As part of the kick-off event for the lecture series, Kirsten Korte and Dr. Volker Then will introduce the topic of the lecture series. The project, in the context of which the lecture series takes place, investigates the questions of giving, endowment and collecting in a historical and cross-cultural manner. There are differences, but also continuities and constants. Dr Then will report on this from the project context and thus provide the background for the question of universal cultural and social practice. Ms. Korte's focus, on the other hand, is on the foundations of the present, their importance and diversity. It will also establish a connection to the Rhein-Neckar metropolitan region, which is why it is the series' cooperation partner. Both will answer questions and discuss with the virtual audience.

For the second lecture series session, we are pleased to welcome Prof. Anne-Claire Pache, Professor at the ESSEC Business School in Paris. Prof. Pache will talk to us about philanthropy in France in the 21st century. In France, since the French Revolution of 1789 skepticism towards institutions of the dead hand predominated to say the least. At the beginning of the 21^st century though, reform steps changed that picture. What has contributed to this re-appraisal and to the last approximately 15 years of dynamic philanthropic development in France? And what kind of dynamics have been sparked off by this historic change?

Cultural philanthropy represents a very interesting field of inquiry as it involves apparently contrasting human behaviors (collecting/giving) and many hybrid forms of organizations such as public museum foundations or public corporate collections. The lecture explores some emerging questions regarding the world of cultural philanthropy: when and why collecting becomes an act of philanthropy? How cultural philanthropy is organized in Western societies? What should be the role of governments in cultural philanthropy? Is cultural turbo-philanthropy threatening free expression and creativity in the arts field? To explore these questions the lecture will present recent research and case studies from Europe and the US.

The lecture consists of three parts. The first part is dedicated to trends, norms and narratives that have developed around philanthropy in (North) America since the beginning of the 21st century. In the second part, some of the problematics of (North) American philanthropy will be discussed on the basis of a predominantly internationally active, but also internationally respected foundation that was established at the beginning of the 21st century - the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Finally, the third part will touch on and exploratively discuss the question of what short-term and/or possibly lasting effects the Covid-19 pandemic will have on the practice of philanthropy in the U.S.A.

Tamil Nadu, in South India, is home to many Hindu temples, built in stone, whose walls are covered with inscriptions, most of which date from the ninth to thirteenth centuries. These inscriptions are in many cases records of gifts – of land, livestock, cash, precious metals – that were made to the temple to support various services, temple personnel, and additions to the temple complex. My presentation will consider the identities of the donors, and their motives and methods of patronage; the relationships established through gift-giving; and the question of how and why their gifts were recorded, engraved in stone.