This is the report of a meeting of the International Working Group on Social Justice Philanthropy held in New York City on August 26-27, 2002.
Discussions centered on philanthropy within countries of the global South, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and sought to bring clarity to a number of fundamental questions: What is social justice philanthropy? What is known and unknown about the approach? How could social justice philanthropy be further researched or promoted? The conceptual, cross-cultural, and time challenges in coming to definitive responses to these questions were considerable. Despite these obstacles, the meeting did succeed in surfacing a healthy spectrum of views, identifying critical issues and possible contradictions, and pointed out a range of next steps to move dialogue, research, and action on social justice philanthropy to the next level.
The meeting was divided into six sections, each presented in detail in the report:
- Case Studies - Offering on-the-ground examples of social justice philanthropy through
four cases studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
- Principles and Practices Distilling key concepts related to social justice philanthropy from cases presented.
- Challenges - Recognizing the main obstacles to social justice philanthropy.
- Knowledge Gaps - Assessing what is and is not known about social justice philanthropy in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America and identifying research options.
- The Big Picture - Exploring the universe of possibilities to promote social justice oriented philanthropy.
- Synergos Next Steps - Identifying a Synergos research and action plan to promote social justice philanthropy.