I think most of us are philanthropists. Think of it this way... Teacher Robert Payton and his student Michael Moody write: "Through philanthropy, donors and volunteers express their moral (and sometimes spiritual) values and make public their moral opinions on how the world can be made better... Individuals and groups express their values, advocate for their visions of the public good, work to achieve their missions, and find meaning, purpose, and hope in life through philanthropy" (2008, p. 98). If you take this to be true, Mother Hale who found her life's work, caring for drug-addicted infants, in her twilight years joins Andrew Carnegie who donated thousands of libraries to our communities. The teenager who spends two months of Saturdays building a Habitat house joins Jane Addams who founded the Settlement House movement. The family living at the poverty line who takes in, feeds and clothes a neighbor's child because of his parent's incarceration joins Angelina Jolie as she advocates internationally against land mines. Philanthropy offers an umbrella of humanitarian living that is both as individual as our passions and as universal as focusing on what benefits the many. It connects service and giving (no matter how small or large the monetary gift) and the use of our talents to make the world better. Why should the term be reserved for an elite few when these actions are as inherently a part of the human condition as curiousity, creativity, self-preservation, and the need for meaning. It is a beautiful part of the human fabric that binds us across class, ethnicity, national boundaries, and often even across ideology.