Today’s super-wealthy are richer than ever
And they’re giving away their billions like never before
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promising to give away...
...99% of his shares of the company to charity
Philanthropists are putting record sums into tackling...
...the world’s most pressing problems
This is an effort of love. This is an effort of compassion
And unlike the mega-donors of the past...
...today’s philanthropists want to see the results in their lifetimes
Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropy is a gift to this planet
But how altruistic is this new golden age of giving?
Have these mega-donors become too powerful?
We have created this separate and unequal system...
...where billionaires can influence it by just buying social change
The way charities work is increasingly under the microscope
A long-delayed report into sexual abuse by Oxfam workers in Haiti
We’re a non-violent, peaceful protest
Don’t hurt me! Hey you can’t hurt her!
Donors large and small are demanding better bang for their buck
Caroline, 100
Serena, 200
Rob, 400
This is leading to innovative new approaches to doing good...
...which are redefining notions of altruism
$100m has been given thanks to the effective altruism
Manhattan, New York
I’m from Urban Pathways, wanted to see if you need any services
Take a card just in case?
Alright. Office is open at 12.30
Hilton Douglas is an outreach worker for Urban Pathways...
...a non-profit benefiting from a recent explosion...
...in charity amongst wealthy Americans
Take a card, check it out. I’m in Monday through Friday, 12.30
And Hilton is on a mission to tackle one of the country’s toughest problems...
...one rough sleeper at a time
Do you need a place to stay this evening? OK
It’s not an issue. They have a few vacancies
There are record numbers of homeless people in New York...
...and every day Hilton tries to help some of the worst affected
There you go sir, here’s a card
That’s the drop-in centre. You can go there at 9 o’clock
In 2018 spending by charitable foundations...
...reached a record $75bn in America
The charity Hilton works for is one of 250...
...that are backed by New York’s largest and best-known foundation...
...Robin Hood
Robin Hood provides a small percentage of Urban Pathways’ total income
But the foundation also donates strategic and operational assistance
Having the support of funders is essential
If it wasn’t for Robin Hood...
...I’m not sure where we’d be at, at this particular time
Put your feet under you
Urban Pathways runs outreach programmes and a drop-in centre
And provides a roof for around 850 men and women each night
It can be dangerous, man
Other people in the streets will take advantage of you
Rufus has been on the streets for six years
I have some good news for you
I have a placement for you at the safe haven today
Today?
Today
We’re gonna do it today so you can finally come off the streets
Give you a chapter, a new chapter, alright?
For long-term rough sleepers like Rufus...
...the charity has set up three safe havens...
...as an alternative to city-funded, dormitory-style shelters
Alrighty brother. Start of a new beginning
Now you can put that bag down finally
Because you’ve been carrying it around for 24 hours a day
Rufus has lost contact with his family...
...and is hoping his temporary home could help turn his life around
Sometimes you have to act hard when you’re not hard
There are a lot of cut-throats
It hurts sometimes when I see people just...
...step over somebody when they’re just laid out on the street
I would love to get back to work
Do things for myself so I can get back with my family
I miss my family
The ultimate aim is to get Rufus and other homeless people...
...into permanent, affordable housing
That was a gift right there. Alrighty brother, take it easy
See you out there again. Take it easy
Hilton believes the Robin Hood foundation is helping his charity...
...find a long-term solution to New York’s homelessness crisis
Let’s say if I wasn’t here...
...there might be 200 plus more people on the street...
...that you might be stepping over
So Robin Hood is saving lives because I’m saving lives
55% of the room—$5.8m
Yeah that’s my section. Stunning
Every year Robin Hood stages America’s...
...biggest, glitziest fund-raising gala...
...where it raises over 60% of its annual funding in three hours
Whatever amount that you feel...
...whether it be $100 to house a family for one night...
...that they otherwise would be homeless
While the average annual donation to the foundation is $108...
...the gala has helped Robin Hood become renowned as...
...the charity of choice for hedge-fund managers and bankers
Over the past 30 years...
...it’s raised and spent around $3bn fighting poverty in New York
We’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people change lives
Improve lives
Paul Tudor Jones founded Robin Hood
An investor and hedge-fund manager worth around $5bn
He believes private philanthropy leads the state...
...in dealing with society’s problems
If we had a perfect world...
