New post: Catherine Milton, the first executive director of the Commission on National and Community Service (which laid the foundation for AmeriCorps), recounts the creation of the agency.
histphil.org/2024/04/09/cre…

Who are the precedents to today's activist-alumni higher ed donors? A recent HistPhil post argued they were a contemp phenom, but Joan Johnson suggests we look to 19th & 20th C. feminist donors. Doing so compels us to rethink what donor coercion means.
histphil.org/2024/04/01/wha…

Richard Trollinger & John Thelin, scholars of philanthropy & higher ed, seek to place the recent higher ed 'donor revolt' in historical context. How new is what the NYT called the 'new playbook' being used by donors like Bill Ackman and Marc Rowan?
histphil.org/2024/03/27/his…

Jonathan Cohen introduces the Health & Human Rights Oral History Project, a new collection of oral histories documenting 30 yrs of investment in the field of global public health by George Soros's Open Society Foundations, housed at USC Digital Library.
histphil.org/2024/02/27/usi…

Shaivya Verma and Divya Chopra, researchers at Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy, Ashoka University, discuss a path-breaking longitudinal study of household giving patterns in India the Centre led & detail findings from two reports based on it.
histphil.org/2024/02/21/how…

What is the classical concept of 'Magnificence,' & how does it relate to 'munificence,' or the more modern 'philanthropy?' And what does that relation tell us abt the one btw private wealth & the public good? Guido Alfani explains, based on his new book.
histphil.org/2024/02/19/mag…

New post: Dennis Kilama continues HistPhil‘s forum on the Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy, with a perspective from Uganda, and on a tradition of giving as doing AND being--as a form of gift and presence.
https:// histphil.org/2024/01/29/giv…

New HistPhil post: Jae Yeon Kim @jaeyeonkim.bsky.social on SNF Agora Institute's research on the uneven associational landscape of civic opportunity in the United States.
histphil.org/2024/01/25/the…

New HistPhil post: Jeremy Snyder examines the often invisible role of crowdfunding platforms as charitable intermediaries.
histphil.org/2023/11/29/the…

ICYMI: new research report from HistPhil co-editor Benjamin Soskis on the history of charitable & philanthropic cause pluralism, and on the recent turn toward prescription and cause prioritization. Look out for a possible forum on pluralism in the coming months
urban.org/sites/default/…

Experiential philanthropy, a pedagogy that allows students to actively engage in philanthropic decision-making, has grown in popularity lately, but largely restricted to Global North. Lindsey M. McDougle writes abt her experience leading a class in Tanzania
histphil.org/2023/10/05/glo…

Yongzheng Yang continues HistPhil‘s Inclusive Study of Global Philanthropy forum. He argues research on Chinese philanthropy needs to pay specific attn to multitude of understandings of giving, the strong role of informal giving & the political context.
histphil.org/2023/09/11/und…

New HistPhil post in our forum on an inclusive study of global philanthropy. Dana RH Doan offers a perspective from Vietnam & the USA and asks: Where is the love in philanthropy research?
histphil.org/2023/08/24/whe…

Bojana Radovanović continues HistPhil's forum on an inclusive study of global philanthropy, offering perspectives from Serbia histphil.org/2023/08/02/an-…

New post in HistPhil's forum on the inclusive study of global philanthropy: Cassandra Chapman & Sana Nakata urge scholars to 'take the colonial context seriously' when studying generosity “down under” & attend to richness of Indigenous giving traditions. histphil.org/2023/07/27/stu…

We're excited to begin a new HistPhil forum on an inclusive study of global philanthropy. Dr. Pamala Wiepking, who helped organize it, leads things off, addressing need to overcome definitional, cultural & geographical boundaries in the study of giving & generosity. histphil.org/2023/07/25/an-…

How did GoFundMe become the 'giving layer of the internet'? And how did its own mission & strategies change along the way? Matt Wade explores the platform's growth & the challenges it has faced, based on a recent article.
histphil.org/2023/07/17/how…

Civil society by the numbers? Nonprofits, accountability, and the creative politics of quantitative discipline. New HistPhil post from aaron horvath
histphil.org/2023/06/13/civ…

Are you wondering just how old the study of US philanthropy really is?

Our Law and Society panel on US philanthropy last week inspired me to stay up late tonight & update this HistPhil post on just how old and diverse the study of US philanthropy really is:

histphil.org/2020/06/12/upd…

'These foundations (Rockefeller, Ford) promoted behavioralism in political science and cultivated academic expertise in international relations—all believed to help the United States win the Cold War.'

Emily Hauptmann's 'Foundations and American Political Science'.