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Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better

Rob Reich

3.91 · Rating details · 133 ratings · 29 reviews

The troubling ethics and politics of philanthropy

Is philanthropy, by its very nature, a threat to today's democracy? Though we may laud wealthy individuals who give away their money for society's benefit, Just Giving shows how such generosity not only isn't the unassailable good we think it to be but might also undermine democratic values and set back aspirations of The troubling ethics and politics of philanthropy

Is philanthropy, by its very nature, a threat to today's democracy? Though we may laud wealthy individuals who give away their money for society's benefit, Just Giving shows how such generosity not only isn't the unassailable good we think it to be but might also undermine democratic values and set back aspirations of justice. Big philanthropy is often an exercise of power, the conversion of private assets into public influence. And it is a form of power that is largely unaccountable, often perpetual, and lavishly tax-advantaged. The affluent--and their foundations--reap vast benefits even as they influence policy without accountability. And small philanthropy, or ordinary charitable giving, can be problematic as well. Charity, it turns out, does surprisingly little to provide for those in need and sometimes worsens inequality.

These outcomes are shaped by the policies that define and structure philanthropy. When, how much, and to whom people give is influenced by laws governing everything from the creation of foundations and nonprofits to generous tax exemptions for donations of money and property. Rob Reich asks: What attitude and what policies should democracies have concerning individuals who give money away for public purposes? Philanthropy currently fails democracy in many ways, but Reich argues that it can be redeemed. Differentiating between individual philanthropy and private foundations, the aims of mass giving should be the decentralization of power in the production of public goods, such as the arts, education, and science. For foundations, the goal should be what Reich terms "discovery," or long-time-horizon innovations that enhance democratic experimentalism. Philanthropy, when properly structured, can play a crucial role in supporting a strong liberal democracy.

Just Giving investigates the ethical and political dimensions of philanthropy and considers how giving might better support democratic values and promote justice. ...more

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Hardcover, 256 pages

Published November 20th 2018 by Princeton University Press

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Feb 25, 2019 Matt Lechel rated it it was amazing

An important dissection of philanthropy. I liked this book from a professional lens of working as a nonprofit capacity builder and I loved this book from the lens of being a citizen in kalamazoo Michigan in 2019 where recently two mega-rich donors (one of whom already funds the kalamazoo promise- a free college program for kzoo public school graduates) created a ‘foundation for excellence’ that lowered property taxes as its first initiative and created a quasi city linked nonprofit entity, led ...more

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Jan 16, 2019 Dana Schmidt rated it liked it

A provocative look at philanthropic giving in the US and the rationale (or lack thereof) for the tax incentives behind it. A little dry and overly repetitive, but an important set of ideas.

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May 10, 2019 Elizabeth Stolar rated it really liked it

This is a very academic book, and even though it was only 200 pages, it took me a while to read it, as it was not a quick read. That said, it was worthwhile and it raises a lot of interesting points. I hadn't thought about the potential for charitable foundations to be anti-democratic, as they give plutocratic voices and outsized voice in social policy. This is a good read for those interested in social policy and in charities and non-profit institutions, but it's not for everyone.

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Mar 10, 2019 Nick Klagge rated it really liked it

I picked this up after reading Anand Giridharadas's "Winners Take All," which I gathered drew on a lot of ideas from Reich and other academics. It's a short but engaging read, which I would personally recommend over WTA. Reich's point in JG is to try to develop a theory-based view of the appropriate role of philanthropy in specifically democratic societies. He notes that government incentivization of philanthropy (through tax breaks for charitable giving) is a relatively recent development in I picked this up after reading Anand Giridharadas's "Winners Take All," which I gathered drew on a lot of ideas from Reich and other academics. It's a short but engaging read, which I would personally recommend over WTA. Reich's point in JG is to try to develop a theory-based view of the appropriate role of philanthropy in specifically democratic societies. He notes that government incentivization of philanthropy (through tax breaks for charitable giving) is a relatively recent development in human history, while of course, charitable giving in various forms has existed at least back to ancient times. What is a democratic government's interest in supporting private giving--especially when, at least as currently structured, this giving is heavily weighted toward the preferences of the wealthy and in general is not targeted to help the poorest in society?

