Latest Entries
The Enduring Political Strength of Nonprofits: A Response to Kuttner
Current Events and Philanthropy / Philanthropy and the State

The Enduring Political Strength of Nonprofits: A Response to Kuttner

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Editors’ Note: Jeffrey Berry responds to a recent article by Robert Kuttner in the American Prospect, “The Left’s Fragile Foundations,” by arguing that, in many ways, those foundations are more secure than contemporary alarms would suggest. We live in such a polarized and partisan era, that it is easy to overlook the distinctive political role … Continue reading →

Bednets, Communion Plates, Scraps of Paper: Telling Stories About the History of Philanthropy Through Objects
Archives and Knowledge Management / New Works in the Field / Philanthropy and Historical Research

Bednets, Communion Plates, Scraps of Paper: Telling Stories About the History of Philanthropy Through Objects

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Editors’ Note: Amanda Moniz introduces a recent special issue of The Public Historian, which she guest-edited, exploring material culture as a methodology for the history of philanthropy. What are your storytelling goals?, a thoughtful philanthropy professional asked not long ago. I’ve been asked versions of that question repeatedly since joining the staff of the Smithsonian’s … Continue reading →

The General Purpose Foundation as a Mode of Capital
New Works in the Field / Philanthropy

The General Purpose Foundation as a Mode of Capital

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Editors’ Note: Sam Gill provides an outline of a new theory of the general purpose foundation, adapted from a recently published article in The Foundation Review, “Why Foundations? The Theory and Strategy of the General-Purpose Foundation.” Much of the important theorizing about general-purpose foundations over the history of this strange animal in the American institutional … Continue reading →

Crowded Out: The Dark Side of Crowdfunding Healthcare and its Historical Precedents
Crowdfunding / New Works in the Field

Crowded Out: The Dark Side of Crowdfunding Healthcare and its Historical Precedents

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Editors’ Note: The following is excerpted, with minor adaptations, from Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare by Nora Kenworthy. Reprinted with permission from The MIT Press. Copyright © 2024. When users consider starting a GoFundMe campaign, they are bombarded by messages of opportunity. The company has good reason to present crowdfunding as a marketplace of … Continue reading →

Calls for Papers

Call for Contributors for six-volume History of Philanthropy (Bloomsbury)

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Editors’ Note: We pass along this call for contributors to a six-volume History of Philanthropy, to be published with Bloomsbury Press in March 2028, and edited by HistPhil contributor Thomas Adam. Call for Contributors for six-volume History of Philanthropy to be edited by Thomas Adam and published with Bloomsbury Press in March 2028 We are … Continue reading →

Aiding Ireland: The Politics of How Donors Learned to Give to Far-Off Strangers
New Works in the Field

Aiding Ireland: The Politics of How Donors Learned to Give to Far-Off Strangers

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Editors’ Note: Anelise Hanson Shrout introduces HistPhil readers to her new book, Aiding Ireland: The Great Famine and the Rise of Transnational Philanthropy (NYU Press, 2024). On St. Patrick’s Day, 2024, a group of historians appealed to Irish Americans to agitate for humanitarian relief in Gaza, to “use their influence to avert a Famine as … Continue reading →

What Can We Learn from Women Philanthropists as Precedents for Alumni Education Donors and their Push for Power Today
Current Events and Philanthropy / Philanthropy and Education

What Can We Learn from Women Philanthropists as Precedents for Alumni Education Donors and their Push for Power Today

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Editors’ Notes: Looking for historical precedents to today’s “aggressive” alumni donors, John Thelin and Richard Trollinger wrote recently on HistPhil that “the aggressive alumnus as major donor and activist is a product of our own times.” Challenging this thesis, Joan Marie Johnson reminds us that “prominent white women philanthropists” in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century United … Continue reading →

Historicizing Ackman: Searching for Precedents of the Higher Education “Donor Revolt”
Philanthropy / Philanthropy and Education / Philanthropy in the News

Historicizing Ackman: Searching for Precedents of the Higher Education “Donor Revolt”

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Editors’ Note: John Thelin and Richard Trollinger, two scholars of philanthropy and higher education, put the recent higher education “donor revolt” in historical perspective. Recent campus conflicts at elite American universities, The New York Times declared in a recent article, signal a “new politics of power” in which “wealthy donors expect money to buy a … Continue reading →

Using Oral History in Public Health Philanthropy: The Health and Human Rights Oral History Project
Archives and Knowledge Management / Oral History/Testimonies

Using Oral History in Public Health Philanthropy: The Health and Human Rights Oral History Project

