Lunch & Learn
The journey from entrepreneurship
to philanthropy
_

Lunch & Learn 50 🔹  Thursday, February 8th 2024

🇬🇧  English-speaking edition

The journey from entrepreneurship to philanthropy

When individuals and families engaged in philanthropy discuss their charitable activities, they often use the “journey” as a central metaphor. Defined as a set of experiences that someone has over a period of time, a journey invites humans to make sense of personal transformation over time. While charitable endeavors can change all of us, it is particularly salient in entrepreneurial philanthropy, i.e., when entrepreneurs who created or inherited their wealth through a business activity then decide to invest resources to achieve social objectives. Such entrepreneurs endeavor to redistribute a share of their wealth to support causes that they deeply care about, usually through the creation of a philanthropic vehicle. They want to give back, to make a difference, to live a better life, or to generate a legacy. But achieving these goals is rarely straightforward, as many entrepreneurs discover how difficult it is to navigate in uncharted territory. Questions regarding purpose, relationships, and organization abound. While there are as many journeys as there are individuals and families, researchers and professional advisors identified common stages through which entrepreneurial philanthropists go through as they think, learn and go about their giving. Our guests in this seminar will share insights about some core features of these life-changing voyages. 

 Guest-speakers:

🔹  Mairi Maclean, Professor of International Business, University of Bath, co-author of “Identity, storytelling and the philanthropic journey” (Human Relations, 2015).

🔹  Etienne Eichenberger, Co-founder and managing partner of WISE Philanthropy Advisors, co-author of the Family Philanthropy Navigator (IMD, 2020).

With the participation of Professor Charles Harvey (Newcastle University)

➡️ Guest-speakers' biographies