I've always believed that "mécénat" is patronage. But if you want to use it in a modern and financial context then sponsorship is the most appropriate term.
Yes, "philanthropic activity" fit both the concept for an organization AND a unique person. You got individual (i.e. Florence Kelley) and the most common corporate or private philanthropic activities.
P.S. both Florence Kelly, philanthropy and patronage are mentioned in the same page herehttp://books.google.com/books?id=JG3ceLmdnbgC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=Kelley,+Florence+philanthropy&source=web&ots=Al-nHNV3uJ&sig=xNZVTfH5XXnZHpI_Z7hpsoo6oXM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result:)
Fayssal F.
On Thu, 4 Sep 2008 20:47:53 +1000 Angela beesley@gmail.com wrote: Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] vocabulary To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: 8b722b800809040347u1473a8bdl85b81b53d7bed3a0@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 8:01 PM, Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com wrote:
2008/9/4 Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com:
The definition of a "m?c?ne" is not so different from the definition of a sponsor, though the French article hints that the "mec?ne" does that for philanthropic reasons, whilst the sponsor does that for commercial reasons.
The traditional distinction would be "patron" ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage has an interlanguage link to M?c?nat. Not sure if the lack of a link the other way is deliberate or not.
Angela