Andrew Carnegie, World Making and the Logic of Contemporary Entrepreneurial Philanthropy

This paper focuses on the relationship between the business and philanthropic endeavours of world-making entrepreneurs; asking why, how and to what ends these individuals seek to extend their reach in society beyond business. We present an original model of entrepreneurial philanthropy which demonstrates how investment in philanthropic projects can yield positive returns in cultural, social and symbolic capital, which in turn may lead to growth in economic capital. The interpretive power of the model is demonstrated through analysis of the career of Andrew Carnegie, whose story, far from reducing to one of earning a fortune then giving it away, is revealed as more complex and more unified. His philanthropy raised his stock within the field of power, extending his influence and helping convert surplus funds into social networks, high social standing and intellectual currency, enabling him to engage in world making on a grand scale

Family Foundation Giving Trends Report 2011

The fourth Family Foundation Giving Trends report is published in a climate of continued economic uncertainty and against the backdrop of a shrinking budget for the state’s provision of vital social services. Inevitably, this places greater pressure on philanthropy to fill the funding gap and to increase its effectiveness and social impact. The UK has, of course, a long philanthropic tradition, from pioneers like Sir Henry Wellcome to contemporary benefactors such as J K Rowling. As a proportion of the country’s GDP, the UK’s philanthropists score well, outstripping the United States in the family giving league, though not in giving overall. While we should feel proud of this level of engagement, we should also champion the increasingly sophisticated work being done to develop more effective strategies in charitable giving today. As president of the Cranfield Trust, I am hugely impressed by its established programme of providing volunteers who have MBA degrees or other postgraduate professional qualifications, working with a growing number of leading international business schools to improve the systems and processes with which charities operate. Every charitable cause is noble, of course, and every donation deserved. From my own experience, however, a focused and structured approach to giving can go so much further. With that in mind, we set up the Doughty Family Foundation to provide clear focus around a core set of charitable themes that resonate at a personal level with members of our family. The foundation allows us to monitor and measure the impact of our philanthropic efforts more effectively. It also helps us to take a longer-term perspective and build up a deeper understanding of the areas and issues in which we engage. I have worked in the private equity industry for over 25 years and am all too aware of the inexorable rise of shareholder value during that time. The drive towards greater efficiency within organisations and the pursuit of improved productivity has certainly created lots of shareholder value; undeniably, however, it has also widened the divisions between the haves and have-nots. Philanthropy is one important area that can help to address these imbalances. When it is done effectively, it is far more than just redistributing capital. It can forge the development of sustainable social enterprises, foster entrepreneurial skills and establish centres of research that result in new and better forms of social investment. This annual report is a valuable and practical tool. The data it captures not only improves our understanding of the state of philanthropy in the UK but also provides a focal point for thought leaders in philanthropy to come together, share best practice and increase their impac

Salinity Crisis in the Borderlands: The Mexicali Campesino's Fight for Colorado River Water in the Delta, 1961-1973

The topic of this thesis is the Salinity Crisis, a diplomatic imbroglio over the water of the Colorado River that dominated international relations between the United States and Mexico from 1961 to 1973. In the early 1960s, agriculturalists in the Yuma Valley, Arizona began disposing of their wastewaters downstream. These wastewaters, which came from highly saline underground aquifers, polluted the Colorado River water destined for Mexican users. Mexico receives 1.5 MAFY (million-acre-feet-per-year) of Colorado River water from the United States as dictated by the 1944 Mexican Water Treaty and most of this water allotment goes directly to the Mexicali Valley in Baja California. The economy of the Mexicali Valley during the 1960s and 70s was agricultural where almost all farms grew cotton and some grew wheat. When the wastewaters reached the Mexicali Valley, the crops of the valley began to die. What resulted was a catastrophe for the region's economy and a disaster for international diplomacy between the two nations for little over a decade. A permanent solution was reached in 1973 with Minute 242. Most historians have focused solely on the diplomacy of the Salinity Crisis. This work will connect the negotiations between high-ranking officials on both sides of the border to the grassroots movements of Mexicali Valley campesinos or peasant farmers, those directly affected by the crisis. In doing so, this thesis aims to clarify the immediate significance of the Salinity Crisis as well as situate this moment within global events, demonstrating its broader legacy. This work argues that Mexicali campesinos, through visible protest and engagement of the Mexican and U.S. governments in the debate over salinity, forced the initiation of the serious diplomatic exchange necessary to resolve the crisis. Mexicali campesinos, a historically disadvantaged population, successfully changed the course of U.S.-Mexico relations in the 1960s-70s, becoming the focal point of diplomacy between the nations at the height of the Cold War and ultimately enhancing Mexican water rights to the Colorado River

