Love is that hope which brings salvation. Joy, Sorrow, Hate, Anger, Fear, and Anxiety cannot lead us to salvation from despair. This is the only basic emotion out of the seven that has the capacity to move a person to do something good to others, and ultimately to oneself. And when it goes beyond individuals to all human beings, the whole of the humanity is saved, as it was saved by Prometheus, a Greek mythological character, by giving fire and hope to mankind, or by Prajapati, an Indian mythological character, by performing Yagya and giving instructions to men and gods to live happily for good. There can be found number of lovers of mankind in literature and history, whose love for mankind gave rise to the term ‘philanthropy’, the activity stemming out from love for human beings.

In course of time, aberration crept in this fundamental concept of philanthropy mainly due to dislocation of character and behaviour of the so called philanthropists, who were primarily interested in their own love for publicity to make people believe them ‘good’ or even ‘great’ as against obscurity of the self. In the earlier model it was propagated that even the left hand should not know what the right hand gave, but the new model encourages too much publicity for even a little act of goodness. Moreover, one can find number of so called philanthropists who disguise their numerous acts against humanity under ‘little acts of goodness’ with great fanfare and publicity. By doing so they lose the very purpose of achieving salvation from despair for themselves in particular and people in general. They ultimately realize it but when there is no time or energy left with them to rectify the mistake. In this backdrop, the question is rightly being asked, who really cares for the society?

The Old Model

The Old Model emphasized on three things – Action, Hope and Obscurity. ‘Action’ is their hope, and in the hope of improving human conditions they prefer ‘act of goodness’. Action and Hope go simultaneously in such ways that encourage obscurity of the person who perform the act of goodness. They propagated the philosophy – do well and forget. They silently preferred to do something good without hoping for any return. It was purely ‘love for human beings’, nothing else, not even hope for recognition for their act of goodness. This model also includes religious and charitable organizations that were re-channelizing the funds for bigger social causes such organizations had also been known for their philanthropy creation like ponds, archers, hospitals, schools, dharmshallas, public shelters, etc.

The New Model

In the New Model, Obscurity has been done away with. Action and Hope remains there but the connotation has lately been changed. ‘Act of goodness’ is now intended for one or the other self-benefit, and Hope (for betterment of other human beings) is now primarily for self-benefit. Publicity has replaced obscurity along with a claim for tax or other benefits in lieu of our acts of goodness for others.

Another dimension has been added to it after introduction of NGO movement. Charity model is being replaced by entrepreneur model, making ‘act of goodness’ a profession. This model generates money to sustain its efforts in addition to receiving donations. Such philanthropists are making substantial money.

The Challenges Ahead

With emergence of the new model of philanthropy, we are faced with many challenges right from its inception an idea to its implementation.

The question - who really cares, smacks hopelessness of certain individuals who believe that nobody is doing any good to others without any self-interest. This approach sometimes serves detrimental for the very acts of goodness done by certain individual who, on account of their genuinity of thought and action, feel somewhat humiliated when challenged in this fashion. It discourages them to do something good.

Modern understanding thus prevails: one must encourage ‘act of goodness’ even it is done for self-interest not amounting to immoral or illegal. Not encouraging ‘act of goodness’ will be harmful for the society. We can achieve nothing with hopelessness and inaction and we must not encourage such thoughts.

It is in this context, governments all over the world are supporting NGO movement as private initiative of doing something good in an organized way. It is to encourage such movements governments are giving tax and other benefit to such organizations.

Private initiatives must go on. It does not mean that society should not be vigilant about the real intentions of the person doing ‘good’ to others. We should object to it only when the intentions are ‘illegal or immoral’ in nature. Other genuine self-interest should be ignored.

Raising funds is a very difficult task. Very few persons come forward with donations for public good and the fund raising organization cannot assure the legality of the source. Even ill-gotten money is injected in such ‘act of goodness’ activities in the hope that people believe the donation maker ‘good’ or ‘great’. Whatever may be the reason, they should not be discouraged to do something good.

In the new entrepreneur model, where ‘act of goodness’ has become a profession should be stringently regulated under law. The governments should adopt utmost vigilant line of action and should make sufficient laws for their regulation. It is also necessary, because of many incidents coming out in open of the involvement of money being pumped in by extremist organizations for ulterior motives.

“Philanthropy or Charity is a supreme virtue, and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to mankind. It is the virtue that unites men and inspires their noblest efforts”. - Conard Hilton