With great power comes great duty, however in a world without superheroes that means philanthropy.

Towards completion of the 19th century, charitable endeavour started to take the type that has survived in the modern world, where philanthropic businesses in the form of non-profits were dedicated to the act of giving. These ended up being especially professional and proficient throughout the 2nd World War, when a number of these foundations began working together to achieve greater results. With the social upheaval of the following years, things like the civil rights movement inspired a more community-led method to philanthropy that supported minority causes, and philanthropists had higher flexibility to support specific causes near to their hearts. This is a much the same form as philanthropy takes today, with individuals like George Kaiser and Marcel Arsenault approaching a substantial selection of crucial and exceptionally complicated concerns on an enormous scale. However, although the complexities of philanthropy might have evolved in time, generosity, kindness, and giving still have as central a location among our society as they did over 2,000 years back.

For a lot of the world's rich today, philanthropy offers them an opportunity to reach the really satisfying successes that their incredibly rewarding lives have been developing towards. Work is work at the end of the day, and when famous philanthropists like José Alvarez Stelling reach the dusk of their professions, a new dawn enables them toplace focus upon the issues that genuinely matter to them and finish the cycle of accumulation and dispersal that comes with monetary gain. This is by no means a twenty-first century phenomenon. The very word itself, philanthropy, meaning 'man-loving', goes back to Ancient Greece, where it was born from the Promethean legend. The Greeks thought charity to be an important component of democratic society and those who enjoyed affluence were expected to add to make sure cultural health; financing festivals, repair work for public buildings like temples, and running social programs. If a rich specific shown to be parsimonious, they ran the risk of being ostracised from society by those both above and below their socio-economic standing.

Although the philanthropy of the Ancient Greeks may be startlingly comparable to the charitable endeavours of celebrity philanthropists today, it has actually progressed considerably since times of the ancient world. During the middle ages, religious institutions were the focus of charity in the sense that they were both the source and recipient of contributions. With the collapse of rural feudalism, that shifted back to wealthy people, and as urbanisation spread, their focus turned towards the towns and cities rather than the impoverished countryside. As industrialisation grew, the industrialists that stood atop the financial pyramid handled an excellent public duty, especially in times of challenge like famine or war. They were particularly expected to supply look after orphaned or widowed kin of soldiers, or the households left whilst their other halves and children were off fighting in foreign lands.