Blog

U.S. foundation funding for philanthropic infrastructure outside the U.S. is declining, but we need a strong global philanthropy support ecosystem now more than ever

Posted on by Larry McGill

Earlier this month, the Foundation Center published a report detailing the latest available data on U.S. foundation funding for nonprofit and philanthropic infrastructure. The research spans twelve years and analyzes 21,148 infrastructure-related grants made by 881 funders to 511 organizations in 30 countries. What did we find and what do the findings mean for our collective efforts…

Transformative…but for good or ill? Corporate philanthropy in India in the era of mandatory CSR

Posted on by Alliance

Andrew Milner examines the scale, impact, limitations, and pitfalls of Indian corporate philanthropy five years since the introduction of mandatory CSR contributions. Over the last five years, Indian corporate philanthropy has been transformed by the introduction of mandatory CSR contributions for companies over a certain size, so much so that, to all intents and purposes,…

A message to our future president about national philanthropy and the role of civil society in protecting the Amazon region

Posted on by Ana Toni

Protecting the Amazon is not a ‘plot’ of international philanthropy. A few days have passed since Brazil elected, with more than 55 per cent of the vote, the former Capitan Jair Bolsonaro, the ultra-right-wing candidate. When the PSJP published its report about Brazilian philanthropy in May this year, probably none of the contributors expected this…

The strange case of dignity

Posted on by Barry Knight

We need to build the capacity of actors on the ground to deliver an empowering strategy for users and beneficiaries, while satisfying the needs of multiple stakeholders, so that we can deliver our sustainable goals in accord with our vision and mission to foster human dignity. I wrote the above sentence in a 20-second stream…

Increasing retail fundraising in India

Posted on by Irwin Fernandes

India’s middle classes and donations from them have been growing at a rapid pace. According to PSJP’s report on Philanthropy in India, published in October 2017, ‘this may be the biggest story in Indian philanthropy, and the area with the greatest potential’.This growth in funds being raised has been fuelled by international and Indian NGOs…

The Development Set and its role in perpetuating poverty

Posted on by Gerry Salole

Many working in the ‘development set’ have been grappling with the failure of philanthropy and development to have any significant impact on the most pressing problems facing the world including inequality and poverty. In this article Gerry Salole analyses some of the ‘conscious and unconscious vested interests in the development and philanthropic sectors’ that cause him to…

Impact is not limited to big philanthropy

Posted on by India Development Review

The Philanthropy in India report by Caroline Hartnell, published in October 2017, notes that the most promising aspect of new philanthropy in the country is the rise of giving by middle-class individual donors. However, the report also notes the lack of philanthropy infrastructure is hindering the growth of philanthropy in India. While ‘large philanthropists are supported by…

The (continuing) enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Posted on by Andrew Milner

Most of us (by ‘us’ I loosely mean those who are steadily employed in the philanthropy sector) are not poor, but we write and talk about poverty. Many of us are middle-aged or beyond, but we write and talk about young people. We cudgel our brains to understand social movements and how to reach them,…