If a person, a company, or a group is philanthropic, they give money and help to people who are poor, sick, or in trouble. People also use it for giving that is meant to serve the public — schools, hospitals, museums. It is a formal adjective; you will see it in news about rich donors and big organisations more than in kitchen talk. Though actually, speakers argue about the stretch: funding a famous university is still called philanthropic in the papers, even when some listeners feel that is not quite the same as feeding people who are hungry. The giving is supposed to look like a gift, not a trade.