scholarly journals What lies beneath? Spectrality as a focal phenomenon and a focal theory for strengthening engagement with philanthropic foundations

Author(s):  
Tobias Jung ◽  
Kevin Orr
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Kate Williamson ◽  
Belinda Luke

AbstractThis paper examines advocacy, agenda-setting and the public policy focus of private philanthropic foundations in Australia. While concerns have been raised regarding advocacy and public policy influence of foundations in countries such as the U.S., less is understood on this issue in other contexts. Interviews were conducted with 11 managers and trustees of 10 Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) in late 2014. Analysis of publicly available data on the participating PAFs was then undertaken comparing PAF information available at the time of the interviews with that available approximately five years later, to consider any changes in the public communication of their agendas. Findings reveal PAFs’ agendas were largely consistent with public policy but may vary in the approaches to address social causes. Further, a preference for privacy indicates the PAF sector may be characterised as ‘quiet philanthropy’ rather than having a visible public presence. As such, PAFs’ advocacy focused on promoting philanthropy, rather than altering or influencing public policy. Our main contention is that the conceptions of advocacy in structured philanthropy are dominated by the obvious, the outliers and the noisy. Our contribution to the philanthropic literature is a more nuanced and broader discussion of how advocacy and agenda-setting occurs and is understood in the mainstream.


Science ◽  
1940 ◽  
Vol 92 (2399) ◽  
pp. 581-583
Author(s):  
F. P. KEPPEL

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (12) ◽  
pp. 1591-1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut K. Anheier

Comparative studies on philanthropic foundations are still in their infancy. To advance the comparative understanding, the article proposes to use two countries—the United States and Germany—as comparative cases against which to assess the main contours of foundations in other countries. Both countries have large foundations communities; yet both are rather distinct in terms of their historical development as well as in terms of their institutional characteristics, patterns, and activities. Looking at the positioning, roles, advantages, and disadvantages of foundations, the article offers a framework for their comparative study using the varieties of capitalism, welfare regimes, and the social origins classifications.


Author(s):  
Heath Brown

This chapter places immigrant organizations into the complex, quasi-federated web of funding and grants. Immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations work at the grass roots, providing direct services to individuals. Operating high above are multibillion-dollar private philanthropic foundations that have for over a century been interested in how the country has assimilated immigrants. Since the early 2000s, major foundations have moved immigrant and voting issues to the top of their agendas and provided millions of dollars of grant funding to organizations connected with or serving the interests of immigrants. At the same time, other foundations have supported policy to restrict voting rights and advocate a very different view of immigration reform. The chapter describes these two competing political trends and also asks theoretical questions about what these spikes in funding mean for the autonomous identity of nonprofits and the representation of immigrants.


2020 ◽  
pp. 90-122
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Herrold

Chapter 4 presents the democracy building strategies of Egypt’s philanthropic foundations and development NGOs. Amidst widespread government repression of civil society and heightened suspicion of Western efforts to promote democracy, local organizations stepped in. They harnessed citizens’ desires to take part in Egypt’s trajectory and positioned themselves as facilitators of citizen-led initiatives. Instead of creating and imposing their own reform initiatives, Egyptian foundations and development NGOs worked closely with grassroots communities to cultivate democracy on their terms. Egyptians wanted political, economic, and social justice, not necessarily a Western-style democracy. The approach taken by local groups both respected grassroots priorities and cultures and allowed the organizations to evade government crackdowns.


2020 ◽  
pp. 50-78
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Herrold

Chapter 2 begins in the wake of Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow when Egyptian citizens expressed a newfound desire to participate in bringing freedom and democracy to the country. It goes on to show how Egyptian NGOs and foundations perceived an opportunity to play an important role in harnessing that energy and involving activists in organized activities related to democratic political reform. Yet by late 2011, Egypt’s transitional government began to crack down on the NGO sector even more harshly than the Mubarak regime had. In addition, Egypt’s economy declined precipitously. Chapter 2 lays out the opportunities and challenges that the 2011 uprisings created for Egyptian civil society organizations and briefly describes how two sets of donors—Western aid organizations and Egyptian philanthropic foundations—responded in the months following Mubarak’s removal.


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