Philanthropy has always carried the promise of change. But in much of the world, philanthropy still works like it did a century ago: a cheque is written, a grant is disbursed and, months later, a report arrives. What fails is timing and accountability. Funds crawl through bureaucracy while emergencies unfold in real time. The donor feels good but the family in crisis often remains untouched.
This isn’t because philanthropists don’t care. The problem is that the system is designed for symbolism, not speed. In a world where illness and poverty can collapse households overnight, that lag is inefficient and lethal.
The limits of cheque book giving
Global philanthropy is vast. In 2022 alone, private giving totalled more than $811 billion, according to the Global Philanthropy Tracker. To put that in perspective, Helpster’s average life-saving intervention costs about $230. If just 0.1% of that global giving were deployed with Helpster’s speed and precision, it could fund life-saving care for around 3.5 million people each year.
Yet the outcomes still fall far short of what such generosity should achieve, and the reason lies in how money moves.
Slow disbursement: Traditional grant cycles run on months-long timelines while emergencies unfold in hours.
Layered bureaucracy: By the time funds reach frontline providers, administrative deductions and intermediaries have eaten into impact.
Opaque reporting: Donors often have little visibility into where their money went, breeding detachment and distrust.
Thus, philanthropy remains generous but disconnected, better at funding conferences and initiatives than stopping preventable deaths.
A sector that missed its tech moment
Every major industry has been reshaped by technology. Banking is no longer defined by the teller’s desk. Getting a ride no longer depends on catching a cab at the curb. But philanthropy has barely budged.
Consider health. Half of the world’s population, 4.5 billion people, still lack access to essential health services, according to the World Health Organisation. In Nigeria, fewer than 1 in 10 citizens are enrolled in health insurance. In Bangladesh, 73% of health spending comes directly out of patients’ pockets, pushing over 6 million people into poverty in a single year. These are daily emergencies, not abstract gaps.
And yet, when a crisis hits, philanthropic money still trickles instead of flows. A sector that commands billions cannot afford to move slower than the technology in our pockets.
The case for a tech upgrade
A tech-enabled philanthropy digitises donations and re-engineers the system. Done well, it looks like this:
Real-time case identification: patients in need are flagged immediately through hospital and community networks.
Strict verification: cases are vetted for poverty and urgency, ensuring resources reach those at the brink.
Direct disbursement: funds move straight to providers, cutting out middlemen.
Radical transparency: every dollar can be traced from donor to hospital invoice.
The result is philanthropy that acts more like a safety net than a ceremony.
Helpster as proof of concept
This is not theoretical. Helpster Charity has shown what happens when philanthropy is rebuilt for speed, transparency and scale.
Operating in Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, Helpster identifies patients who cannot afford urgent treatment. Volunteers and hospitals submit cases via its platform. Each is verified through medical records, poverty assessments and urgency checks.
When approved, payment is processed through Helpster’s digital platform and transferred straight to the hospital’s verified account, ensuring funds never pass through intermediaries or patients. Patients are admitted without delay or debt. The average cost of intervention is about $230, a cost that would push a poor household into crisis but is sustainable when pooled by donors. Support is reserved only for life-saving or life-changing cases.
This rigour creates confidence. Hospitals know bills will be paid. Donors know their money isn’t vanishing into overhead. Families know survival isn’t conditional on income.
So far, Helpster has saved over 2,300 lives. That is a modest dent in a global crisis but it is proof that philanthropy can be immediate, verifiable and efficient.
Why timing matters
The call for urgency isn’t rhetorical. According to the 2023 Global Monitoring Report on Financial Protection in Health, about 1.3 billion people were pushed or further pushed into poverty by out-of-pocket health spending. When a mother in Bangladesh faces maternal complications or a child in Kenya struggles with pneumonia, survival depends on how fast money moves.
The philanthropic sector cannot keep operating as though delays are harmless. They are not. They are the difference between treatment and burial.
From symbolism to systems
Philanthropy has always excelled at grand gestures: endowment funds, naming rights, photo ops with big cheques. But the families who live or die on the margins need something less glamorous and more functional. They need systems that respond in real time.
The challenge, then, is not a lack of money. It is a lack of modernisation. Younger philanthropists, digital natives, already expect transparency and speed in everything they do. If the sector doesn’t adapt, it risks losing both credibility and relevance.
The next frontier
Helpster’s goal is to scale. That requires strategic partnerships with governments, foundations and businesses willing to embrace a model that values speed and accountability as much as generosity.
The path forward is clear. The old model of writing cheques and waiting for reports belongs to the past. The future of philanthropy is real-time, tech-driven and radically transparent.
Stanley Olisa is the PR Manager for Helpster Charity, a global tech-driven nonprofit enhancing healthcare access for vulnerable populations across Africa and Asia.