Reich also explores whether there can be any justification for perpetual private charitable foundations. He presents some very interesting historical context around this point, showing that the idea was heavily resisted by the likes of John Stuart Mill, and showing the initial political resistance to the establishment of the Rockefeller foundation. This is quite eye-opening for a reader coming from a period where charitable foundations are nothing short of lionized. But Mill and others expressed concerns that foundations outlasting their founders would be essentially unaccountable to any living persons. Reich also demonstrates the proliferation of small foundations, which can probably be better described as "family tax dodges" more so than civic institutions in the public interest.

Ultimately, Reich identifies some ways that both governmental incentives for private giving and foundations can be justified in and reconciled with democratic societies--though perhaps not exactly in their present forms. I found his arguments mostly if not entirely convincing, but more than that, I think he does a great service by presenting this as a question that needs to be asked, and attempting to give us a framework in which to talk about it. Too often, the "obvious moral good" of philanthropy can be used to distract us from taking a critical view on the specific ways it is enacted and incentivized in our society.

I'm really looking forward to reading Reich's co-edited and even more academic collection, "Philanthropy in Democratic Societies." ...more

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Dec 11, 2018 Robert Wechsler rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

A very well-written, well-organized look at the forms of American philanthropy and the incentives that have, for the most part, led us to those forms. Reich focuses a bit too much on big philanthropy, especially big foundations, but one of the weakest parts of his book (in terms of the quality of the writing) is the defenses he makes of foundations: far more arcane and long-winded than the rest of the book. The other weakness is the “How It Can Do Better” part; there’s not a clear picture of how ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Amanda Kelso rated it really liked it

Rob Reich gives an excellent overview of the history of philanthropy in the US and then provides credible evidence on how it is creating deep flaws in our society. I would recommend to anyone who wants to get a better understanding of how foundations work, and the tax incentives inherent to them. When we look at scandals like the funding of scientific research by Epstein or cultural institutions by the Sackler family, we need to start asking ourselves why these important institutions must rely ...more

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Mar 22, 2019 Anu Khosla rated it it was amazing

Shelves: current-affairs-and-politics, history, social-change

In my opinion, an absolutely critical book for anyone who works in philanthropy or policy, or who is general concerned by how to structure a healthy and sustainable democratic society.

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Mar 06, 2019 Lada rated it really liked it

There is interesting discussion about the history of foundations in the US and how tax breaks for charitable giving are regressive. The political philosophy was interesting at first but grew a bit repetitive. One point the author kept returning to was how allowing foundations to operate in perpetuity would harm future generations. But short of hypothetical catastrophic events that would need the resources, there were no examples given (I think) of foundations being somehow outdated in purpose or ...more

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Nov 24, 2018 Jennifer rated it really liked it

This is an important book for donors, non profit board members and anyone interested in our Democracy. Tax laws and record inequality have led to some perverse trends in philanthropy, where the rich can exert self-serving influence on our public institutions. Reich offers evidence of the troubling trends and some thoughtful solutions, including using donor funds to accelerate experiments in policy and programs. When successful, those experiments should become publicly funded policy. Sometimes ...more

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Jan 06, 2020 Thurston Hunger rated it it was ok

"It was ok" seems the most apt rating for this book. While examining the role of philanthropy and foundations seems well worth the effort these days (PAC-men and PAC-women as political king-makers, billionaires as all checks and no balances in terms of social welfare, an interesting way of keeping religion and state seemingly separate but connected on a dotted line), at the end of this book Reich seems happy to have merely raised interest in examining the repercussions of philanthropy.

The book "It was ok" seems the most apt rating for this book. While examining the role of philanthropy and foundations seems well worth the effort these days (PAC-men and PAC-women as political king-makers, billionaires as all checks and no balances in terms of social welfare, an interesting way of keeping religion and state seemingly separate but connected on a dotted line), at the end of this book Reich seems happy to have merely raised interest in examining the repercussions of philanthropy.

The book does start with more of a bang, summoning ex-Presidents and other heroes of yore to indict philanthropy as anti-democratic. But we also learn that it has been around forever (waqf history was interesting, at least the first time it was discussed) and that is not really a surprise. Codifying it into law, and tax law at that, with Rockefeller a little over 100 years ago in the US, also fascinating...again the first time.

But the book repeatedly brings up these and other points, I see other reviews calling this well-written. Maybe I'm too far gone from academia, but it seems the very opposite. Perhaps through repetition and overly convoluted language (no concepts herein are thaaaat complicated), perhaps that lends an air of impartial and studied distance.

Meh.

