Competing views on the role of philanthropy in today’s political landscape took center stage at Carnegie Corporation of New York in June 2017 at a forum that brought together leading experts to discuss the most pressing issues facing the sector and its role in society.  A New Landscape of Giving: Power, Policy, and Philanthropy ignited — to say the least — a lively discussion.  They started off the panel with the first question being about today's needs and how does one make a lasting impact?

KARL ZINSMEISTER: We need both. We need to treat today’s problems and we need to transform society so that you have fewer problems tomorrow. And philanthropy is actually beautifully positioned to do that because philanthropy is not one thing. It’s this million-headed beast that has no single agenda, no single progenitor, no single anything.

DAVID CALLAHAN: This may be the most exciting time ever in philanthropy. And a lot of these people have committed to large-scale philanthropy or will eventually. Like Bezos, they will come to issue areas with a lot of money and big ideas, and that can have game-changing effects.

ZINSMEISTER: Philanthropy is generally covered in the press today as if it’s all about the billionaire boys’ club. That is completely inaccurate. American philanthropy is an iceberg. And the stories about Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and Bezos that you see? That’s the tip of the iceberg. Of the $390 billion that was given away last year, only 15 percent came from foundations run by the wealthy. And another 5 percent came from corporations. The other 80 percent? That came from individuals and most of that from very average American households who give away about $3,000 a year.

Read the rest of the panel discussion about power, policy, and philanthropy by the Carnegie Corporation at Medium.