The Era of Philanthrocapitalism


Foundation: Gates Foundation

credit: Flickr

Due to the financial crisis of 2008, Wall Street and the financial sector are viewed as the bad guys by large parts of the country, especially those occupying the lower classes of life. To go into finance is seen as selling out. Yet the financial sector plays an important role in allocating funds to their most efficient uses as well.

Enter the idea of the philanthrocapitalist. By coupling the raw horsepower of capitalist strategies with social benefaction, innovators can enrich both themselves and society, instead of at society's expense. The Nature Conservancy is a prime example of this paradigm, using flood insurance programs to finance conservation efforts. The lesson here is clear: Solving the world's most difficult problems may depend on the collaboration of the best and the brightest of both the public and the private sectors.


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Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.




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Edited by: Michael Saunders

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