Philanthrocapitalism and its critics

Abstract

In 2006, an article in the Economist magazine introduced the term “philanthrocapitalism” to describe a trend sweeping philanthropic institutions: the tendency for a new breed of donors to conflate business aims with charitable endeavors, making philanthropy more cost-effective, impact-oriented, and financially profitable. Underpinning the rise of philanthrocapitalism is the idea that to do good socially, one must do well financially: public and private interest are strategically conflated and touted as intrinsically mutually compatible. I suggest that far from being a new concept, the deliberate conflation of public and private interest resonates with eighteenth-century perceptions of the moral value of capitalism: the debatable view that capitalism helps to mitigate political strife and foster cooperation among nations, promoting the public good through individual economic enrichment. Building on work by Albert Hirschman and Marcel Mauss, this article argues that paying more attention to the moral underpinnings of philanthrocapitalism helps to nuance and to challenge the growing salience of the “new” philanthropy.