247 Wall St - Failures of Philanthropy
webTangentially relevant to AI safety funding discussions; highlights systemic risks in philanthropic governance that may apply to large AI safety funders and foundations shaping the field.
Metadata
Importance: 18/100opinion pieceanalysis
Summary
This article examines cases where philanthropic efforts have fallen short of their goals, analyzing systemic failures in how large-scale charitable giving is directed and executed. It explores how misaligned incentives, lack of accountability, and poor strategy can undermine even well-funded philanthropic initiatives.
Key Points
- •Large philanthropic organizations often lack accountability mechanisms that would otherwise correct strategic failures
- •Donor intent and actual impact frequently diverge due to organizational and structural inefficiencies
- •Philanthropy in high-stakes domains can crowd out more effective interventions or distort funding landscapes
- •Failures in philanthropy highlight the difficulty of translating good intentions and large resources into measurable outcomes
- •Governance and oversight gaps in charitable organizations mirror challenges seen in other large institutions
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Giving Pledge | Organization | 68.0 |
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A CLOSER LOOK: Failures of philanthropy - 24/7 Wall St.
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A CLOSER LOOK: Failures of philanthropy
By
Trey Thoelcke
Updated Dec 2, 9:45AM EST
·
Published Dec 2, 7:10AM EST
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OP-ED
Hi Friends of the Patriotic Millionaires,
After the sky-high consumer spending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is a day for folks to direct some of their money toward charitable causes instead. While we believe the work we do at the Patriotic Millionaires is certainly a great cause, don’t worry – we won’t be asking for your money today.
As rich people in this country, we’ve certainly got enough money to fund this critical work, so we want to take this Giving Tuesday to instead talk about what our fellow wealthy folks are – and aren’t – doing to make philanthropy work.
First of all, rich people in America need to be giving more, period. We need to be paying higher taxes of course, but changes to the tax code could take years to achieve any meaningful effect, and people are suffering as a result of the worst economic depression in decades right now. America’s 600 or so billionaires have seen their collective wealth skyrocket by over $637 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic began, while 26 million people in this country don’t have enough food to eat. No matter how hard someone might have worked to earn their fortune, it’s hard to justify that level of hoarding.
But wait, you might say, didn’t Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos make lots of donations that are supposed to help people? Aren’t rich people the most generous in terms of dollars donated to charitable causes? That’s technically true – but you have to look at the bigger picture.
In the US, most people have by and large swallowed the complete lie that rich people are more generous than anyone else. That’s not entirely their fault, because us wealthy people have done a great job of using philanthropy to make us look good while dodging the real question underneath: is it really fair for so few people to be in ch
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