🌍 PHILANTHROPIA
- Brianna Miller
- Sep 20
- 11 min read
Updated: Sep 23
Returning to Love of Humankind — Powered by Infinence™
A Manifesto, Pedagogy, and Framework by Brianna Miller
#FundraisingFuture #ReimaginePhilanthropy #PhilanthropyInPractice #DifferentlyTheSame #TeachingGiving #LetItRain #InfiniteAbundance
#OverflowingLove #CirculationNotScarcity #WhenItRainsItGrows #AdvancementLeadership #NonprofitLeadership #BoardsMatter
#Ubuntu #Zakat #MutualAid #JusticeNotCharity #SharedAbundance #Philanthropia #Infinence #LoveOfHumankind #Fundraising #Philanthropy #Equity #BiracialForLife #OnPaperPress
1) The Root: What Philanthropy Meant Before It Was Bent
When most people hear the word philanthropy, they think of billionaires giving fortunes, nonprofits chasing grants, or gala dinners with silent auctions.
But here’s the first thing we must unlearn: philanthropy never meant money.
👉 Lesson in the language: etymology. The study of word roots, of where language began before culture bent it. Words are time machines; they show us what was intended before power redefined them.
Greek: philo (loving) + anthropos (humankind) → philanthrōpia = love of humankind.
Latin: carried into Late Latin as philanthropia.
English (1600s): entered as “philanthropy,” still meaning love of humankind.
Earliest sense: not charity, not wealth, not saviorism. Simply: love of humankind.
That truth was dropped. To recover the word is to recover the world it once named.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you still define philanthropy as dollars, you are working inside a distortion. Reclaiming the root changes the entire frame of advancement: it’s about love of humankind, not transactions.
2) Distortion: How Love Was Turned Into Control
Most advancement professionals have never been taught this history. But it matters, because the systems we work inside were built on it.
The Papal Bulls (1400s): Conquest as “Care”
Dum Diversas (1452): Gave Portugal authority to “invade and subdue” non-Christians, reducing them to perpetual servitude.
Romanus Pontifex (1455): Extended Portuguese rights to dominate newly encountered lands, resources, and people.
Inter Caetera (1493): Granted Spain the right to colonize the Americas, claiming Indigenous peoples should be “converted” for their own good.
These were not marginal notes. They were the spiritual and political blueprints of colonization.
👉 Teaching moment: These bulls birthed the Doctrine of Discovery — the idea that Christian nations had divine right to claim sovereignty over non-Christian lands and peoples.
The Doctrine of Discovery in Law
1823 — Johnson v. M’Intosh (U.S. Supreme Court): Ruled that Indigenous peoples could not hold full legal title to their land. Their presence could be “recognized,” but ownership belonged to the colonizer.
The Doctrine became property law. And philanthropy — love of humankind — was rewritten as saviorism: “We will decide what is best for you.”
From Theology to Manifest Destiny
The Doctrine justified Manifest Destiny — the belief that U.S. expansion was not only legal but destined, moral, and righteous.
Why this matters: Philanthropy itself was bent. It became a system of one-way giving rooted in control: wealthy/white = givers; marginalized = needy. The original meaning — love of humankind — was buried under conquest.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you don’t know this history, you will unknowingly replicate it. Saviorism shows up in your grant language, campaigns, and board culture unless you root it out at the source.
3) The Naming: Saviorism Still at Work
It’s easy to think saviorism was only history. But it’s alive in our sector today. Here’s how to recognize it:
Dependency: Programs built to meet donor preferences, not community-defined needs. Families waiting for outside approval rather than being trusted as decision-makers.
Hierarchy: Givers celebrated publicly; recipients diminished to “cases” or “stories.”
Help that harms: When “beggars can’t be choosers” is the operating principle, dignity is erased. Misaligned help creates more harm than good.
Exclusion: Families, staff, and volunteers contribute money, time, wisdom, and networks every day. Yet in donor reports, they are invisible.
👉 Teaching moment: Saviorism is not generosity gone wrong. It is control disguised as kindness. If you only ever see givers on one side and receivers on the other, you are looking at hierarchy, not philanthropy.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If your advancement work divides people into “donors” and “recipients,” you are enforcing saviorism. Rebuild your frame: everyone gives, everyone receives, everyone circulates.
