Thesis (M.M.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 100 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-100).

This dissertation studies the history of philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area between the 1940s to the 2010s through the experiences of the foundation managers, professors, and attorneys, who collectively oversaw the distribution of philanthropic wealth for the region’s donors. This dissertation argues that foundation managers and a range of other non-donor professionals were critical to the formation of organized philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1940s, which in limited but vital ways redistributed wealth to organizations that provided social welfare services. In the austere decades of the late 20th century, however, philanthropic intermediaries created new models of giving that, in appealing to affluent people, narrowed the purpose and reach of foundations, while expanding the ability of donors to set conditions on their giving. In tandem with larger political and economic changes, the disruption of philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area—the creation of donor-centric modes of giving that appealed to the norms of high-tech and financial moguls—helped produce a local nonprofit sector more reflective of the interests of wealthy donors rather than those in need.

In this dissertation, I tell the story of how philanthropic-like entities emerged in collaboration with the yachting industry to become highly publicized icons of ocean exploration in the 21st century. Through interviews, participant observation, and media analysis, I argue that these entities are different in several ways from conventional philanthropic organizations. To elucidate this distinction, I call the phenomenon “Marine Philanthro-tourism,” that is, a philanthropic-like activity promoted by the yachting industry and organized on behalf of ultrawealthy ocean enthusiasts, which involves bringing scientists aboard privately owned vessels to conduct research. If you are interested in the anthropology of science, and ocean science in particular, then you may learn from this dissertation about one way in which private capital is entering that field through the interests of yacht owners and their advisors. If you are interested in a critical analysis of the philanthropy of the global elite, then I will attempt to show you how the phenomenon of marine philanthro-tourism, admittedly just a very tiny sliver of the ultrawealthy’s activities in the world, can nevertheless elucidate significant aspects of their contemporary sociopolitical role. Readers with an interest in the anthropology of tourism may also find this dissertation pertinent as I examine how a boutique tourism industry has helped to develop a form of philanthropic activity.

Those who are very wealthy may also be extremely free. Independently wealthy philanthropists epitomize this type of freedom. They seem to be able to act in whichever way they please, as long as they respect the limits of the law. Their freedom also implies that they do not experience as much accountability as other funders. Considering philanthropists’ ambitions as policymakers, and given their imposition of performance demands on their grantees, their accountability is relevant to investigate. However, there are no comprehensive comparative studies of philanthropists’ accountability, and there is mainly anecdotal evidence of a lack of accountability being derived from their independent wealth. This dissertation is a study of philanthropists’ accountability. I compare their experienced and exhibited accountability to that of other funders within societies, and I also compare philanthropists’ accountability across societies. I investigate whether philanthropists’ independent wealth influences to whom they are accountable, for what they are accountable, and how they are accountable. To learn about these topics, I examine their accountability relationships, their accountability mechanisms, and how they justify their potentially controversial funding of human embryonic stem cell research. Across these dimensions, I study their legal, financial, hierarchical, peer, professional, political, and fiduciary/social accountability. Empirically, I make a cross-sectional comparison of philanthropists to other funders of human embryonic stem cell research within and across three welfare regimes - liberal California, social democratic Sweden, and statist South Korea. I compare the accountability of independently wealthy philanthropists to that of public agencies, corporations, and fundraising dependent nonprofits. The empirical materials include 101 structured interviews with open-ended questions covering 51 funding organizations, as well as questionnaires explored in ANOVA and social network analysis. The study indicates that philanthropists experience and exhibit less accountability than other funders in some ways, in some contexts. By developing and using a framework to analyze their accountability, I show that philanthropists’ accountability is patterned within the societies in which they fund, and it differs greatly across societies. In California, philanthropists enact themselves as free actors, whereas in Sweden they enact a moral identity as funders of science. In South Korea, there is no clear boundary between philanthropic and corporate accountability. My results point to the contextual limits of philanthropists’ accountability. By enacting their moral identity in a way that conforms to local norms, philanthropists simultaneously retain and enable their continued freedom. In terms of their accountability, philanthropists are free to conform, and they become free by conforming.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In recent years, social capital has emerged at the forefront of comparative research in the areas of philanthropy, community development and international aid. The predominant body of research has been conducted in the United States, Netherlands, and other Northern/Western contexts. From this body of knowledge, the academic community has begun to tease out how philanthropic traditions arise within and adapt to a given cultural context. Stemming from the assertions of Fukuyama, Putnam and Banfield, a theory has emerged that high levels of social capital is connected to high levels of philanthropic support (money and time), and low levels of social capital is connected to low levels of philanthropic support. This is to be expected since, theoretically, in cultures with less trust and civic behavior, there is a higher cost to giving and volunteering, and therefore people give less. Research conducted in American and Dutch communities suggests that a high level of philanthropic behavior is expected to be found in places where people share a high level of social capital (Putnam, 2000); that individuals who have more social capital in terms of access to social networks are more likely to be charitable (Brooks, 2005; Brown and Ferris, 2007); that a donor’s perception that a nonprofit organization is trustworthy affects his or her decision to give (Bekkers, 2003); and that an individual’s participation in different types of civic networks relies on varying levels of social trust (Uslaner, 2002). Colombia offers an interesting case study of the interplay between social capital and philanthropy because much is known about the Colombian citizenry’s propensity to trust and associate. Additionally, the incredible growth of nonprofits in Colombia and Latin America since the early 1990s has spurred an increase in qualitative research surrounding Latin American philanthropy.