...where governments were going to actually act...
...in the best interest of the people, where they're actually going to represent...
...what local communities need and address those problems then...
...no, we wouldn’t have a need for philanthropy
But that unfortunately is not the case
The innovation as it does in virtually everything in the world...
...comes from the private sector
And then quite often is either sanctioned in...
...or adopted by the public sector
I don’t think fighting poverty is any different
Real altruism for most people at the Robin Hood Gala...
...would be to stop doing business the way they do business
Journalist Anand Giridharadas spent three years exploring...
...the motivations of America’s wealthy philanthropists
He has concluded that some of their business practices...
...create the very social problems their philanthropy tries to address
What I see is a room full of people who think they are helping
But are working at much greater scale...
...to maintain and entrench a system...
...that frankly dooms the people that they’re helping
Real altruism would actually be doing less harm...
...not running working people into the ground...
...through the pressure they put on the companies they take stakes in
In the past 30 years the number of foundations in America has almost tripled
Since 1978 the proportion of overall giving...
...that’s come from those foundations has also tripled
But the US Treasury estimates philanthropy will cost it...
...$740bn in lost tax revenue over the next decade
Anand claims this giving by wealthy Americans...
...is more about tax breaks than charity
Poor people, people who make $20,000 a year...
...are paying higher taxes than they otherwise would...
...to subsidise about $50bn dollars in tax breaks every year...
...that we give people for donating money
You are injecting harm into the society
You are making more money and then you are going to the Robin Hood Gala...
...to donate 1% of what you have stolen from the common good...
...to a fraction of the people whose interests you have harmed...
...and you feel so proud of yourself
It’s an arsonist convention in which everybody is...
...under the mistaken impression that they’re firefighters
While some are questioning the motivations behind...
...large charitable donations...
...others are taking action to stop what they see as tainted philanthropy
Stop promoting BP. Make this gallery fossil free
BP keeps on lying and we will not be silenced
It’s Monday night in London
BP is guilty of gross negligence
A group of activists are protesting outside...
...one of the city’s most prestigious art galleries
You’ve got to go, go, go
They are angry that the National Portrait Gallery is sponsored by BP...
...one of the world’s leading fossil-fuel companies
Do you not think the arts organisations could do much better...
...getting that money directly from the government?
—No
Have a good evening, sir
Go away, go away please, go away
One of the group’s founders Danny Chivers...
...has chosen the opening night of a new exhibition...
...to chain himself to the gallery’s railings
BP gets to associate itself with this great art
Gets to associate itself with these leading artists
Gets to present itself as this sort of positive company...
...that’s doing something useful in the world when in reality...
...it’s actively lobbying, spending tens of millions of pounds every year...
...blocking climate laws, slowing down the growth of renewable energy...
...making the world a much more dangerous place for everybody
And in the middle of a climate crisis, the idea of taking money...
...or in fact helping to promote an oil company...
...just seems more and more indefensible
Since 2012 these protesters have been invading spaces...
...and performing guerrilla theatre
Like this protest against BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum
We are the ghosts of climate present
They call themselves BP or Not BP?
And describe themselves as a theatrical protest group of “actorvists”
The methane is rising up and killing us
What do we want? —We want that justice!
Tonight’s protest is another attempt to shame a major arts institution...
...into refusing philanthropic money from big oil
These institutions need to actually have a conversation with themselves...
...and with their stakeholders and with their publics and with their staff...
...about what are their values? And what are their ethical red lines?
Folks just as a reminder, if you could please have your invitation...
...and your photo ID as you come to the front please
Thank you very much
Many of the guests don’t seem to agree with the protesters
I think the sponsorship of something like this has helped...
...artists immeasurably over the last 30 years, has it been going?
Some feel arts institutions have little choice...
...but to accept sponsorship money in an era of austerity
The arts have been consistently cut by the public purse...
...they have to generate income from other sources...
...and sponsorship is undoubtedly one of...
...the sensible ways in which they can do it
We’ve got five locked on Adam, five locked on
The gallery’s security try to prevent the protesters disrupting the night
We’re a non-violent, peaceful protest
Don’t hurt him
Hey, you can't hurt her
But BP Or Not BP? continues the protest
The group argues that for some major corporations...
...philanthropy is primarily about whitewashing their reputations
They’re buying a cleansing of their image...
