From the ‘how’ to the ‘why’

When talking about grantmaking and civil society funding, there’s a tendency to talk about the ‘hows’ rather than the ‘whys’. What mechanism or approach works best – community philanthropy, venture philanthropy, social investment? How do you identify good organizations to support when you’re making a grant to another country? My starting point is generally that we all know why we’re doing what we do, so we just need to jump straight into the discussion of how to do it best.

Social justice philanthropy defies this approach. It is inescapably about the ‘why’ – about poverty and exclusion, about rights and a decent life for the very poorest, the most marginalized. Christopher Harris suggests that the impetus behind the recent growth in interest in (though not in funds available for) social justice philanthropy is a sense of frustration with philanthropy’s failure to tackle the growing misery we see around us. While funders may help ameliorate suffering, they are too rarely willing to address its root causes. As he starkly puts it, ‘Available resources grow; injustices grow; and funding stays almost flat.’

This issue of Alliance can only touch on the issue of social justice and philanthropy, but for me at least the various contributions serve as a good reminder of why I do what I do.