Welcome to our Resource Library. Please feel free to search our bibliography of scholarly and popular literature on philanthropic theory and practice. You may browse by topics using the links below, or search on author or keyword using the search box above.

Please help us build this repository! We are especially interested in identifying materials that can contribute to a better understanding of the role of philanthropy and voluntary action in a free society. If you would like to help us develop this resource for scholars and practitioners, please email suggestions to webmaster@thephilanthropicenterprise.org.

TOPICS:

Corporate Philanthropy
Exploring philanthropic and charitable activity of commercial enterprises and corporations.

Donor Rationale
Exploring the motivations of donors and their understanding of philanthropic theory and practice.

Economics of Philanthropy
Exploring the financing, production, delivery, and consumption of charitable and philanthropic activity.

Grassroots and Voluntary Association
Exploring the tradition of voluntary association and the role of voluntary and nonprofit organizations in society.

History of Philanthropy
Exploring the history of charitable activity and philanthropic organizations.

Intellectual Foundations
Exploring the foundations of a free society.

International Philanthropy
Resources shedding light on the role of philanthropy in promoting economic development world-wide.

Management and Evaluation
Exploring the management and evaluation of philanthropic and charitable organizations.

Philanthropic Theory
Exploring the role of philanthropy in the social, political, and economic order.

Public Policy
Exploring the relationship between philanthropy and public policy and public policies affecting philanthropy and voluntary action.

Religion, Philanthropy, Faith-Based Organizations

Self-Organizing Systems
Exploring the operation of the "invisible hand" in the social order as well as implications of new understandings of self-organizing systems (spontaneous orders) for philanthropy and the voluntary sector.

Social Change Theory
Exploring the formation, evolution, and decline of human institutions and the ways in which human action can accelerate or slow change in social institutions and cultural practices.

Social Entrepreneurship
Exploring innovation in the voluntary sector.

Strategic Grantmaking
Exploring effective grants

Technology and Society
Exploring how technology can facilitate the coordination of voluntary action and philanthropy.