Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/76847

Title

Results that count

Author(s)

Liffman, Michael

Abstract

Welcoming the new intake of students each year into our masters program in philanthropy and social investment at Swinburne University in Melbourne, I tend to startle them with a simple formulation. I propose that the whole purpose of the course of study, to which they have just committed a considerable amount of time and money, can be summed up in four words. It is, simply put, to "support results, not intentions''. Behind these words, however, stand a number of formidable intellectual, ethical and practical challenges. Possibly the biggest challenge is the recognition that virtue does not exonerate the virtuous from responsibility for their actions, nor protect them from scrutiny. Especially where philanthropists are giving money away---often with support, in the form of tax relief, from the taxpayer---there are, I argue, two responsibilities: at the least a responsibility to do no harm, and then, if not to maximise the gift's benefit, at least to do some real good. While these propositions seem to me to be self-evident, they are not widely accepted. Why else is our program of serious education and research in social investment at Swinburne almost unique among universities, not just in Australia but internationally?

Publication type

Newspaper article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Business and Enterprise. Asia-Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy

Source

The Australian, Social Investment column, 03 February 2010

Publication year

2010

Keyword(s)

Philanthropy;  Social investment

Publisher

News Limited

Publisher URL

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Copyright

Copyright © 2010 Michael Liffman.

Additional information

The Australian's Social Investment column is sponsored by the Pratt Foundation.