The purpose of this study was to document the history of Susie G. Gibson High School from its opening in 1954 to its closure in 1970. The researcher documented and described the establishment, operation, and closure of the school. The study includes a description of how Bedford County transitioned from a dual system of segregated education to a single school system for students of all races and how Susie G. Gibson High School was converted for use as a vocational school as it still functions today. Historical research methods were used to collect data and describe the education of Black students who attended the Susie G. Gibson High School. The evidence for the study consists of primary and secondary sources. This evidence includes written records, archives, manuscripts, maps and documents, but also artifacts (Williams, 2007, p.11). The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with students, school employees, and community members who were involved with the school. Minutes of school board meetings and other contemporary records were utilized as well. Studies by Bonner (1939) and Harrell (1951) and histories by other authors were used as secondary sources for historical context. Susie G. Gibson High School opened in the fall of 1954. It was a much anticipated event because it was the first new high school for Blacks in Bedford County, Virginia. Susie G. Gibson High School replaced the much smaller Bedford Training School that began as an elementary school, but which provided some secondary schooling after 1930. The opening of the school was a culmination of negotiations between the Black community and the Bedford County School Board. The school was the pride of the Black community for over a decade and a half. Susie G. Gibson High School changed to a vocational school in 1970 when the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) ordered Bedford County to fully integrate its school system. / Ed. D.

Over the past 10 years individual capitalists have become increasingly involved in philanthropy, setting up charitable foundations targeted at helping to reduce social problems such as poverty, disease and food security. This form of neoliberal capitalist philanthropy is both politically and ideologically committed to market-based social investment through partnerships, to make the market work or work better for capital. The new structures of philanthropy have received much praise in the media for imbuing capitalist business principles into the non-profit sector and for their potential for social transformation. While philanthropic activities may be considered worthy in themselves, this article examines the relationship between giving and business interest and the agency associated with neoliberal capitalist philanthropy. It questions partnerships between philanthropists and private corporations and their motivations for engaging in poverty-related philanthropy. The discussion focuses on capitalist philanthropic foundations' involvement in the process of agricultural commodification in sub-Saharan Africa through the New Green Revolution and genetically modified (gm) technologies.

This thesis traces the development of philanthropy as a tradition and movement within the United Kingdom and the British world, with attention to both the inner lives of philanthropists, and the social networks and organizational practices that underpinned the dramatic growth in philanthropic activity between the late 1750s and 1840. In contrast to studies that see philanthropy as primarily responsive to Britain's shifting public culture and imperial fortunes during the period, it argues that philanthropic change was driven by innovations in the internal culture and structures of intersecting commercial and religious networks, that were adapted to philanthropic purposes by philanthropic entrepreneurs. It frames the growth of philanthropy as both a series of experiments in effecting social change, within the United Kingdom and transnationally, and the fostering of a vocationally formative culture across three generations. Chapter one focuses on John Thornton, a prominent merchant and religious patron, reconstructing his correspondence networks and philanthropic practices, and revealing patterns of philanthropic interaction between mercantile and Evangelical clerical networks. Chapter two uses the reports and minutes of representative metropolitan societies and companies to develop a prosopography of more than 4000 philanthropic directors, mapping their nexus of interconnections in 1760, 1788 and 1800, and arguing for the importance of firstly Russia Company networks and later country banking networks for philanthropy. Chapters three and four offer an extended case study of the 'Clapham Sect' as an example of collective agency, reframing their influence within the philanthropic nexus, and, through a close reading of their published works, showing how as intellectual collaborators they developed a unique conception of 'trust' that informed their activism. Chapter five shows how philanthropists extended their reach transnationally, with case studies in Bengal, Sierra Leone and New Zealand, and chapter six addresses multiple paths by which philanthropy became intertwined with Empire and the globalizing world in the British imagination.

LLM / Department of Mercantile Law / Scholarship on the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) highlights its four components: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility. In South Africa, while the economic, legal and ethical components of CSR are regulated and attract punitive measures for erring corporations who fail to adhere to such demands, the application of the philanthropic aspect of CSR is problematic. The application of philanthropic responsibility suffers normative, institutional and accountability deficiencies in South Africa. Hence, corporations do not conscientiously direct philanthropic responsibility towards achieving core socio-economic needs of their host communities. In the light of international human rights standards relevant to CSR, this research attempts to examine domestic laws which regulate the practice of CSR in South Africa and advance how the philanthropic aspect of CSR can be developed to achieve the realisation of socio-economic rights, in particular, the rights to access to health care, water and social security, education, housing and clean environment. The argument is made that through the formulation and application of an appropriate legal framework, philanthropic CSR can play a contributory role to the realisation of socio-economic rights recognised under the 1996 South African constitution. The implications are that in appropriate cases socio-economic rights do not only bind the state and consequently apply to the "vertical" relationship between individuals and the state, but could also apply "horizontally", in respect of the relationship between private entities. This is a controversial issue and its full implications have not yet been resolved.

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