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Editors’ Note: Jonathan E. Cohen introduces the Health and Human Rights Oral History Project, a new collection of oral histories documenting thirty years of investment in the field of global public health by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, housed at the University of Southern California Digital Library. Oral history offers a powerful and underutilized tool … Continue reading →

How India Gives: A First-of-its-Kind Longitudinal Study on Household Giving in India
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum

How India Gives: A First-of-its-Kind Longitudinal Study on Household Giving in India

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Editors’ Notes: Shaivya Verma and Divya Chopra outline the findings from two reports on household giving patterns in India, from the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Ashoka University. This post continues HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy. January was marked by Makar Sankranti celebrations in India, a harvest festival celebrated … Continue reading →

Magnificence: from Lorenzo de’ Medici to J.P. Morgan – and beyond?
New Works in the Field

Magnificence: from Lorenzo de’ Medici to J.P. Morgan – and beyond?

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Editors’ Note: Guido Alfani explores the concept of the ideal of “magnificence” and situates it in relation to “munificence” and “philanthropy,” based on a discussion in his new book, As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West (Princeton University Press, 2023). Why was Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-1492) called “the Magnificent”? Because … Continue reading →

Giving as Doing and Being: A Ugandan Perspective
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum

Giving as Doing and Being: A Ugandan Perspective

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Editors’ Note: Dennis Kilama continues HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy, with a perspective from Uganda. This post is adapted from a post first published by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. After 15 years of active involvement in the nonprofit sector in Uganda, I joined the Ph.D. program at the IU … Continue reading →

The Uneven Landscape of Civic Opportunity in the United States: What We Discovered While Mapping the Modern Agora
New Works in the Field / Political Scientists and Philanthropy

The Uneven Landscape of Civic Opportunity in the United States: What We Discovered While Mapping the Modern Agora

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Editors’ Note: Jae Yeon Kim introduces the research he has conducted, along with other colleagues at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, on the uneven associational landscape of civic opportunity in the United States. I was born and raised in South Korea and came to the United States about a decade ago to … Continue reading →

The Complications of Crowdfunding: The Power of Unseen Intermediaries
Crowdfunding

The Complications of Crowdfunding: The Power of Unseen Intermediaries

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Editors’ Note: Jeremy Snyder discusses the role of crowdfunding platforms as charitable intermediaries, based on his new book, Appealing to the Crowd: The Ethical, Political, and Practical Dimensions of Donation-Based Crowdfunding (Oxford University Press, 2023). After natural disasters, high profile tragedies, and other major news events, it is now commonplace to see a proliferation of … Continue reading →

Global Experiential Philanthropy: A Pedagogical Approach for Developing the Next Generation of Philanthropists Around the World
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum

Global Experiential Philanthropy: A Pedagogical Approach for Developing the Next Generation of Philanthropists Around the World

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Editors’ Note: Lindsey McDougle continues HistPhil’s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy, with a post on an experiential philanthropy class in Tanzania. How do young people develop philanthropic identities—identities that empower them to make a meaningful contribution to their own communities? This is a question that I’ve often thought about; and it is … Continue reading →

Understanding Philanthropy in China: Challenges and Opportunities
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum / Uncategorized

Understanding Philanthropy in China: Challenges and Opportunities

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Editors’ Note: Yongzheng Yang continues HistPhil‘s Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum, with a focus on the study of philanthropy in China. Although philanthropy is generally defined as voluntary action for the public good, the inherent meaning and understanding of such a concept varies by country or culture. In this post I will share several … Continue reading →

Where is the love? Philanthropy research in Vietnam and the USA
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum

Where is the love? Philanthropy research in Vietnam and the USA

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Editors’ Note: Dana Doan continues HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy, with a perspective from Vietnam and the United States. When people find out that I study philanthropy, I feel compelled to have a conversation about the term to prevent them from jumping to the conclusion that I research elite individuals donating … Continue reading →

An inclusive study of global philanthropy: Perspectives from Serbia
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum

An inclusive study of global philanthropy: Perspectives from Serbia

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Editors’ Note: Bojana Radovanović continues HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy. In academic discourse, philanthropy is most often identified with donating money and volunteering time to charitable organizations. However, I believe, such an understanding does not exhaust the concept of philanthropy and the variety of forms in which it appears. All over … Continue reading →

Studying generosity “down under”: Taking the colonial context seriously
Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum

Studying generosity “down under”: Taking the colonial context seriously

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Editors’ Note: Cassandra Chapman and Sana Nakata continue HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy. All dimensions of life in Australia and New Zealand have been shaped by the experience of British colonisation. “Down under” is a colloquial term born from colonial politics of geography. The British “motherland” has been the key reference … Continue reading →