It was not that long ago that philanthropy was not only viewed positively but was also supposed to solve all of our problems. In 2009, Mathew Bishop of TheEconomist gushed in his book Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the Worldthat Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other billionaires were parties to a “revival and reinvention of an old tradition that has the potential to solve many of the biggest problems facing humanity today.” In the book's foreword, Bill Clinton, author of his own 2007 paean to charitably supported good works simply entitled Giving, wrote that “at its best, philanthrocapitalism reinforces and amplifies the time, money, skills and gifts given every year by people who are not rich, and it informs and enhances government policies.”
In the post-financial-crisis world, the narrative has changed dramatically. The wealthy, especially through tax-exempt private foundations, disproportionately influence the democratic process. In his book The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age, David Callahan, editor of Inside Philanthropy, asks rhetorically if “we think it's okay overall for any philanthropists to have so much power to advance their vision of a better society?” He sees the work of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Barry Diller, and dozens of others—notwithstanding their work to combat malaria, open effective inner-city charter schools, and conceive and fund New York's High Line, one of the country's great new public spaces—as fundamentally undemocratic.
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