Giving Now: Accelerating Human Rights for All

By Patricia Illingworth (Oxford University Press, 2022)

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Abstract

Dirty dollars, tainted donors and poverty porn are a few bad practices that have created a social backlash against philanthropy. Parking money in donor advised funds for decades without ever distributing it to a charity is also cause for moral anxiety. At the same time, wealth is slowly concentrating in the hands of a steadily rising number of billionaires. Though some are generous donors, many are loath to change the system that creates their wealth and perpetuates deep inequality, social injustice and human suffering.

Philanthropists often give with strings attached. They want to make the world a better place, but who are they to decide what constitutes a better world – often at the cost of democracy. Some donors give to bad causes, such as hate groups. Other donors give tainted money, such as the Beretta family, who profit from the sale of guns used in mass shootings. Some donors give to launder their reputations, or do good to do bad. Grateful for the donation, nonprofits that ignore the warning signs are complicit in the fallout that comes with dark dollars.

Using case studies, Giving Now shows that approaching philanthropy through a human rights lens can improve the quality of giving, resolve urgent quandaries and mitigate the social injustice philanthropy can perpetuate. Should organizations accept donations from pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, or the Sackler family, regarded by many as responsible for the opioid crisis. Giving Now makes the case that people and organizations have human rights responsibilities that should guide philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. When philanthropy begins to protect and respect human rights it will regain its social license and will help to make the world a better place for all people.