In Bill Gates’ eerily prescient 2015 Ted Talk he states that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe … is not missiles but microbes”, which, he predicted, could claim over 10 million lives and wipe $3tn (£2.4tn) off the global economy.
Gates put his money where his crystal ball was, contributing $100m to help establish the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), a global alliance of public, private and philanthropic funding to develop vaccines and improve collective responses to newly emerging infectious diseases. Cepi was launched at Davos 2017, the annual gathering of global elites, and is now a key player in the race to develop a vaccine to halt the Covid-19 pandemic. So this seems a good moment to highlight philanthropy’s essential and distinct role. In the current crisis, we need it more than ever, despite the cynicism and derision it often receives.
There is a widespread view that philanthropic elites should stay out of trying to solve the world’s problems and that “decent societies” should only deploy funds raised through the tax system. But private donors – big and small – are making a vital threefold contribution to tackling the coronavirus: by funding research, providing relief and preparing to rebuild for the future.
In addition to new money being poured into Cepi (including £40m from the UK’s Wellcome Trust), the scientific effort to rapidly produce both treatment and cure has benefited from an investment of £5m over the past few years by the Wolfson Foundation to upgrade the UK’s leading infectious disease laboratories. Private philanthropy has always enjoyed more freedom than the state and even the private sector to make longer-term and potentially riskier investments – no voters needed persuading or shareholders placating before this money could be spent.
Second, donors are stepping up to fund immediate relief for those hit hardest by the lockdown, as well as those on the frontline. The food bank network has received £1m from UK billionaire David Sainsbury, Money-Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has pledged £1.9m for charities helping those in financial crisis, and dozens of private funders have contributed to the new National Emergencies Trust to support those most in need. The importance of mass collective giving, as well as single major gifts, has been underlined by the success of 99-year-old war veteran Tom Moore, whose fundraising effort for NHS charities has reached almost £30m – and is still rising.
Third, many privately funded charitable trusts and foundations are quickly writing new strategies with bigger budgets and more unrestricted funding to help keep charities afloat as they face the double whammy of increased demand for their services along with dramatic declines in fundraised income. This need is exacerbated by the government’s decision to allocate a set figure of £750m to the charity sector, unlike the open-ended bailout on offer to the private sector.
Despite this important contribution by the philanthropy sector, no one seriously thinks it could or should replace state-organised, tax-funded action. Public and private funding play different roles, enjoy different advantages and face different constraints. It is therefore perfectly possible to be in favour of higher levels of progressive, loophole-free taxation and also believe that private giving has a legitimate, critical role. This case has been made by both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, confounding simplistic assumptions that the top 0.001% are inevitably tax-avoiding plutocrats with no concern for their fellow citizens and future generations.
The argument that only elected governments should try to solve the world’s problems – and that there is therefore no role for affluent elites – is fuelled by understandable anger at growing inequality as well as widespread distrust of elites. Philanthropy in this analysis is simply a fig leaf to cover the iniquities of an affluent, global elite, and a tax-subsidised plaything to fund vanity projects. As the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman famously told last year’s Davos participants, “stop talking about stupid philanthropy schemes” and focus on tax instead.
Yet this pandemic has shown that setting tax against charitable giving is a false dichotomy. People see no tension between applauding the (state-funded) NHS on a Thursday night and throwing themselves into (philanthropically funded) grassroots community schemes. Charities are facing an unprecedented funding crisis. Yet charitable action – whether supporting research or backing mental health initiatives – is needed as never before. We don’t suggest a night of the week for applauding donors. But perhaps now would be a good moment to encourage the philanthropy that is so desperately needed.
• Beth Breeze is director of the Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent. Paul Ramsbottom is chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation
