These are the slides for a talk I gave at the GeNErosity festival in Middlesbrough in Nov 2018.

1. 1
Rhodri Davies
Head of Policy & Programme Director, Giving Thought
Challenging Austerity?
The Role of Philanthropy in
Driving Civic Identity

2. 2
My Interest in the topic

3. 3
Relevant Wider Issues
Post-Brexit
social division
North/South divide
Political
devolution
Civic renewal
Future role of cities
Austerity

4. A View to the Future: Growing
Prominence of Cities
4
(McKinsey)
“In this century, it will be
the city—not the state—
that becomes the nexus of
economic and political
power.”

5. 5
The Origins of Modern Philanthropy

6. 6
Urban Poverty & Inadequate Charity
“To translate the person-to-person
charity from the village or the small
town to an urban slum seemed, and
indeed was, an impossible hope.”
(Owen, 1964)
“Such codes of social or moral decency as they might previously have
known hardly survived transplanting, and the restraints normally exercised
by regard for public opinion did not exist... The old parochial system
centring on an established church was not applicable to the masses of a
raw town.” (Simey, 1951)

7. 7
Proximity & Awareness of Need

8. 8
Understanding Poverty & Local Needs
Advice
Data
Social
Research

9. 9
Data!

10. 10
Rationality

11. 11
Philanthropy & The State
Zero-Sum
Game?
Mutual
Dependency?

12. 12
The Added Value of Philanthropy?
“The capacity of Voluntary Action inspired by
philanthropy to do new things is beyond question.
Voluntary Action is needed to do things which the
state should not do…. It is needed to do things
which the state is most unlikely to do. It is needed
to pioneer ahead of the state and make experiments.
It is needed to get services rendered which cannot
be got by paying for them.”
Beveridge (1948), Voluntary Action

13. 13
The Wider Sphere of Public Goods
State
Responsibility
Grey Grey
Area Area
Voluntary
Action
Voluntary
Action

14. 14
Campaigning & Advocacy

15. 15
“The greatest danger to the British Empire and to the
British people is not to be found among... the wide
circuit of colonial and foreign affairs. No, it is here in
our midst, close at home, close at hand in the vast
growing cities of England and Scotland, and in the
dwindling and cramped villages of our denuded
countryside. It is there you will find the seeds of
Imperial ruin and national decay – the unnatural gap
between rich and poor . . . the awful jumbles of an
obsolete Poor Law… Here are the enemies of Britain.
Beware lest they shatter the foundations of her power”
(Churchill, 1909)
Enlightened Self Interest #1: Fear of Unrest

16. 16
Enlightened Self Interest #2: Social Status &
Reputation

17. 17
Enlightened Self Interest #2:
Happy, Healthy Workforce

18. 18
“The contribution in one area of such
a large proportion of the national
population as is contained in Greater
London, and the attraction to the
Metropolis of the best industrial,
financial, commercial and general
ability, represents a serious drain on
the rest of the country.”
London vs Everywhere Else?
Barlow Commission Report
(1940)

19. 19
Mayors & Philanthropy
Richard Whittington,
London
Joseph Strutt,
Derby
Andrew
Barclay Walker,
Liverpool
William Reed,
Exeter,
Henry Hart,
Canterbury
Michael Bloomberg,
New York

20. 20
Key Lessons from History of Civic Philanthropy
Value of research and
evidence
Danger of moralistic
approaches to poverty
Fear of unrest as a
motivating factor
Power imbalance in
philanthropy
Need for clarity over role of
state vs philanthropy
Ease of travel and communication
has changed our sense of place
Importance of philanthropic
leadership
H
I
S
T
O
R
Y
Importance of interaction
between those from
different walks of life

21. 21
The Current UK Landscape of Place-Based Funding
From Walker, C.
(2018) Place Based
Giving Schemes:
Funding, engaging &
creating stronger
communities, Report
for DDCMS

22. 22
Motivations for Place-Based Approaches
Existing affinity
with an area
Charitable cause
dictates particular
location
Desire for person or
community-centred
approach
Fitting with boundaries
of public sector
Making measurement
more achievable
Testing innovation at
definable scale

23. 23
What can Civic Philanthropy fund?
Civic Buildings
Data & Research
Future Cities
Arts & Culture
Local Journalism
Community Cohesion Civic Engagement
Philanthropy
Infrastructure
Higher Education Affordable Housing
Parks & Greenspace
Community Assets

24. Challenge 1: Austerity
Already:
Still to
come…

25. The Rise of “Municipal
Philanthropy” in the US

26. Giving vs Public Spending:
differing magnitudes
26
• Total individual giving in UK in
2017 =
• Total Managed Expenditure by
UK Govt 2017 =
£10.3 billion £800 billion
“Philanthropy is truly a
rounding error”
“All the billionaires added together are, as they’d
say bupkis compared to the amount of money
that government spends… It’s trillions of dollars.
Private philanthropy can’t do that.”

27. Giving vs Public Spending:
differing priorities
27
UK Charitable Giving UK Public Spending

28. Challenge 2: Democratic
Legitimacy & Accountability
“A Word to
Grandstand
Specialists”
Samuel Ehrardt, Puck
magazine (1903)
Puck is saying: “You
have qualified
thoroughly as
modern
philanthropists, now
why not do some
good?”

29. Challenge 2: Democratic
Legitimacy & Accountability
“A Christmas
Reminder” Udo
Keppler, Puck magazine
(1901)
Puck is saying: ‘Books are so
cheap and libraries so
abundant that even the
poorest man has all the
literature he wants. Now
why not provide respectable
homes for the people who
are too old to work and
who were never able to
save anything from their
scanty wages; -and so keep
them from beggary,
starvation and suicide?”

30. Challenge 2: Democratic
Legitimacy & Accountability

31. Challenge 3: Power & Inequality
“We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity.
Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor
are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented,
disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so.
Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of
partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually
accompanied by some impertinent attempt on the part of
the sentimentalist to tyrannise over their private lives. Why
should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the
rich man’s table? They should be seated at the board, and
are beginning to know it.”
Oscar Wilde (1891) The Soul of Man Under Socialism

32. Challenge 3: Power & Inequality

33. Power & Inequality: Solutions?
Participatory
Grantmaking
Direct Cash
Transfers
Personal Budgets Challenge Prizes

34. Challenge 4: Sense of Place-
Chicken & Egg?

35. 35
Philanthropy as an Activity & Building
Civic Engagement
“Voluntary Service is
a nursery school of
democracy”
Nathan Report, 1952
“Charitable behaviour has a
unique potential to bridge
divides and help us confront
uncertainty with purpose and
hope….Acts of charity bring
people together - in place and in
shared aims, attitudes and
achievements.”
Baroness Stowell, Chair of Charity
Commission for England & Wales, 2018

36. Challenge 5: Defining “Place” &
“Community”
To what extent does
“community” overlap with
“place”?
How do you determine the level
at which people feel a sense of
belonging to a place?
What about diaspora
communities & those
with attachments to
multiple places?
Does the emergence of
online communities of
identity and purpose
undermine our sense of
place?
Will technology enable
us to return to acting
locally?
Do our own definitions of place
bear any relation to those of
public services or government?
Is there any danger that
increased emphasis on
place could further divide
society at a national level?
When does civic pride
become
parochialism?

37. Where to find more
37
CAF Giving Thought think tank and Giving for the City
project
CAF Giving Thought Podcast
@Rhodri_H_Davies

38. Rhodri Davies
Head of Policy & Programme Director, Giving Thought
Charities Aid Foundation
rdavies@cafonline.org