Moving on from definitions

I read the latest edition of Alliance on my way home from this year’s European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) conference in Frankfurt. I was struck from your publication and the EVPA event by how much time seems to be spent arguing over definitions, in particular whether venture philanthropy is new or not and over the implied assertion that venture philanthropy is somehow better than traditional grantmaking.

I would like to build on a comment made at the EVPA event by Gerry Salole of the European Foundation Centre when he said that the issue we should really be talking about is smart philanthropy versus not very smart philanthropy – there are examples from across the board. Can we just leave the arguments at that and move on?!