4) Sankofa: Returning to Move Forward
Many people quote Sankofa. Few understand its depth.
Sankofa (Akan, Ghana): represented by a bird turning its head backward to lift an egg from its back. It means go back and fetch it.
The egg = what was dropped or stolen (land, voice, dignity, agency).
The turning back = the act of tracing how and why it was lost.
The retrieval = not nostalgia but structural repair.
👉 The Sankofa Protocol (field teaching):
Name the drop. What truth, power, or dignity was removed?
Trace the theft. Who took it? When? Through what systems?
Recover the egg. Restore ownership, authorship, or agency.
Re-root the practice. Rewrite budgets, policies, and processes around it.
Carry it forward. Ensure it circulates for the future.
Sankofa is not ornament. It is praxis. Without return, there is no forward.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you skip Sankofa, you will design “new” systems on old wounds. Retrieval must come before innovation.
5) Ontology: Differently the Same + Love as Sacred Practice
Ontology is the study of being itself — not what you do, not what you have, but what you are. It asks: Who are you before the roles and systems?
👉 Teaching moment: If philanthropy was distorted into hierarchy, ontology returns us to level ground. Being precedes role. Before “donor,” “recipient,” “staff,” or “board,” there is person.
Differently the same:
Our histories are different: some carry privilege, others trauma; some inherited wealth, others dispossession.
But our longings are the same: safety, joy, love, connection, belonging.
Ontology shows that I could just as easily be on the other side of the exchange. I am not better. I am differently the same.
Love as sacred practice:Love is not only emotion. It is systemized reverence for being. Philanthropia arranges budgets, donor visits, stewardship, and governance as rituals of respect. Each is a site where dignity can be upheld — or denied.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you do not ground in ontology, you will unconsciously re-create hierarchy. Advancement built only on tactics will always bend back toward saviorism. Ontology insists that fundraising begins with being, not role — with love as sacred practice, not performance.
6) Infinence™: The Spine of Philanthropia
Abundance has been co-opted. The nonprofit field says “abundance mindset” while cutting staff, hoarding board power, and chasing restricted dollars. That is scarcity in disguise.
Infinence™ is not mindset or branding. It is reality: abundance without limitation.
Properties of Infinence:
Unbounded — not capped by donor mood or annual target.
Nonstop — circulation never ceases.
Overflowing — flow that spills outward, feeding more than its source.
Circulatory — not just money but story, wisdom, time, healing, and connection.
Anti-hoarding — accumulation without outflow is stagnation.
Measurable — visible in reciprocity, mirroring, and ease.
When Infinence flows, advancement is not extraction but circulation. Scarcity is revealed as the lie it always was.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you settle for “abundance mindset,” you’ll still be in scarcity systems. Infinence is the only frame wide enough to carry Philanthropia.
7) Demographics in Motion: Generational, Global, Digital
The donor of the future is not one profile. They are plural. Advancement departments must learn to navigate with ease.
Generations: Elders bring legacy and ritual. Boomers anchor legacy giving. Gen X funds infrastructure. Millennials want transparency and shared experience. Gen Z expects justice, digital congruence, and participation. Gen Alpha will demand co-authorship.
Global & cultural practices: Ubuntu (relational wealth), Zakat (justice as obligation), Seva (sacred service), Potlatch (redistribution as honor), remittances (family-first transnational flows), mutual aid (horizontal networks).
Digital modalities: crowdfunding, giving circles, round-ups, and creator-driven patronage.
👉 Teaching moment: Philanthropia doesn’t flatten these differences; it holds them together as streams in one river. Institutions must be designed for plurality, not nostalgia.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If your advancement systems are built for one donor profile, you are already behind. Philanthropia equips you to hold multiple streams at once.
8) Teaching Giving as Practice
Philanthropia is not only a framework for advancement. It is also pedagogy. It teaches people how to give.
Donors: how to give with dignity, reciprocity, and humility — not performance.
Foundations: what to fund if they want to circulate Infinence, not control it.
Families, staff, and volunteers: how to name and honor their own contributions as giving.
Communities: how to see themselves not as recipients but as donors already — of time, wisdom, money, art, story, and care.
👉 Teaching moment: Philanthropia democratizes giving. Everyone is a donor. Everyone is a steward. Everyone participates in circulation.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: You are not only fundraisers; you are teachers. Every ask, every stewardship report, every grant narrative is a classroom. What you teach about giving now will shape the future of philanthropy itself.
