Who can say if I've been changed for the better...

            If you look up the definition of philanthropy in Webster’s Dictionary, you will find a quite serviceable, no-nonsense American definition of the term:

…private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life

But, if you look to the Greeks for a translation of the word, which was created around the time of Aeschylus (ca. 460 BCE) and which got its start in life as an adjective, not a noun (hang in there!), you would encounter a far more poetic (and satisfying) definition:

…love of humanity in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing and enhancing

what it is to be human

Note this definition does not say “what it means to be human”, rather, “what it is to be human.”  In other words, the goal of philanthropy, understood through the lens of classical Greek, aims at nothing less than the transformation of the human condition such that it moves closer to a state of perfection.  I like this approach because it hints at the fundamental challenge which confronts all modern-day philanthropists: how to be certain one’s philanthropy makes a difference.

            This challenge brings us back to the factoid noted earlier - that the earliest, primitive, use of the word philanthropy was as an adjective, not a noun. The Greeks used the term as an adjective in order to better describe the relationship between benefactor and beneficiary...both of whom would be fundamentally changed by the philanthropic act.  More specifically, both would benefit, not just the beneficiary. Thus, the philanthropist would become more fully human through the selfless act of philanthropy while the beneficiary would be shaped by the opportunity to escape whatever current malignant condition prevented him/her from becoming more fully human.

            I choose to dwell on this particular, rather arcane, subject as we enter the interregnum between the end of one school year and the start of another because it occurs to me that we tend to overlook how we at La Salle are continually being shaped by philanthropic acts. Recently, I took the opportunity at the School’s annual Platinum Circle dinner, in which we honor retiring Trustees, Regents and Alumni Association Board members, to comment on three forms of philanthropy - as practiced at La Salle - which transforms the lives of the students entrusted to our care.

 

·         Philanthropy of mentoring

·         Philanthropy of serving

·         Philanthropy of giving

At La Salle - to stress the Greek understanding of the term as an adjective - these are overlapping relationships.  Alumni Board members, for example, frequently volunteer to be college and career mentors for our seniors, offer service during our annual Adopt-a-Family drive and make a contribution to the School’s Annual Fund and/or one of our endowed scholarships (which enables students without the means to attend La Salle). Each of those activities – together and separately – shapes the relationship of the alumnus to La Salle and the School to the alum.

            All of which reminds me of the powerful exhortation Saint John Baptist de La Salle gave the early Brothers about their relationship to the students entrusted to their care: that their interactions with young people should be as an older brother watching out for the younger one. This is why the understanding of philanthropy as a “love of humanity” strikes such a powerful cord in me.  At La Salle, we aim at nothing less than changing the world one student at a time.  We can’t do this if we are not in relationship with our students, their parents, our colleagues, alumni and friends who care about the same Lasallian values.

            There is a wonderful line in the Musical Wicked in which Galinda and Elphaba describe their relationship this way:

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

 But because I knew you

 I have been changed for good.

I am confident that, at La Salle, administrators, teachers, parents and alums strive to love humanity, to nurture and enhance what it means to be human and, in doing so, change for the better the lives of those entrusted to our care. Without a doubt, philanthropy at La Salle makes an enormous difference.

 

Just one person’s Midsummer’s musings…