HistPhil
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HistPhil is a web publication on the history of the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, with a particular emphasis on how history can shed light on contemporary philanthropic issues and practice. In founding and editing this blog, we hope to foster humanistically oriented discussion and debate on the sector and to bring together scholars, nonprofit practitioners, and philanthropists in common..
HistPhil
2d ago
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 voice in university affairs.” Activist donors with their “new playbook” have used unrest on campus as an opportunity to advance a distinctive set of institutional reforms.
Their ambitious goal to change a university’s culture as well as it ..read more
HistPhil
1M ago
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 for documenting and learning from philanthropy’s role in social change—including for foundations that remain open and active, but that either exit or modify work in a particular field or region. By the time private foundations tell ..read more
HistPhil
1M ago
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 as a religious occasion as well as a seasonal observance marking the end of the winter season and the advent of a new beginning. The festival is celebrated all over India and the festivities are known by different names in diffe ..read more
HistPhil
2M ago
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 Lilly Family School of Philanthropy to integrate research with practice in the Ugandan nonprofit sector. At the same time, I am keen to bring a Ugandan perspective to understanding the broader concept of ph ..read more
HistPhil
2M ago
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 pursue my doctoral studies in political science. Although I had previously lived in several foreign countries, the culture shock I experienced in America was the most unforgettable. The country is powerful and wealthy, but it is also highly unequal. In America, it is common t ..read more
HistPhil
4M ago
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 related crowdfunding campaigns, which give the public a chance to quickly and easily help those impacted. This kind of “person-to-person” giving puts money directly into the hands of people in need and allows t ..read more
HistPhil
6M ago
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 ultimately a question that led me to dedicate the last several years to researching and practicing a unique approach to teaching philanthropy commonly referred to as “experiential philanthropy.”
Experiential Philanthropy
Experien ..read more
HistPhil
7M ago
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 issues and phenomena relating to the study of philanthropy in China, building upon current literature, as well as my own research and experiences as a scholar working in Beijing.
First, there are several different concepts related to philanthropy ..read more
HistPhil
7M ago
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 large amounts of money to formal, not-for-profit organizations. This happens to me when I visit the USA, where I am from, as much as it happens in Vietnam, where I have worked since 2002. The tendency to focus on elites and formal institutions does not ..read more
HistPhil
8M ago
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 the world, people dedicate their time and emotions, invest work and energy, and give money and other material resources to help other people or improve life in their communities. Sometimes they do it through organizati ..read more