At its core, charity is about help, about meeting urgent needs. Philanthropy, though, is about change. Philanthropy is focused, not on symptoms, but on root causes. It is systemic, not episodic; proactive rather than reactive. In short, the goal of philanthropy is not so much to provide assistance or service; rather, it seeks to permanently alter the conditions that make assistance necessary.
-Jamie Merisotis President and CEO of Lumina Foundation,