The DiSCmap project : digitisation of special collections: mapping, assessment, prioritisation

The paper presents the outcomes of DiSCmap, a JISC and RIN-funded project which aimed to study users' priorities for digitisation of special collections within the context of the higher education institutions in the UK. The project produced a 'long list' of 945 collections nominated for digitisation by intermediaries and end users and a user-driven prioritisation framework. Web surveys were used as a tool to gather data in combination with focus groups and telephone interviews with end users helped to get additional insights on their views in particular domains. The project developed an online forum and a group in Facebook in order to find to what extent the social networking technologies can be used to sustain a professional informal community but this did not prove to be successful. Over 1000 specialists took part in the different forms used to gather intermediaries and end users' nominations of collections for the "long list" and opinions about digitisation priorities. The long list of 945 special collections nominated for digitisation can be useful as an evidence of identified user interest; this list is not seen as a "snapshot" but as an outcome which needs to be sustained and further developed in the future. A user-driven framework for prioritizing digitisation was produced; it fits well with the current JISC digitisation strategy, providing a further level of detail on user priorities. The project also suggests a flexible approach for prioritizing collections for digitisation based on the use of the framework in combination with the long list of collections. The project did not make a representative study; the participation of intermediaries and end users was a matter of good will. Yet, special collections from 44% of the higher education institutions in the UK were nominated to the long list. The work on the project provided new insights and evidence on the user priorities in digitisation of special collections. It also suggests a user-driven digitisation prioritization framework which would be of benefit in future decision making

The DiSCmap project : overview and first results

Traditionally, digitisation of cultural and scientific heritage material for use by the scholarly community has been led by supply rather than demand. The DiSCmap project commissioned by JISC in 2008, aimed to study what refocussing of digitisation efforts will suit best the users of digitised materials, especially in the context of the research and teaching in the higher education institutions in the UK. The paper presents some of its initial outcomes based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 945 special collections nominated for digitisation by intermediary users (librarians, archivist and museum curators), as well as end users' study involving a combination of online survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews. The criteria for prioritising digitisation advanced by intermediaries and end users were analysed and cross-mapped to a range of existing digitisation frameworks. A user-driven prioritisation framework which synthesises the findings of the project is presented

DiSCmap : digitisation of special collections mapping, assessment, prioritisation. Final project report