...and they are doing so at a very cheap price
It is not appropriate for overwhelmingly publicly funded institutions...
...to be laundering the images of corporations that are working...
...actively against the public interest
Around the world revered arts institutions...
...are now questioning the sources of philanthropic donations they receive
Dozens storm the Guggenheim museum to protest...
...a donor’s alleged ties to the opioid crisis
In 2019 the Guggenheim New York, the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery...
...refused grants from the Sackler Foundation...
...because the Sackler family are widely perceived to have...
...profited from America’s opioid crisis
Shame on Sackler
In today’s world perhaps the most effective checks on the motivations...
...and impact of big philanthropy come from other big philanthropists
Today billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced a $500m pledge...
...to support efforts to phase out the nation’s remaining coal-fired plants
Since 2011 former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg...
...has donated over $500m to campaigns...
...to replace coal with clean energy in the US by 2030
I am pleased to announce that Bloomberg Philanthropies is making a pledge...
...of $50m over the next four years...
...to support the Sierra Club’s new grassroots Beyond Coal campaign
But in taking on the battle against climate change...
...Mr Bloomberg has also taken on other billionaire philanthropists...
...on the opposing side of the debate
The Koch brothers are among the nation’s...
...best-known, politically active families
The billionaires network of political action committees and advocacy groups
For decades oil barons Charles Koch and his late brother David...
...have given billions of dollars to non-profit organisations...
...in order to promote scepticism about global warming
What I give to my foundations is all public information
The Kochs’ donations have had a huge impact...
...on strengthening the climate-change denial lobby in America
Their money has helped attack scientists who...
...work in the climate-change field
Their money has helped underwrite an army of policy wonks...
...and lawyers who poked holes in different efforts to...
...regulate greenhouse-gas emissions
The Kochs have pulled all the levers of power with their wealth...
...to try to stop the momentum to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions
What do we want? —Green gas
When do we want it? —Now
But Michael Bloomberg’s donations to his campaign Beyond Coal...
...have proved an influential counterbalance
So far these have helped retire 289 coal plants...
...more than half the countries total
Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropy is a gift to this planet
Thanks to the coal plants that we have retired...
...through the Beyond Coal campaign, the US still has a chance of meeting...
...its commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement even despite Trump
It’s philanthropy that’s harnessing the will of...
...the American people and our desire for a better world for our kids
America has witnessed the spectacle of its most-renowned philanthropists...
...battling it out over one of the world’s most important political issues
The story of philanthropy and climate change is the story of kind of...
...billionaire v billionaire
It’s like watching these Greek gods throw thunderbolts at each other
The Kochs v Bloomberg
And that’s increasingly a story about a lot of issues today...
...that you’ll find billionaires on both sides of the issue
It raises a fundamental question
How much political power should wealthy but...
...unelected philanthropists wield?
I think Bloomberg is doing great work
I am worried about climate change
I also think Bloomberg has way too much power...
...for a single individual
You can cheer somebody on in their philanthropy...
...even as you’re concerned about their power in a society...
...which is supposed to be a democracy
Even do-gooding, even philanthropy, even supporting non-profits...
...it is still an exertion of power even when it’s good
And the whole point of modern democracies...
...is to limit the power of private individuals over public life
That’s the whole game. That’s why we did this
And now we have created this separate and unequal system...
...where billionaires can also influence it by just buying social change
While powerful and wealthy philanthropists are increasingly...
...giving away their money
Fewer people on average are giving in the developed world...
...than two decades ago
A long-delayed report into sexual abuse by Oxfam workers in Haiti...
It’s a decline that’s coincided with scandals...
...that have rocked some of the world’s best-known charities
You not only have taken people’s money...
...you have taken people’s sympathy...
...and you have betrayed them
Little wonder charities are now experimenting with...
...innovative new approaches to persuade donors to part with their cash
I am really excited about tonight , I think it’s going to be great fun
In London project manager Jennifer Johnston is about to give away her money
But she doesn’t know how much, nor to whom
I’m not a billionaire. I don’t even consider myself a philanthropist really
Good evening everyone, thank you for coming this evening
Jennifer is one of 80 people attending an event...
...organised by the Funding Network
We are looking to, we need to grow...
