July 24, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Understanding Philanthropy: Its Meaning and Mission
by Robert L. Payton and Michael P. Moody
In a book that explores what philanthropy is and why it exists, Robert L. Payton and Michael P. Moody seek “to help people take philanthropy seriously; to explore it both as an external social phenomenon and as a personal record of internal experiences and values.”
Philanthropy, defined by the authors as “voluntary action for the public good,” is centrally important to democratic life in the United States, write Mr. Payton, an emeritus professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University, and Mr. Moody, an assistant professor in the school of policy, planning, and development at the University of Southern California. They include voluntary service and association in that definition, not simply donations of money or property.
In a chapter discussing why philanthropy exists, the authors write that it is a response to two basic truths about the human condition: “Things often go wrong, and things could always be better.”
The authors discuss how people respond to requests for assistance, whether it comes from an able-bodied panhandler, an arts organization, a debt-loaded college graduate, or AIDS victims in a poor country. For example, the average person might suggest that the panhandler find a job on his own or may expect the government to help him; the authors explore how to decide which response is appropriate.
Other chapters describe the moral impetus behind American philanthropy, its roots in religious and classical traditions, and its role in democracy.
Publisher: Indiana University Press, 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, Ind. 47404; (800) 842-6796; fax (812) 855-7931; iuporder@indiana.edu; http://iupress.indiana.edu; 205 pages; $24.95; ISBN 978-0-253-35049-7.
