The Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace is thrilled to share with you Effective Philanthropy: Another Take, a collection of 11 stories describing a philanthropic intervention against some form of injustice (socioeconomic and/or political) at a local, national or global scale.

Each story addresses seven key questions grantmakers wrestle with in order to effect systemic social change.

What is the problem? What is the solution? How do we address it?  What are the risks?What are the challenges? What was achieved? What next?

The collection includes stories of successful grants for:

 US peacebuilding theorist John Paul Lederach talks about achieving “critical yeast” in difficult circumstances, with this arguably being of greater importance than “critical mass.” If the recently circulated report on philanthropy for social justice and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean is to be believed that is exactly what exists: critical yeast. The 32 foundations located and working in the region that participated in this study are mainly public or community foundations.

Last week I attended a public lecture in the magnificent York Minster, the great cathedral in northern England.  I felt as if I was in the heart of the English establishment, with all the wrappings of church and state.  The lecture was given by the Director of Christian Aid in Scotland.  Her day job is concerned with global poverty and how to promote development in the global south. 

This presentation was made by Stephen Pittam at the conference ‘Social Justice Philanthropy: Implications for Practice and Policy’ organised by the University of Kent on 1 March 2013

I would like to thank the team at Kent University for inviting me to contribute to this event. As Carl has mentioned I retired from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in August 2012 after 26 years there. I want to make clear from the outset though that I am speaking today as a Member of the Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace. I will of course be drawing on my experience at JRCT, but I am not in any way speaking on behalf of JRCT.

What I want to do in my time is four things:

• To give a personal view of how the concept of Social Justice Philanthropy has emerged over the last 20 years or so,
• To discuss what is Social Justice Philanthropy,
• To describe the Working Group’s idea on Social Justice Philanthropy as a Family of Concepts.
• And finally to offer a few thoughts on the future.

Social Justice Philanthropy In USA and UK