Apparently I failed to make myself clear. My informant--as I said, an
historian of philanthropy--mentioned that the *metaphor* of the germ
theory of disease had deeply influenced the big givers at the turn of
the twentieth century (e.g., the Rockefellers, even Carnegie). He
didn't say that they literally thought social "ills" were amenable to
some strict application of the germ theory of disease. They simply
took that point of view as an interesting way to guide their
philanthropies.
I'm asking the second set of questions Paul mentions--how do you apply
complexity theory to institutional philanthropy? As metaphor? As
guiding principles?
Pamela
On Apr 14, 2009, at 5:53 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Being on the board of a major environment NGO, I think that the
conclusion that donor institutions are motivated by a desire to
mitigate "illnesses" is too broad a generalization. Often donors do
have a vision of what they or the recipient organization are
striving for. This being said, the idea of applying complexity
theory to institutional philanthropy is certainly interesting and
perhaps very useful. How to do it is the question. "Tipping
points" and threshold analysis? Choosing where and how to give most
effectively based on ABMs and emergence? Worth a discussion,
particularly by those seeped in complexity!
Paul
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