenge from younger, neo-liberal foundations of the right. Their trustees seek new ideas, new strategic directions.

Across the Atlantic, this little country has a vibrant voluntary sector and a strong civic society. Our ties with America are firm. But so are our links throughout the European Union and many of the countries in the developing world.

So, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, think of us as a bridge across the Atlantic, to a wider world and to
different perspectives….

People First
If you want a year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want a hundred years of prosperity, grow people.

The old Chinese proverb contains a truth which all of us in this Chamber share. That beyond the relentless flow of labour and capital across frontiers…beyond the integration of markets, nation-states and technologies…people still come first.

Ours need not be a world of ruthless competition, the market driving all—a divisive scenario in which the Rest squares up to the West.

I have personal experience of this. For a dozen years of my life, I worked as a director of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent in wars and disasters around the world, in developing and developed countries alike.

I therefore pay tribute to all of you in our Chamber this morning whose motives encapsulate both the Red Cross motto—Tutti fratelli, all are brothers—and that great hymn to humanity of our national poet, Robert Burns: That man to man the worl’ ower shall brithers be…

I pay tribute to your work for human rights everywhere, particularly the rights of women. For the provision of microcredit, an old sewing machine turning a land-mine victim into a tailor and a person of substance. For the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in the most deprived communities of the world. For bringing respite to those caught in the crossfire of conflict. For education of excellence, open to all. And for bringing compassion and tolerance to angry societies.

But times change. The philosophies of the founding fathers of “charity” were rooted in another, older world. When the Red Cross was founded, armies lined up and fired off at each other. Ladies came out in carriages to picnic and watch the action. Today, wars happen inside countries, not between countries. Nine out of ten casualties are civilians. Red Cross workers have become targets. And the old rules and regulations are no longer enough.

Challenges to Charity
Where stands philanthropy in this constantly changing world?

Andrew Carnegie recognized the problem in 1889 when he wrote: It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than it is to earn it in the first place.

How do foundations invest money intelligently in the 21st century? How do they achieve Carnegie’s goal of scientific philanthropy? Only by constantly addressing and re-addressing the challenges of today.

Innovation: traditionally, progressive foundations led on social change…governments followed…and the foundations moved on to new challenges. Today many of their resources are deployed as service delivery agents for governments, impeding innovation. Is that right?

Advocacy: traditionally, progressive foundations spoke out against injustice. But so much match-funding now depends on government, that voices are often stilled in case the cash flow dries up. Should advocacy and service-delivery be split?

Leverage: once a foundation has donated the seed money, should it move on? The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation recently provided £2 million to ten community organizations and challenged them to raise £20 million over three years. They raised £19.5 million. A model for sustainable development in future?

The Regulatory Framework: is it going to empower charitable giving, or shackle it?

The Tax Regime: is it going to provide incentives, or penalties? Can tax-deductible donations be used to lobby against government policy?

Duplication and Donor Fatigue: Operation Katrina has pulled in over $1 billion. But the bulk goes to one organization, the Red Cross, and is used for emergency relief. What about longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction? Time and time again in my own operational years, we had far too much money in one “sexy” disaster and virtually nothing in areas where the need was far greater. How do we resolve that?

Corporate Giving: How do we release the humanitarian potential of the commercial sector, concentrating as much on stakeholders as shareholders?

And finally, Women. If you give food to a man in a disaster, he will eat it. If you give it to a woman, she will share it—and keep some of the seeds for next year’s harvest. How do we liberate women and unleash the world’s greatest potential for sustainable development?

Perhaps Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, has put it best: Foundations need to be in the ideas business, not the needs business.

In other words, what’s needed now is enterprise and compassion. Surplus wealth for public good. A renewed commitment by the progressive foundations to empowering people and righting wrongs.

Verily, verily, in the words of Andrew Carnegie: No man is truly rich, until he enriches others.

For more information about the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, visit www.carnegie.org/sub/awardees/index.html. For more information about the 2005 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, visit www.scottish.parliament.uk/carnegie.