Understanding Philanthropy Its Meaning and Mission [Hardcover]

Philanthropy has existed in various forms in all cultures and civilizations throughout history, yet most people know little about it and its distinctive place in our lives. Why does philanthropy exist? Why do people so often turn to philanthropy when we want to make the world a better place? In essence, what is philanthropy? These fundamental questions are tackled in this engaging and original book. Written by one of the founding figures in the field of philanthropic studies, Robert L. Payton, and his former student sociologist Michael P. Moody, Understanding Philanthropy presents a new way of thinking about the meaning and mission of philanthropy. Weaving together accessible theoretical explanations with fascinating examples of philanthropic action, this book advances key scholarly debates about philanthropy and offers practitioners a way of explaining the rationale for their nonprofit efforts.

Robert Payton's decades of philanthropic leadership and humanistic reflection and Michael Moody's social science skills and recent research combine to make Understanding Philanthropy a must-read. This wise and well-written book is one of the best recent publications on philanthropy.

Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Why This Book?
2. Voluntary Action for the Public Good
3. Because Things Go Wrong: Philanthropy as a Response to the Human Problematic
4. The World Can Be Made Better: Philanthropy as Moral Action
5. The Social History of the Moral Imagination
6. Philanthropy, Democracy, and the Future
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index

Payton and Moodys book is an extended argument that philanthropy is an interesting and important subject that deserves to be better understood and to be taken more seriously. . . . [The book] advocates better understanding of philanthropy as the surest route to defending its essential roles in key democratic tasks such as defining, advocating and achieving the public good, advancing the gelĉ