...and we need to buy and get ourselves some more funding
Charities here have to compete for donors’ bids
Wave Café’s goal is to set up a vibrant community arts café in north London
Hi everyone my name’s Sarah and I’m the founder of the Kids Network
It’s a live auction with a difference
So you put your hand up...
...and when I point to you, you say your name...
...and the amount you would like to give
Caroline, 100
Octopus, 100
OK
Serena, 200
Martin, 100
Up the back
400
Francesca, 100
Thank you
Jennifer, 200
I would say in about 12 minutes we’ve ratcheted up 15 grand
Charities have just a few minutes each for their pitch
Mothers and babies are dying
At an average event the Funding Network raises between...
...£25,000 and £35,000 in about 40 minutes
We want to reduce those maternity deaths and you can help us, please
I had blown my budget already...
...but that is inherent when you come to events like this
Someone could come along tonight and contribute £200...
...but they will leave saying I was part of a group of people...
...that raised £30,000
It’s a dynamic model of giving
And it’s making philanthropists out of anyone with some cash to spare
We believe we’re democratising philanthropy
Something that we all not only can do but have a responsibility to do
And that’s what we take great pride in
You should learn new things...
...and you should leave feeling empowered and inspired
There’s lots of people from different backgrounds here tonight
I think what we’ve all got in common is we want to...
...engage in the community, in the issues that the world faces today
I feel really inspired. That is the point of the Funding Network
You come here with your small contribution to contribute to the greater good
The Funding Network runs events across 25 countries worldwide...
...and hopes to buck the trend in the developed world...
...of fewer individuals giving to charity
I think it’s why it’s beholden on all of us who are working within this area...
...to be transparent, to be open, to build trust with our donors...
...and to look at innovative ways of engaging or re-engaging people
With rising demand for transparency and accountability...
...some charities are offering potential donors a clearer incentive...
...results
Kankan, Guinea, west Africa
The frontline in the fight against a disease that kills over...
...400,000 people worldwide every year
Koubala lost her two-year-old son to malaria last year
But this is also the frontline in a new approach to giving...
...that is rooted in hard economics
Here one charity, Against Malaria Foundation...
...is distributing mosquito nets
In Guinea they’ve handed out 4.8m nets this year alone
And they’re doing it because, by analysing data...
...they’ve calculated this is the most efficient way to save lives
Rather than attracting donors using...
...marketing techniques that play on emotion...
...the charity relies instead on arguments based on hard data
It’s a growing model known as “effective altruism”
Effective altruism is a movement and a philosophy...
...that aims to use reason and evidence in order to do the most good possible
Data is absolutely fundamental to everything we do
It critically allows us to say how many nets need to go to each household...
...so that there is universal coverage achieved
Donors have confidence that we’re going to do what we say we will do
So every two dollars, every dollar, really counts
Effective altruism relies on charity evaluators...
...which search for and assess non-profits...
...that save or improve the most lives per dollar
The charities achieving the best results are published in a league table...
...to help donors identify which will make best use of their money
Against Malaria Foundation is consistently ranked...
...as one of the highest for impact and accountability
If we were going to buy a car we would look at all the different options...
...and try to work out which is the best suited and...
...which has best value for money
It’s bringing that same scrutiny that we bring to other economic areas...
...into the charity sector
In the past ten years effective altruism has contributed...
...over $100m in donations towards Against Malaria Foundation
The charity says this has helped fund the distribution of...
...50m bed nets worldwide
Protecting 90m people and saving around 30,000 lives
Economically when you’re ill and suffering from malaria...
...you can’t work, you can’t teach, you can’t farm. You really can’t function
And so it puts a burden on the economies of these countries
And it’s estimated that for every dollar spent...
...in combating and fighting malaria through bed nets...
...$12 is generated in GDP for that country
But effective altruism, EA, has its critics...
...who say giving is not a science
And that there is more to charity than cold hard numbers
Critics of EA have said that it appeals maybe to logic and not emotion
We’re here at the hospital today and there are numerous...
...young children who are suffering from severe malaria
And you can see worried parents everywhere
I don’t see a lack of emotion in any of that at all
This scientific approach to charitable giving and work is on the rise...
...and is assuming innovative new forms
It’s being used by some of today’s class of billionaire philanthropists
How this plays out alongside their rising power...
...will help to redefine the impact of altruism
And how it’s perceived