My research on the emerging field of philanthropy education in Europe, written in collaboration with Prof Cathy Pharoah (City University/Cass) and Dr Tobias Jung (St Andrews University) has just been published and is accessible via this link

http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/research-and-faculty/centres/cgap/news

The research contains two main parts: the first part investigates the countries, institutions and disciplines in which philanthropy education currently takes place across Europe. The second explores perceptions of the development of the field drawn from interviews with philanthropy ‘stakeholders’. The report concludes with some critical reflections about the appropriate disciplinary settings for the study of philanthropy, the tension between fostering scholarship and developing skills and the potential ethical challenges of philanthropic investment in this area.

The research was conducted between October 2013 and July 2014 whilst a philanthropy practice research fellow at the Centre for Giving and Philanthropy (CGAP) ar Cass Business School and visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS). It was and supported by a small ‘legacy’ grant from the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. The research builds upon existing work but also raises new challenges and questions. Thus, I hope that it provides a platform for further reflection, study and criticism in the coming months. In that spirit, I look forward to comments from anyone interested in understanding more about this mercurial phenomenon known as philanthropy.