Many of us understand what philanthropy is and consider it to be ‘charitable giving’ to those in need. We may even go so far as to recognize the need behind it to elevate the welfare of other people and worthy causes. But the true depth and significance of the word requires a deeper look into its origins and various meanings.

Linguistically, the word means, love for humanity, as in protecting, developing and enriching human potential. Nowadays, we consider developing human potential to be improving people’s quality of life, and consider philanthropy to be private giving for the public good. This is opposed to government giving, which is public giving for the public good.

A few main ideas of the definition of the word come from John Gardner, who sees philanthropy as, private initiatives for the public good, Robert Payton, who considers philanthropy to be, voluntary action for the public good, and Robert Bremner, who sees its goal as improving our quality of life.

The general consensus is the playwright who wrote Prometheus Bound is the one who coined the word. In the play, the author wrote about these basic ‘creatures’ who are to be turned into humans. The Greek God Zeus is bent on annihilating them, but a Titan names Prometheus gives them the gifts that allow them to save themselves. Prometheus’ name means ‘humanity-loving’, and hence the word began.

We can break down the Greek word into two Greek words, philos and anthropos, the first meaning, loving, caring for and nurturing, and the latter meaning, humanity. In the play, the time period means that individual people didn’t exist yet, since there was no culture. Therefore, what Prometheus fought for and loved was not particular people, but rather humanity as a whole and what we can accomplish, i.e. human potential.

The Greek word that was derived from Prometheus Bound became an ideal that the Greeks sought, this love of humanity and the development of human potential. The Romans, some time later, translated the Greek word philanthropia into the Latin word humanitas, which means humane-ness.

Although these explanations and various definitions can explain the word philanthropy, we can see something even deeper inside, which is to love all that it means to be human. Every last aspect and bit of ourselves. While the definitions are philosophical, they also bring forth ethics and morals into the equation. The idea is that we can become more humane, and thus human in the process, by striving toward excellence in three main areas – body, mind and spirit.