The Urban Institute researcher and HistPhil co-editor speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about what the study of history brings to the practice of grantmaking, the challenges and opportunities currently facing those conservatives and progressives who are critiquing giving, and the difference between charity and philanthropy.
The Urban Institute researcher speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about how he came to study the history of philanthropy and the origins of the HistPhil website he co-edits.
Once giving, volunteering, and self-help are seen by the public for what they have always been to the philanthropic professionals—mere myths that complicate the work of the credentialed experts—what will happen to the legitimacy of those professionals?
By suggesting that our vast network of social services isn’t adequate to the task of meeting human needs, the everyday charitable acts of Americans “threaten” to carve out islands of independent civic initiative, free from the heavy-handed guidance and arrogant expertise of philanthropic reformers.
