Book Review: The Palgrave handbook of global philanthropy by P. Wiepking & F. Handy (Eds.)

The intellectually and physically hefty Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy presents an innovative effort to systematize knowledge about individual giving toward charitable causes and organizations in 25 countries and one region. With new data and insights for the field of nonprofit research and management, this volume will be of value to researchers, students, and faculty, and of particular interest to readers of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Quarterly. This review highlights its considerable strengths, as well as the limitations that merit serious consideration in any future edition.

The editors, Pamela Wiepking and Femida Handy, are both experts in the field of nonprofit organizations (the latter was until recently an editor-in-chief of this journal). They describe clearly their formidable goal: “to explain . . . Why people voluntarily give away some of their own financial resources to benefit the public good and to enable nonprofit organizations to carry out their work?” (p. 4). The book builds on the many studies of individual motives that prompt philanthropic donations and adds value with its wide-ranging analyses of the contextual factors that facilitate or inhibit individual giving.

One of the main strengths of this volume is its systematic organization. In the book’s first section, the editors provide the theoretical and analytical rationale for the book’s focus and structure. The meaty middle section comprises studies of 25 countries and one region (the Caribbean). Each case study begins with a description of the country’s philanthropic landscape, focusing on overall social and political history as well as support for social welfare and the changing composition of the nonprofit sector. This is followed by a description of government policy (support and fiscal incentives), legal regulations, and culture (represented by religion, fund-raising, and major donors). The second, more quantitative part of each case study profiles survey data on individual giving. In many chapters, regression analysis is used to parse total giving, religious giving, and secular giving in relation to age, education, gender, religion, and income. The volume’s concluding six chapters compare and contrast these findings, specifically addressing social origins theory, governmental support, fiscal incentives, religion, and professionalization of fund-raising. The editors conclude the handbook with cross-national analyses of the contextual factors that facilitate and constrain individual giving.

Despite a wide range of international authors reflecting many disciplines, this is an eminently readable book. The structure and richness of the case studies enable readers to draw their own comparisons in addition to those in the final chapters.

Social origins theory, the editors’ chosen theoretical frame for analyzing the nonprofit sector, both strengthens and weakens the book. Devised by Lester Salamon and Helmut Anheier in 1998, it provides the basis for characterizing government support for the nonprofit sector as statist, liberal, corporatist, and social democratic. This theory works less well in countries and regions undergoing considerable political transformation, as evidenced not only in the chapters on Russia, Bulgaria, South Korea, and China but also in the Middle Eastern and Caribbean chapters. On the contrary, it does help to illuminate an unanticipated conclusion drawn by Christopher Einholf in Chapter 29, namely, that liberal states tend to display lower levels of individual giving compared with nondemocratic states and developing countries.

Chapter 30, the comparative chapter on governmental support, further complicates the understanding of the relationship between governmental support and individual giving. Phuong Anh Nguyen concludes that the relationship is more multidimensional; it “comes in different forms in different countries” and requires analyzing how each aspect influences the other (p. 538). This argument is bolstered in Chapter 31, where Michael Layton analyzes fiscal incentives by constructing an original table to compare countries by support for the sector, donors, and types of organizations along with the conditions for giving. He notes that “each country has a unique blend of individual and contextual factors that influence charitable giving” and concludes, “fiscal incentives do not in themselves make people generous, but are a sign of a generous nation” (p. 555).

The historical background for each case helps to clarify how the contemporary conditions of the nonprofit sector and individual giving are related to a country’s political, economic, and cultural changes. This reader found the historical dimensions of the case studies on Vietnam, Japan, and the Caribbean particularly noteworthy. As noted by Einholf, additional work on the history of individual giving would yield “. . . better explanations of current differences in individual philanthropy in wealthy democracies and better predictions of the future role of individual philanthropy in developing countries” (p. 527). The editors’ decision to limit the case study analyses of culture primarily to two unrelated components, religion and the professionalization of fund-raising, weakens the understanding of the distinctions and commonalities that make culture the basic underpinning of individual giving. The concluding chapter (Chapter 34) by coeditors Wiepking and Handy does explicitly expand the discussion of culture by highlighting the role of values in creating a “culture of philanthropy” (pp. 611-612). Nonetheless, in the comparative chapter on religion (Chapter 32), Henrietta Gronlund and Anne Birgitta Pessi conclude that the cases reinforce the importance of religion in motivating individual giving and prosocial action. They close with a question about whether the changing nature of religion toward more spiritual dimensions, primarily in Western societies, could “replace the exceptional power religion has had in motivating” giving behaviors (p. 566). Readers who are interested in understanding other equally strong motivations for giving, such as altruism, kinship patterns, and biological forces, should consult the thought-provoking issue on giving edited by Arien Mack (2013) in the journal Social Research.

The case study selection criterion again informs the Handbook’s strengths and weaknesses. The editors state explicitly that the majority of countries were selected “based on the availability of representative national-level surveys” (p. 7). As a result, most examples are drawn from developed countries because of their propensity to conduct national surveys. African country experiences are missing except for Egypt. (One recent major book on African philanthropy deserves special attention in any future edition: Aina & Moyo, 2013.) The Middle East is only represented by studies from Egypt, Israel, and Lebanon. Most surprisingly, India and Thailand, both major settings for individual philanthropy and with extensive data collection capacities, are also missing. These omissions considerably limit the comparative power of the book; the Handbook is international but not “global.”

Another editorial choice further limits the explanatory strength of the book. By presenting individual giving as the definition of philanthropy, the long history of grant-making foundations (private and locally oriented community ones) is relegated to the margins (see, for example, the excellent complementary histories of philanthropy in the United States by Anheier & Hammack, 2010; Hammack & Anheier, 2013). More systematic attention to this component of philanthropy would have provided another key to understanding factors that prompt individual giving, not only in the developed countries but increasingly across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Moreover, the significant role of internationally oriented foundations in sustaining the culture of individual giving and the nonprofit sector around the world is not addressed.

The Handbook helpfully adds a new dimension to the study of individual giving: the analyses of fund-raising practices. In Chapter 33, Beth Breeze and Wendy Scaife utilize a comparative analysis to underscore the importance of such research: “This chapter describes and analyzes for the first time the diverse fund-raising environments around the world that are shaped by different historical, cultural, social, religious, political and economic conditions” (p. 570). Their stimulating discussion identifies the lack of such research in comparison with extensive studies on donors and motivations for giving. They make a compelling argument that more research is essential to understanding individual giving. Students studying fund-raising as part of their training in philanthropy and nonprofit management should find this book’s discussion of the considerable differences in international fund-raising practices of great interest.

In sum, the Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy makes an invaluable contribution to the study of individual giving and the nonprofit sector at the national and international levels. The limitations noted in this review could usefully be addressed in a subsequent edition or companion volume. The comparative chapters, in particular, will undoubtedly prompt further analyses by researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers to deepen the understanding of the characteristics and contexts underpinning individual generosity in support of the public good.