A philanthropy expert has called for “new rules for good” while criticising the traditional approach to philanthropy as too measurement-based.

Speaking at a London lecture yesterday, American philanthropy expert Lucy Bernholz said that the fixation on providing data and measurement to major and regular donors has perhaps had its day.

“Philanthropy is a business of passion,” she said. “We’ve lost sight of that.”

“We have been trying to rationalise philanthropy as if it’s book-selling,” she said. “It’s inhuman to give based on data or metrics.”

Bernholz said that the ability of new technology to re-introduce more human elements into giving, cutting out the charity as mediator and allowing donors direct access to beneficiaries, is “potentially a game-changer” for philanthropy.

“We’re really trying to write some new sheet music,” she said.

Like the UK, Bernholz’s native US has not seen an increase in individual giving as a percentage of income over the past decades. She was, however, optimistic about the potential value of social investment, “a new form of good”, to change this stasis and create “new money for good”. In order to release this “good” investment, she added, there needs to be “new rules for good” which would cover tax law, corporation law, intellectual property and so on.

While admitting to not having made it through the entire Giving Green Paper, Bernholz said that the UK seemed to be heading in the right direction.

The lecture was organised by the Big Society Network, NCVO, the Guardian and Steve Bridger.