The Importance Of Family Philanthropy In Resolving Today'S Challenges

Today the world is moving towards automation. Robots are replacing humans. So number of meaningful jobs are reducing. Along with this, world is facing societal and environmental challenges. One of the major challenges is increasing inequality. As per report of Credit Suisse “1% of wealthiest person of world have more money than rest of the world ”. Another big problem world is facing is overexploitation of natural resources, as on August 7, 2017 world used more resources than that earth could renew in 1 year. So immediate solution is required to these problems, which could be solved by change in public policy, or by big business leaders. The problem cannot be solved by single person or through single solution, it could be solved only if different stakeholders of the environment work together for the society. People are helping society by doing charity, but new and sustainable way to solve the problem is through Philanthropical approach. Family Philanthropy is the one which had set many examples to help the society. Also the there is also very high desire of new generation to get involve in philanthropy to solve the greatest challenges faced by the society. Ultra-High Net Worth of around $16 trillion is expected to be passed to next generation over next thirty years. So would be many new philanthropist formed in upcoming years. Many entrepreneurs have decided that they will do something good to the world.

Many entrepreneurs including young entrepreneurs have started contributing to the society. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, etc are contributing for welfare of the society. The new generation Philanthropist will have completely different approach then old ones. They would be willing to participate in such activities, take more risk, and will keep complete track on their donations, so that it could be utilized for betterment. In present Era, the situation is very different, where one needs to tackle all the challenges so that it helps in reducing inequality and save the environment. And there are many self-made people who knows the current situation and are ready to contribute maximum to philanthropy. So one could expect a better future, but for that collective efforts are required, so that the efforts made by many philanthropists don’t go into vain. According to many families philanthropy is the excellent way to teach children how to manage the finance and importance of giving something to society. For children who are too small to take part into business activities, it act as a valuable project, with lots of learning opportunity. Also they would understand that how money could be used for betterment of the society. As the money needs to transferred to next generation, it is very important to teach the next generation how to optimally use the money, and involving children in philanthropy activities is the best way to make them learn. The first thing that can be easily transferred is values. As senior members lives with children, so values of them are automatically transferred. For developing strategy for involving next generation into philanthropy activity, following factors should be considered: There should be proper venue for sharing history of family, so that next generation could relate more with the history. Another point should be that hands on learning experience should be provided so that the children could learn the skills. Stipend could also be provided so that they are more motivated and involved in such activities. These tasks could be done during family meetings or get togethers or any retreat conducted by professional person. This will lead to great discussion on philanthropy, and next generation would get better idea about it. And this kind of meeting should be generated regularly, so that interest of children could also be taken care of.

Many times, these meetings leads to conflicts due to not matching of interest, so there should be conflict agreement, so that the conflict could be handled in standard way. One thing should be clearly noted is that “philanthropic planning is a process, not an event”. If done properly, the next generation would be more mature and would understand the importance of taking care of environment.

Conclusion

Today, the world is facing lots of environmental and societal challenges, and one of the biggest challenge is increasing gap between rich and poor. The problem could be solved by changing government policy. Also many people are doing charity to solve this problem. But to sustainably solve these problems, philanthropist approach is needed to be followed. Family philanthropy is the approach preferred by many families. It not only makes children more responsible and sensible in managing wealth, but also make them aware about how to make the world better place to live. But the problem is that children don’t take much interest in family philanthropical activities, so they should make the activities interesting and engaging so that next generation takes interest in philanthropy activities. These next generation ae going to get money transferred from their previous generation, so it is very important to teach them how to make use of such money for betterment of the society.

Comparing old ways of philanthropy activities with new trends, usually in earlier times, people did charity for betterment of society and doesn’t want to get involved in such activities, but now philanthropist wants to get involved in such activities, be more conservative by investing only in such areas where in past success was achieved. Also earlier, usually the charity was done for short period, but now the philanthropist thinks for a longer project, so that benefit is bigger to the society. Many self-made entrepreneurs have started thinking about the society and are donating for welfare for society. Due to this they are gaining lot of support from society. So if next generation wants to gain support from society, they need to get involved in philanthropy activities. So family philanthropy will help building society a better place to live, but this cannot be achieved by a single person, it would require collective effort from people. If all people collectively put effort, then a bigger impact could be created for welfare of society.