9) Anatomy of the Organizational Body
An organization is a body. Every system has a role, and health comes from alignment and circulation.
Heart = Advancement (pumps circulation).
Blood = Infinence™ (carries dignity + resources).
Skeleton = Board (structure + produces blood).
Muscles = Staff (movement).
Nervous System = IT/Data (signals, must be ethical).
Lungs = Programs (inhale voice, exhale impact).
Digestive = Finance/Kitchen (turn inputs to energy).
Endocrine = Operations/Facilities (regulate balance).
Immune = Compliance/HR/Legal (protect from harm).
Reproductive = Innovation/Incubation (future creation).
Skin = Communications/Branding (what the world sees).
Excretory = Evaluation/Audit (filter waste).
Senses = Community Voice (eyes + ears).
Inputs & Partners:
Families = food + oxygen.
Volunteers = tendons + ligaments.
Donors = nutrients.
Community partners = other organs.
Government/policy = environment.
👉 Teaching moment: If circulation fails, the body weakens. The fix is not “more money” but healthier flow of Infinence through every system.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: Advancement is not just a department — it is a whole-body function. Infinence must circulate as blood through every system for the organization to thrive.
10) 🌧️ Infinence and the Rain
Although Philanthropia focuses on circulation — dignity, participation, reciprocity, healing — money still matters. But here is the shift: in Philanthropia, money is not the goal. It is the natural consequence of healthy flow.
When flow is healthy, the money comes.
Not as a scramble.
Not as a scarcity chase.
Not as another desperate gala.
It comes like rain.
The heavens open, and it pours. And it doesn’t just sprinkle — it rains and rains and rains. Overflowing. Nonstop. Unstoppable.
And when it rains like this, everything grows. Staff capacity grows. Donor joy grows. Family trust grows. Volunteer commitment grows. Vision grows. Because Infinence is circulatory: it waters every root, not just one.
👉 Teaching moment: Advancement leaders must unlearn the instinct to chase money. In Philanthropia, the paradox is this:
When money is the target, flow clogs.
When flow is the target, money is infinite.
And when Infinence flows, it rains — and everything grows.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: Stop chasing dollars. Build circulation. If you cultivate the flow, the rain will come.
11) Tech, Climate, and Policy
Philanthropia does not ignore the forces shaping the present. It reclaims them.
Tech & AI: In philanthropy, data is often exploitative. In Philanthropia, data must serve dignity — transparent, consensual, non-extractive. AI can predict giving trends, but it must never reduce humans to transactions.
Climate: The planetary crisis is also a philanthropic crisis. Philanthropia demands climate justice that sustains ecological as well as human dignity.
Policy as Philanthropia: Budgets are moral documents. Governments and corporations must embed Philanthropia into taxation, spending, and regulation. Infinence belongs in public systems, not just private donations.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you don’t account for tech ethics, climate realities, and policy frameworks, your advancement will be obsolete. Philanthropia ensures relevance in a changing world.
12) The Scarcity Diagnostic
This is not an accusation — it is an invitation to honesty.
Ask yourselves:
Are most dollars restricted, yet celebrated as wins?
Do families receive what was given, not what was asked?
Are volunteers invisible in your donor reports?
Does your board mirror those you serve?
Are you afraid to publish a plain-language ledger anyone could read?
If yes, you are not broken — but you are blocked. Philanthropia offers a way to unblock the flow.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: Without honest diagnostics, you can’t heal your systems. Scarcity left unexamined will keep circulating, no matter how good your campaigns look.
13) The Infinence Dashboard (Dignity + Dollars)
Traditional fundraising counts dollars.
Philanthropia measures both revenue and relationship: circulation, dignity, equity, sustainability, healing, innovation.
📊 Expanded Indicators:
% of staff, families, volunteers engaged in giving.
% of families reporting help aligned with their needs.
% of donors saying giving deepened connection.
% of board with lived experience.
Ratio of restricted to unrestricted.
Donor retention among volunteers.
Stories/testimonials showing differently the same.
Speed from idea to pilot innovation.
👉 These dashboards don’t replace revenue metrics — they expand them. They reveal whether Infinence circulates alongside money.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: If you only measure dollars, you’re blind to dignity. The dashboard expands your vision to include what actually sustains advancement.
