Meanings
- neologismuncountableThe philosophy of applying capitalist style objectives and criteria to directing philanthropic enterprises.First known use 2006
"Philanthrocapitalism", as it has been called, veers towards tackling symptoms of poverty and distress rather than underlying causes.
2010 August 5, Peter Wilby, “The rich want a better world? Try paying fair wages and tax”, in The Guardian2 more examples
At its best, philanthrocapitalism reinforces and amplifies the time, money, skills, and gifts given every year by people who are not rich, and it informs and enhances government policies.
2009, Matthew Bishop, Michael F. Green, Bill Clinton (foreword), Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World, Bloomsbury Press, →ISBN, Foreword, page viii‘Philanthrocapitalism’—when donors apply the business techniques they honed in their professional lives to charitable giving—has made a major impact on how the rich choose to give money, and to what causes. […] But the problem is that philanthrocapitalism is an uneasy fit with culture, which has always struggled to prove its worth in a way that can be quantified.
2021, Georgina Adam, The Rise and Rise of the Private Art Museum (Hot Topics in the Art World), Chicago: Lund Humphries, →ISBN
Origin
Cite this entry
philanthrocapitalism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/philanthrocapitalism
“philanthrocapitalism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/philanthrocapitalism. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “philanthrocapitalism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/philanthrocapitalism.
Source: philanthrocapitalism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.