Two things working against Reich may be that he himself is not up for the underlying philosophical bang. He does talk about the ability to take risks through foundations, and to bolster a plurality of opinions (nevermind the woefully underfunded arts in the US), and on the negative side, the ego-feed and power-grab that goes with our captains of industry "sheiking" their booty if you will.

The abundance of smaller foundations, and the idea of folks wanting a legacy of sorts, is this a negative. We do learn (and learn and learn) that foundations must spend 5% of their coffers, but we don't hear too much about how that gets taken advantage of (I assume it does). Reich introduces the new stream of a for-profit foundation, but then that does get taxed....or does it. The question is dodged, as surely as the taxing may be.

Anyways, I get that a final yea-or-nay is complicated, I feel this way about most things. I thought Reich might bring up the amount of actual taxes vs charitable bypass of taxes to help give that concern a little more depth. He does bring up the idea (again and again) that the money for those philanthropic endeavors is at least 50% the public's by way of accounting....and the dead hands still are stronger than the living poor....also the unitemized donations, typically coming outside of the Aspen super$tars, get discounted in a ways.

I did re-read some parts over a couple of times, I remain very vaguely aware of what Reich means by "social capital" in chapter 5. Even after I read pp178 "Here we understand social capital to refer to individual or collective attitudes of generalized trust, civicness, and reciprocity that are generated by and embedded in cooperative activities and networks."

If that sentence gets your engine gunning, then this is the book for you. Otherwise hopefully some other will take the ideas and bibliography herein and run with it. Even so, please beware the excessive repetition in this book; I understand it collected other writings but for the sake of at least this reader, a tidying/editing/rewriting would have been appreciated.

I should say I read this after "Winners Take All" by Giridharadas, as Anand gave props to Reich...I need to review that book next. I had high hopes for this one, but it was ok. ...more

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Jul 04, 2019 Krystina rated it it was ok

The main idea of this book is that the United States’ 2016 tax code (although published in 2018, it doesn’t catch up to recent changes in our tax code around charitable donations) unfairly benefits the wealthy by, essentially, subsidizing their philanthropy, while less wealthy donors — although giving away larger portions of their income to charity — do not hit the benchmarks to itemize their donations. Family foundations are a way to: subvert taxes that could have been paid on wealth; pass The main idea of this book is that the United States’ 2016 tax code (although published in 2018, it doesn’t catch up to recent changes in our tax code around charitable donations) unfairly benefits the wealthy by, essentially, subsidizing their philanthropy, while less wealthy donors — although giving away larger portions of their income to charity — do not hit the benchmarks to itemize their donations. Family foundations are a way to: subvert taxes that could have been paid on wealth; pass social capital from one generation to the next; and be allowed too much pull over big investments in a community. It’s an unfair result of capitalist society, but there’s really nothing new or surprising in this book. Reich asks the question of if foundation grants result in more positive impact in a community than the taxes that would otherwise have been paid on that income. He doesn’t know how to answer that, so he just says some sources say Yes and some say No, without going into detail. In a similarly frustrating vein, he later says that there’s so much complex literature on the reproduction of social capital that, “We cannot provide a full discussion here. For our purposes it suffices to note that the nuclear family [...] would not seem to be the ideal or natural candidate (or at least not sufficient) for the reproduction of social capital over time. This is because families tend to be inward-looking and to reproduce exclusive and particularistic bonds rather than more generalized forms of trust.” But, this is *your book*... you have all the time & space you want to explain out theories and to do some original research. Not attempting his own research, including shockingly little examples of how current foundations invest, and the constant repetition of the same few thoughts over and over (I wonder if each chapter was intended as a separate publication) were a few of the reasons I did not enjoy this book. Also, the chapter that meant to talk about how foundations lead to inequality doesn’t even mention the effects on racial inequality. It just seems to me that the author doesn’t seem to have on-the-ground experience in the philanthropic sector. Also, his references to helping “poor people” was very out of touch. ...more

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Sep 22, 2019 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: topical-ethics-philanthropy-giving, read-in-2019, 4-star, new-perspectives, nonfiction

so glad i finally got around to reading this. i first heard Rob Reich talk about this book at a book launch for Anand Giridharadas' Winners Take All (which i have a lot of thoughts about, so ask me). for me personally, i found Reich's book to be much more substantive and levelheaded, whereas Giridharadas' read more like an extended rant. Just Giving is written in a very academic but comprehensible style. even though i haven't read much political philosophy, Reich lays out his arguments with ...more

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Nov 15, 2019 Andrew rated it liked it

As someone who works in philanthropy, I found this to be a very interesting book, although it is not very readable. It is written by a philosophy professor and was written it seems with more of an academic audience in mind - so the language is a bit stilted.