14) Practice Library (what it looks like)
Events reimagined: roles rotate; families open, volunteers host, elders bless, youth emcee; donor segment sits with, not above.
Donor visits as mirror sessions: both parties speak origin stories and current edges; leave with a shared experiment, not a pledge script.
Grant proposals as dignity narratives: outcomes + consent + community authorship; budget includes care costs (childcare, translation, transportation).
Volunteer → donor on-ramp: every role includes a micro-gift invitation (“$3/month to sustain the tools you use”), framed as belonging, not obligation.
Board as bloodstream: each trustee sponsors a circle (youth, elders, diaspora, neighborhood) with budget and say.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: You can’t just teach Philanthropia — you have to live it. These practices give you a playbook to start moving from theory into action.
15) The Futures: If We Don’t Shift vs. If We Do
If we don’t apply Philanthropia
Brittleness increases. Transactions prop up appearances while trust collapses.
Donors migrate. Money flows to mutual aid, creators, and direct-to-people pipelines.
Communities disengage. “They don’t see us” becomes “We’re done.”
Austerity expands. Governments outsource care to thin nonprofits, then blame them for the gaps.
Talent exits. Staff refuse to carry systems that injure them.
If we practice Philanthropia (and Infinence flows)
Participation accelerates. People move from audience → authors.
Revenue stabilizes. More small streams, fewer single points of failure.
Belonging deepens. Dignity metrics lift retention across donors and staff.
Innovation becomes normal. Short cycles, honest retires, shared learnings.
Policy shifts. Budgets and bylaws start reflecting love of humankind, not fear of loss.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: The choice is clear. Keep operating in scarcity and you will lose trust, talent, and revenue. Practice Philanthropia and you gain resilience, dignity, and growth.
16) The 90-Day Field Move (Start Here)
Days 1–30: Reveal the current circulation
Publish the plain-language ledger (money, time, story, space).
Run the Scarcity Diagnostic with board + staff + community reps.
Launch two listening circles (youth + elders). Document what “help” should mean.
Days 31–60: Re-plumb the pipes
Convert one major restricted stream → unrestricted pilot with a donor willing to learn.
Add micro-memberships and round-up flows; enable volunteer opt-in giving.
Seat an intergenerational pair on allocation; require co-sign for one visible decision.
Days 61–90: Show the work
Ship your first Infinence Dashboard publicly.
Rebuild one flagship event as a gathered circle (participatory agenda, co-hosting roles, live ledger).
Codify the Sankofa Protocol into policy (bylaws amendment draft, data consent addendum, community authorship clause).
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: You don’t need to wait. These moves let you start embodying Philanthropia now — within 90 days — and prove to your community that change is real.
17) Is There Another Way?
There are adjacent moves:
Trust-based philanthropy (good, often under-powered without structural change).
Participatory grantmaking (power-sharing on the allocation end; still needs culture + revenue redesign).
Impact investing (can shift capital; can also repackage extraction).
Mutual aid (proof of speed and dignity; dismissed as “unsustainable” by institutions that have never tried to sustain it).
Community-Centric Fundraising (a vital and growing movement that asks fundraisers to center equity, community, and shared power in every advancement practice).
Philanthropia is not a competitor to these — it’s the ontological container that makes them coherent, ethical, and durable.
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: You can’t just add a buzzword or tweak a practice. Without Philanthropia as the container, every “new model” risks becoming scarcity in a new costume.
18) The Call
Philanthropia is not charity.
It is not reform.
It is return — to love of humankind — and revision — of the systems that forgot.
We are differently the same.
We choose Sankofa as protocol, not poetry.
We move by Infinence — abundance without limitation — or we do not move at all.
Claim: Philanthropia raises more money over time.
Because people fund what honors them.
Because flow beats hoard.
Because dignity compounds.
Scarcity systems are brittle.
Philanthropia systems circulate.
This is how we heal distortion.
This is how we fund a shared future.
This is Philanthropia.
This is how the heavens open. This is how it rains. And it rains and rains and rains. And everything grows. 🌧️
➡️ Why this matters to advancement leaders today: This is the choice in front of you. You can stay in brittle scarcity systems, or you can circulate Philanthropia. If you choose Philanthropia, prepare for rain — and prepare for growth.
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