PHILANTHROPY in the digital age has taken a dramatic shift and has become large scale. Gift-giving seems to have grown in magnitude in step with the gigantic challenges we confront today.
In the United States philanthropists have become “patrons of social progress through science research”. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 1997 has given up to $28.3 billion in grants to various global initiatives, including research and development in HIV/AIDS, malaria and other tropical diseases. It also funds efforts to develope more nutritious rice and cassava varieties.
In 2000 David H. Koch, New York City’s wealthiest resident, contributed more than $750 million to cancer research and public policy studies. In 2009 Eric E. Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, and his wife donated $100 million to establishing the Schmidt Ocean Institute, aimed at advancing oceanographic research, discovery and knowledge.
More recently, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced in December 2015 they would donate throughout their lives up to 99 percent of their Facebook shares—amounting to more than $45 billion.
What is the state of Philippine philanthropy? Are Filipino philanthropists responding to our society’s ills?
The charities the Filipino rich pursue and spend for are largely duplicative and scatter-shot-overconcentrating their money on a handful of scholarships and school houses or a high-brow museum. Few pay attention, for instance, to the more frightening public-health hazard of child malnutrition. The stunting of our children results to the loss of over P328 billion a year to the economy in terms of work productivity and education.
It’s not for lack of resources. The total net worth of the recent Forbes 10 richest Filipinos is $53 billion, or P2.63 trillion, equal to nearly 20 percent of the country’s total national income.
The Filipino rich have not scaled up their giving in order to provide solutions to systemic problems or age-old afflictions, like tuberculosis and malaria.
In our country, our democracy suffers from its chronic inability to bridge the yawning gap between the few who are very rich and the millions of Filipinos who struggle daily to survive. Our democracy remains unable to deliver on the promise that hard work, ability and ambition will assure one of upward social and economic progress.
In 2010 only 0.1 percent, or 19,738, Filipino families belonged to the high-income group with an average monthly income of P194,965. In contrast, there were 80.8 percent, or 14.07 million, low-income families with an average monthly income of P7,513. This gap has remained unchanged. The 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey shows the income of the richest 10 percent of the population is nine times more than the income of the poorest 10 percent.
But our situation is far from hopeless. We are happily seeing young entrepreneurs rising in the wealth ladder-Megaworld’s Andrew Tan, Jollibee’s Tony Tan Caktiong, DoubleDragon’s Injap Sia and others. They are youngsters compared with the elder taipans, yet they possess the same grit and determination to succeed. Not unlike the US tech billionaires, their capital was their own brains and diligence. They made their fortune and didn’t inherit their wealth.
Our hope lies in this young group of entrepreneurs blazing the trail in more significant and targeted and relevant philanthropy.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com| Facebook & Twitter: @edangara.