That being said, the author's purpose is to analyze philanthropy's role in a liberal democracy. He starts by looking at three historical examples of giving: ancient Greece, the Islamic waqf and the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation (the ...more

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May 03, 2019 Austin Carroll Keeley rated it really liked it

Shelves: justice, law, social-sector, philosophy

Rob Reich considers the role of philanthropy (and often specifically, foundations), but a public rather than private moral perspective. That is, how are citizens of a democratic society to view philanthropic efforts when they are subsidized by the state via tax write-offs? Reich argues the need for, and then constructs, a theory of philanthropy that finds ways for philanthropists to augment democratic processes that would require significant changes to the tax code. The author presents a ...more

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Mar 13, 2019 Mark Harnett rated it really liked it

Fascinating read.
The thesis is our current charitable foundation set up and tax advantages are incredibly regressive and provide benefits to well off people, and the more well off you are. .(the higher the tax bracket), the bigger your benefit at the expense of the services to support the rest of society (schools, roads). The epitome of this is the school foundation (which I've actively supported myself). Wealthy neighborhoods and parents supporting their children, because the state government ...more

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Oct 21, 2019 Nik Carverhill rated it it was ok

This book presents a few interesting ideas, and is certainly novel in its development of a political philosophy of philanthropy. It is not a very critical one, though, and is highly repetitive. By (easily, in my view) making the assumptions that philanthropy will be nested in liberal democratic states (despite the rapid decay of such states), the political philosophy (and attendant moral questions) leap-frog some of the most important, complex, and compelling critiques of the philanthropic ...more

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May 31, 2019 Gina rated it liked it

For readability, each chapter is written as its own paper, laying out its purpose, making the arguments, and then summing up. Since some chapters have points in common, all of that makes for a fair amount of repetition and some tedium.

Despite that, there are some really interesting things covered from Reich's research, and without the end result actually being prescriptive there are some solid points made.

Which may actually be pretty good given that the subject is economics.

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Sep 21, 2019 Steve rated it liked it

The basic arguments of this book are compelling, calling out the need for more transparency and accountability in the philanthropic space given its role in shaping this country.

From a pure format and writing standpoint, think most of this could have been accomplished in an article or white paper. A great deal of avoidable detours and talking about process over substance.

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Mar 04, 2019 Ceil rated it liked it

Shelves: culture

Interesting discussion of the tension between philanthropy as social benefit and as tax shelter. Makes a case that we don't do as much as we could in the US to prevent abusive uses of philanthropy-as-tax-shelter. Also makes the case that the whole tax-favored status of philanthropy may be unnecessary.

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Apr 02, 2019 Hector Mujica rated it really liked it

It is a dense, academic read, but one that offers a compelling look at the history, philosophy and political theories that revolve around the world of philanthropy. It is a strong and powerful critique of the system we've built, and what steps could make it most just.

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Oct 30, 2019 Sara Pate rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

This reads sort of like an academic paper so it was harder to get through than I anticipated. However it's very well laid out and I really enjoyed it. It was extremely informative and interesting and the author's ideas about the path forward were compelling.

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Jul 12, 2019 Katie Boland rated it really liked it

Very repetitive and lots of philosophy but examines the role of philanthropy and asks the questions that we need to be asking about foundations and DAFs that desperately need regulation. Before we can determine appropriate regulation these questions will need to be examines

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Jan 08, 2019 Sharron rated it really liked it

Shelves: big-ideas, american-studies

While the author’s style is somewhat dry and academic, the subject matter of his book is so revealing and relevant that it should be read by anyone who wishes to better understand the nature of inequality in the United States today.

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Jul 25, 2019 Heidi Green rated it it was amazing

In Just Giving, Reich asks all the right questions. Some of this made me very uncomfortable. But in this guilded age, a bit of discomfort is plenty justified.

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Jan 25, 2019 Ravi Chavali rated it it was amazing

A deep take on how charity is not what it seems! Loved it

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Aug 21, 2019 Rick rated it it was amazing

Fascinating, thought-provoking, challenging examination of the role of philanthropy in society. Highly recommended.

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Mar 24, 2019 Andrew York rated it really liked it

(Audiobook)- must read for anyone working in the non-profit/philanthropy world. I agree with the arguments, and this outlines the key areas where philanthropy can provide value

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