Is “social justice philanthropy” an oxymoron? Most of the money that’s sitting in the bank accounts and endowments of large philanthropic foundations originates from the same mechanisms that caused the problems their giving is meant to fix.

Foundations with their roots in the extractive and automobile industries spend money to combat climate change and environmental degradation. Technology-based philanthropy benefits from a global economic system of cheap, outsourced labor and poor working conditions, while spending money to alleviate poverty and ill-health. And while asking transparency and accountability from others, many foundations don’t practice these things themselves.

Yet mainstream philanthropy of this kind represents an important source of revenue for groups that can’t sustain their work through small donations, government contracts or commercial operations in the marketplace—and these other forms of support may be ill-fitted for work that aims to transform society. So how can this source of capital be channelled to radical ideas and actions that help to remove the need for mainstream philanthropy entirely?

Continue this article at OpenDemocracy.net.
By: FATIMA VAN HATTUM and ARIANNE SHAFFER

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