2.6 Philanthropy Research

1. As defined by Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, "goodwill to fellow members of the human race especially : active effort to promote human welfare". Activities generally tied with philanthropy are large donations and creations of foundations to facilitate those donations, as well as actively progressing or endorsing a certain movement. Philanthropy is different from "charity" or "charitable donations" because of the fact it is an "active effort to promote human welfare". (Merriam-Webster)

2. As I learned from carnegie.org, Carnegie was the father of modern philanthropy and after he had sold his company to J. P. Morgan he set out to "distribute his fortune." In doing so he would spend over $55 million on just libraries, he also helped create colleges, schools, nonprofit organizations, several involving his name; Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Foundation, and many others. He spent the money he did on these kinds of projects, specifically libraries, to educate those who wouldn't normally be educated. He believed that those who could be educated would be successful. (carnegie.org)

3. From a University of Houston article I learned that Carnegie's giving was not spurred by anything other than good will, he created several institutes and libraries. Whereas Rockefeller started participating in charitable actions when the trusts started pressuring his company. With his unimaginable wealth, Rockefeller donated for much of the same things Carnegie did. (UH article)

4. As found from the Carnegie Foundation's website, they currently support a variety of networks. The first of which listed on the site is the GBC (Getting Better, California), which as stated by the website is "comprised of two networked improvement communities (NICs) in the state of California". These two communities having to deal with either middle-school mathematics or early literacy. The rest of the networks listed on the site all have some link with education, one being for older people including professional training or coaching(Carnegie Foundation). While the others tend to have a trend with reading and literacy.

5. As shown by Forbes "major philanthropists" are the top 50 who gave away the most money in that current year. In the year of 2017 the top 5 major philanthropists were; Warren Buffet, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg, The Walton Family and George Soros(Forbes Article). While not considered a philanthropist at all, I chose to follow through what Steve Irwin had done for environmentalism and conservation. While mainly coming from my personal knowledge of the eccentric Australian, Steve Irwin was a great example of what many philanthropists would do from humans but instead of humans he dedicated his purpose to protecting and contributing to the well being of wild animals. As well as that task he took with him all through his life he also managed to fit in educating many people about the specifics and details of wild animals. While he might not have been a traditional philanthropist he was one in the sense that he still contributed to many of the same causes of those who are. "I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message." - Steve Irwin (brainyquote)

6. If I were a philanthropist, I would spend my time and effort contributing to the pursuit of knowledge and education. People deserve the right to know, and you never know what they might be capable of if they just knew some things.