Is this research centre about charity or justice?

A new research centre was launched this week. I couldn’t be at the launch but that’s not because I don’t think it matters. Because this is what’s officially described as ‘The UK's first independent, multidisciplinary and academically-based Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy’, and it – or at least its funding- has a curious history. Government and/or the ESRC was always going to launch such a centre (at the same time as launching a separate centre with a focus on the Third Sector). But then, in 2005, Alison Harker and I wrote a report for the Carnegie UK Trust called Stepping Up the Stairs, (SUTS for short) about social justice philanthropy. Amongst our proposals was the idea of.... yes, you clever things you, you guessed ... a research centre. The then director of Carnegie, Charlie McConnell, saw an opportunity and went for it, persuading his trustees to offer funding, and seeing the resulting centre as a quick way of meeting the SUTS proposal. The centre has three spokes, and the second spoke, labelled as ‘charitable giving and social distribution’ at least seems relevant. So, as the new centre gets going, I wish it well, but I also hope that spoke two doesn’t get lost or captured. Because the fundraisers – those who care more about increasing the amount of money raised for charitable purposes than how it’s spent – have a way of making their voices heard. But they have their vehicles already – for example, the Institute for Philanthropy has done some impressive work providing support, encouragement, training and research to underpin giving and to get more of it. There is – till now – no research centre asking the difficult question: what good is philanthropic money doing? To what extent is it changing society for the better? How far is it contributing to greater social justice, and how far is it perpetuating social injustice? - recalling the words of Joseph Rowntree who wrote, when he was only in his 30’s, that 'Charity as ordinarily practised, the charity of endowment, the charity of emotion, the charity which takes the place of justice, creates much of the misery which it relieves, but does not relieve all the misery it creates'.