Philanthropy is either undying and well timed. old Romans, Medieval aristocrats, and Victorian industrialists engaged in philanthropy, as do modern day chinese language billionaires, South African activists, and Brazilian nuns. this present day, philanthropic perform is evolving swifter than ever sooner than, with donors giving their time, skills, and social capital in artistic new methods and together with their monetary assets. those advancements are producing complicated new debates and including new twists to enduring questions, from "why be philanthropic?" to "what does it suggest to do philanthropy ‘better’?" Addressing such questions calls for higher knowing of the contested function and numerous perform of philanthropy.

With a global and interdisciplinary concentration, The Philanthropy Reader serves as a one-stop source that brings jointly crucial and fascinating extracts from key texts and significant thinkers, and frames those in a manner that captures the historic improvement, middle options, perennial debates, worldwide succeed in, and up to date developments of this box. The ebook contains nearly a hundred seminal and illuminating writings approximately philanthropy, equipping readers with the guiding fabric they should larger seize the sort of the most important but complicated and evolving subject. extra readings and dialogue questions additionally accompany the textual content as on-line supplements.

This textual content should be crucial examining for college kids on philanthropy classes around the globe, and also will be of curiosity to somebody lively within the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors — from donors and grantmakers, to advisers and fundraisers.