Twentieth-Century Background--The Evolving Philanthropic Order

Twentieth-Century Background--The Evolving Philanthropic Order

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, America was suddenly assaulted by a torrent of unfamiliar circumstances: an immigration unprecedented in size and diversity, headlong industrialization and urbanization, and a new, unfamiliar complexity that made traditional institutions seem obsolete.

The Progressive response was an approach to social and institutional change with compelling plausibility. It was based on the apparent success of the new corporations, which was mistakenly attributed to their method of organization. Thus the bywords of the Progressive movement were centralization, scientific objectivism, and professionalization. Perhaps most important was its bleak appraisal of the capacities of ordinary people to cope with these new circumstances unassisted

In the decades that followed, most American institutions were organized or re-organized according to the Progressive prescription. The flow of social responsibility was away from more primary, local, and voluntary institutions to those more remote, professionalized, and tax-supported. This transformation was financed in large part by the then fledgling philanthropic institutions. By mid-century, much mutual aid had been displaced by specialized professionals, people had become clients, the hierarchical organization of business entities had created a work force with middle-class means and proletarian status, and many of the society's major responsibilities had been reassigned to remote national organizations or to some level of government.

At the turn of the present century new circumstances have rendered the Progressive prescriptions obsolete. The electronic revolution has suggested and enabled a more horizontal corporate organization in which more and more working people are self-managed. The society is outgrowing the institutions the Progressives designed for it. The centralizing thrust of the 20th century is being reversed in the 21st. A new philanthropy that sees its role as understanding and encouraging this transformation is beginning to emerge.

The Philanthropic Enterprise believes that what this new, more critical philanthropy needs most is information. It needs to understand the nearly universal acceptance of the canon of the "old order," its consequences, the nature and promise of the new paths open to human action, and how to proceed on them.