Traditionally, digitisation has been led by supply rather than demand. While end users are seen as a priority they are not directly consulted about which collections they would like to have made available digitally or why. This can be seen in a wide range of policy documents throughout the cultural heritage sector, where users are positioned as central but where their preferences are assumed rather than solicited. Post-digitisation consultation with end users isequally rare. How are we to know that digitisation is serving the needs of the Higher Education community and is sustainable in the long-term? The 'Digitisation in Special Collections: mapping, assessment and prioritisation' (DiSCmap) project, funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Research Information Network (RIN), aimed to:- Identify priority collections for potential digitisation housed within UK Higher Education's libraries, archives and museums as well as faculties and departments.- Assess users' needs and demand for Special Collections to be digitised across all disciplines.- Produce a synthesis of available knowledge about users' needs with regard to usability and format of digitised resources.- Provide recommendations for a strategic approach to digitisation within the wider context and activity of leading players both in the public and commercial sector.The project was carried out jointly by the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR) and the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM) and has taken a collaborative approach to the creation of a user-driven digitisation prioritisation framework, encouraging participation and collective engagement between communities.Between September 2008 and March 2009 the DiSCmap project team asked over 1,000 users, including intermediaries (vocational users who take care of collections) and end users (university teachers, researchers and students) a variety of questions about which physical and digital Special Collections they make use of and what criteria they feel must be considered when selecting materials for digitisation. This was achieved through workshops, interviews and two online questionnaires. Although the data gathered from these activities has the limitation of reflecting only a partial view on priorities for digitisation - the view expressed by those institutions who volunteered to take part in the study - DiSCmap was able to develop:- a 'long list' of 945 collections nominated for digitisation both by intermediaries andend-users from 70 HE institutions (see p. 21);- a framework of user-driven prioritisation criteria which could be used to inform current and future digitisation priorities; (see p. 45)- a set of 'short lists' of collections which exemplify the application of user-driven criteria from the prioritisation framework to the long list (see Appendix X):o Collections nominated more than once by various groups of users.o Collections related to a specific policy framework, eg HEFCE's strategically important and vulnerable subjects for Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.o Collections on specific thematic clusters.o Collections with highest number of reasons for digitisation

The future of philanthropy: the role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial philanthropy

Chapter from Philanthropy and a better society, published by Alliance Publishing; available online at http://www.alliancepublishing.org/wp-content/uploads/PHILANTHROPY__A_BETTER_SOC.pdfEleanor Shaw and others (Chapter 12) take a second look at entrepreneurial philanthropists, whose absence from the Big Society discourse strikes them as bizarre, when they are so well placed to make substantial contributions to stopping the gaping hole in the public purse. Considering this bewilderingly untapped resource, the authors wonder why such philanthropists have not been more centrally enlisted in support of the cause, when they could bring so many other attributes (innovations and partnerships across the three sectors) to the table.Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthrop

'World-making' and major philanthropy

Chapter from Philanthropy and a better society, published by Alliance Publishing; available online at http://www.alliancepublishing.org/wp-content/uploads/PHILANTHROPY__A_BETTER_SOC.pdfMairi Maclean and others (Chapter 2) consider the potential role of entrepreneurial philanthropists in the opening‑up of public services while also examining the ambivalence in which they are held by the public, and some of the contradictions surrounding their activity: the way in which, for example, their philanthropy may actually enhance their social capital and allow them to engage in ‘world‑making’.Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthrop

Social innovation, social entrepreneurship and the practice of contemporary entrepreneurial philanthropy

The economic crisis has accentuated the social and economic dislocation experienced by disadvantaged communities at a time of unprecedented political and public interest in philanthropy. This has concentrated attention on the contribution that philanthropists might make in addressing socio-economic challenges, and on the role that social innovation might play in regenerating communities. This article adds to the literature on social innovation and social entrepreneurship that aims to integrate theory and empirical practice. By examining social innovation through the lens of a case study of the Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, the article sheds light on how the sites and spaces of socially innovative philanthropic projects may have a bearing on their success; attention is drawn to the importance of community engagement on the part of social innovators, and the power of self-organization in re-embedding communities. It suggests that storytelling by committed philanthropists may serve as a powerful proselytizing tool for recruiting new donors

A spirit of generosity: philanthropy in the Scotch Whisky Industry

Recent literature on philanthropy and business has focused on the return of capital to businesses and entrepreneurs from giving. In this paper, we show how historical context impacts the motivations and organizational forms created over time in philanthropic giving that effect and affect such returns. We do this through the prism of the changing ownership structures in the Scotch whisky industry in the twentieth century using an institutional theory lens. In doing so, we capture the story of three sisters who inherited a Scotch whisky business in the 1940s and transformed it into a hybrid philanthropic-commercial vehicle that remains in operation today. We present an extended theoretical model illustrating the interplay of context, motivation, and organizational structure over time on exchanges of capital in entrepreneurial philanthropy