The Center on Philanthropy is one of the first institutions in the United States -- and probably in the world -- to develop intentionally a university-level program of research and teaching specifically about the history and traditions of philanthropy.

Faculty in the IUPUI School of Liberal Arts and the IU-Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences have created strong teaching and research programs in the history of philanthropy in the U.S. and in the history of philanthropy as it has been practiced in other places at other times. An award-winning book, Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History , edited by Lawrence Friedman and Mark McGarvie, was funded through the Center's research grant program for IU faculty. See below for a partial list of publications about the history of philanthropy authored by Center staff, alumni, and faculty or published through the IU Press Series in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies.

Through ethnographic and historic research, scholars supported in part through the Center have developed works that help us understand better philanthropic traditions in specific populations , including African-Americans, Native Americans, women, and people of different religious faiths.

Philanthropy has taken various forms throughout history. Focused works about philanthropy in specific times and places develop our understanding of the different roles philanthropy has played in society.

Through a competitive, peer-reviewed grants program to faculty at Indiana University , the Center continues to provide financial support for new scholarship. Recent grants have supported study about philanthropy in 15 th- to 19 th -century France , 20 th -century China , mid-20 th Century colonial Congo , 19 th -century Italy , and 21 st -century United States .

Historical Traditions of Philanthropy, General

Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History , edited by Lawrence Friedman and Mark McGarvie, Cambridge University Press, 2003. Winner of the Skystone Ryan Prize, Association of Fundraising Professionals, April 2004. Runner-up, the Hodgkinson Research Prize, Independent Sector, October 2003.

The Making of the Nonprofit Sector in the United States : A Reader , David Hammack, ed., IU Press, 2000

Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies in Giving and Volunteering , Robert T. Grimm, Jr. ed., Greenwood Press, 2001.

Philanthropy in the U.S. : A Historical Encyclopedia , Dwight L. Burlingame, ed., ABI-Clio, 2004.

Philanthropy in the World's Traditions , Warren Ilchman, Stanley Katz, and Edward Queen, eds., IU Press, 1998.

The Moral Issues of Doing Good (forthcoming) edited by David H. Smith, senior scholar, the Poynter Center on Ethics and Religion, Indiana University Bloomington.

Philanthropic traditions in specific populations

African-American Traditions of Giving and Serving: A Midwest Perspective , Cheryl Hall- Russell, Robert Kasberg, The Center on Philanthropy, 1997.

Envisioning Growth-Achieving Greatness: The Story of the Hispanic Stewardship Development Partnership, Lilya Wagner , The Center on Philanthropy, 2004.

The Honor of Giving , Ronald Austin Wells, The Center on Philanthropy, 1998.

Philanthropy in Communities of Color , Bradford Smith, Sylvia Shue, Jennifer Vest, Joseph Villareal, IU Press, 1999.

Philanthropy in specific times and places

Literature and Humanitarian Reform in the Civil War Era , Gregory Eiselein, 1996.

Rockefeller Philanthropy & Modern Biomedicine: International Initiatives from

World War I to the Cold War , William H. Schneider, editor, IU Press, 2002.

The Torchbearers: Women and Amateur Art Associations , Karen Blair, IU Press, 1994.

Recent faculty research projects about the history and traditions of philanthropy

Owen Dwyer, Who Will Remember the Dream: The Civil Rights Memorial Project

Lawrence Friedman, The Art of Giving: Erich Fromm and the Intellectual Emigration from the Holocaust

Didier Gondola, Liberation Philanthropy, Redemptive Politics and the Birth of Civil Society in Africa : The Case of L'Amicale in Colonial Congo , 1926-1960

Carl Ipsen, Salviamo il fanciullo! Marginalized Children in Liberal Italy

James Riley, Civic Beneficence, Civic Modeling: The Moretus Family in Antwerp

Nancy Robertson, White Women and the Politics of Christian Sisterhood

Kevin Robbins, Beaune's Hotel-Dieu and the Cultural History of Burgundian Philanthropy, 1450-1850

Xin Zhang, Civil Society and Philanthropy in Modern China