Charities, voluntary services & philanthropy

Philanthropy, the use of private assets for public good, has been much criticized in recent years. Rhodri Davies, drawing on his deep knowledge of the past and present landscape of philanthropy, examines pressing questions that philanthropy must tackle if it is to be equal to the challenges of the 21st century.

What Have Charities Ever Done for Us? uses case studies and interviews to illustrate how charities support people and communities, foster heritage and culture and pioneer responses to crucial social, ethical and environmental questions.

During the consolidation of the Welfare State in the 1940s, and its reshaping in the 2010s, the boundaries between the state, voluntary action, the family and the market were called into question. This book explores the impact of these ‘transformational moments’ on the role, position and contribution of voluntary action to social welfare.

This edited collection explores areas such as social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value, and charts the historical development of the state-third sector relationship, reviewing the major debates and controversies accompanying recent shifts in that relationship.

Reviewing diverse sites, including the US, Cambodia, Israel, Poland, Chile, Australia, and Brazil, this book considers how schooling systems are being influenced by the rise of external actors who increasingly determine the content, delivery, and governance of education.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This interdisciplinary volume explores how English commercial, co-operative and charity retailing were shaped by and in turn influenced their social and political environments, from the local and the global, between the late-nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries.

With case studies from around the world, this accessible book explores the methodological complexities of research into voluntary action, charitable behaviour and participation in voluntary organisations.

This book is a step toward curating our existing knowledge in the emerging field of ‘disaster philanthropy’. It aims to build a robust base for future research, practice and public policy, whilst recognising that philanthropic responses to disasters are complex, conditional and subject to change.

This book outlines a new, human focussed model for public services – an approach focused on achieving and maintaining wellbeing, rather than on reacting to crisis or attempting to ‘fix’ people.

This is the first empirically-grounded and theorised account of the identity, characteristics and motivation of fundraisers in the UK. Based on original data collected during a 3-year study of over 1,200 fundraisers, the book argues that it is not possible to understand charitable giving without accounting for the role of fundraising.

Ciaran Hughes and Markus Ketola explore the consequences of neoliberal policies on the voluntary sector in Northern Ireland. They trace the changing relationships between government and voluntary organisations since the Good Friday Agreement and lessons about the impact of neoliberal policies on governance, relationships and the peace process.

Author and activist Asheem Singh explores how a movement of tiny ventures evolved into a global humanitarian and financial juggernaut, revealing new ways to fight privilege and inequality, rewire philanthropy, government and even capitalism itself.