Winner of the Community Development Society's 2014 Current Research Award! 21st Century Philanthropy and Community fills a gap in the literature on philanthropic organizations and how they intertwine with community development. Drawing first on the history of philanthropic funding, Maria Martinez-Cosio and Mirle Bussell look at developments in the last twenty years in detail, focussing on five key case studies from across America. The authors use their own first hand experiences and research to forge a new path for academic research in an area where it has been lacking. With the current economic climate forcing shrewd spending, foundations need all the guidance they can find on how to appropriately channel their funds in the best way. But how can these sorts of community projects be analyzed for effectiveness? Is there a quantitative rather than qualitative element which can be studied to give real feedback to those investing in projects? Arguing against a one-size-fits-all model, the authors illustrate the importance of context and relationships in the success of these projects.

Is it actually possible? …that we might emerge from this pandemic with a peaceful global power switch from those who have too much to those who don't have enough? With billionaires able to decide the fate of nations, private corporations more powerful and less accountable than ever, and political autocrats around the world shaking our confidence in democratic institutions, power resides in all the wrong places. And so our world is in crisis. In such moments, activists find opportunities. Not to restore the pre-crises order, but to transform it. Paul O’Brien argues that progressive activists may never have a better opportunity to rewrite economic rules, systems and outcomes in favor of those who don't have enough. His book offers practical action steps for activists who want to drive a power switch that overcomes extreme inequalities in our world.

The consequences of extreme poverty were a grim reality for all too many people in Victorian England. The various poor laws implemented in response contained a number of controversial measures, one of the most radical and unpopular being the crusade against outdoor relief, whereby the government sought to halt all welfare payments at home. Via a close case study of Brixworth union in Northamptonshire, Elizabeth T. Hurren looks at what happened to those impoverished men and women who struggled to live independently in a world without welfare outside of the workhouse.

Many family historians will come across direct links to ancestors who were affected by poverty. Yet despite the burgeoning interest in genealogy, the history of pauperism and of poor relief has rarely been written about, and no previous book has provided a guide to documents and records that family researchers can use to their trace their pauper ancestors. In this accessible and informative introduction, Robert Burlison gives a vivid account of poverty and the poor. He identifies relevant records, indicates where they can be found, and offers essential advice on how this information can be used to piece together the lives of distant and not so distant relatives.

While government officials in the 1890s claimed that forcing families to take responsibility for caring for the aged was in the interest of the elderly, Edgar-André Montigny reveals that government policy had more to with saving money than a desire to serve the aged. He provides a harsh critique of Ontario government policies toward the elderly and their families at the end of the nineteenth century and highlights similarities between what happened in the 1890s and current policy reforms in the area of long-term care. Montigny argues that government played a central role in determining how society viewed the elderly and family obligations to them. Using census data, municipal records, and institutional case files, he demonstrates that the government created and promoted an image of the aged population that bore little resemblance to reality and manipulated the concept of family obligations to justify policies to reduce social welfare costs. The effect of these policies, passed in the name of helping the elderly and their families, was almost universally negative. By dispelling the myths that continue to influence public policy concerning the aged, Montigny provides a useful warning of the negative consequences of policies that are enacted to cut costs rather than to serve the population they are supposed to help.

This is a book of hope at a time when just about everyone but Marvin Olasky has lost hope. The topic is poverty and the underclass. The profound truth that Marvin Olasky forces us to confront is that the problems of the underclass are not caused by poverty. Some of them are exacerbated by poverty, but we know that they need not be caused by poverty, for poverty has been the condition of the vast majority of human communities since the dawn of history, and they have for the most part been communities of stable families, nurtured children, and low crime. It is wrong to think that writing checks will end the problems of the underclass, or even reduce them. - Preface.