Hello,
Not directly about Wikipedia, sorry :-)
I have a vocabulary question... and Wikipedia was not able to help me !!!
In French, we have a term "mécénat" which refers to the act for a person or a company to financially support a creator.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9c%C3%A9nat
This word exist in other languages, but there is apparently no english article. In our definition, Foundation (such as the Ford or the Gates Foundation) are mécènes, but a commercial company can also be directly a mécène.
We also use the term "sponsor" (or parrainage), which is a direct translation of the english term sponsor.
The definition of a "mécène" is not so different from the definition of a sponsor, though the French article hints that the "mecène" does that for philanthropic reasons, whilst the sponsor does that for commercial reasons. Except that within the articles, in both cases, it notices that both mécène and sponsors get financial benefits (deductibility etc...) and that both mécène and sponsors get benefits in terms of image. So, I guess it is sometimes a bit tricky to know when a gift is a "mécenat" and when it is "sponsoring". But still, we try to make the differenciation. For WMF, the recent big donations would be "mécénat", whilst those giving money for Wikimania (with public recognition, thank yous, logo display etc...) are "sponsors".
My question (yes, there is a question): do you really have no term to describe "mécénat" as the lack of Wikipedia article seem to suggest ? If there is no term, would "philanthropic activity" fit both the concept for an organisation OR a unique person ?