Philanthro-capitalism: How charity became big business

The charitable sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the global economy. Nearly half of the more than 85,000 private foundations in the United States have come into being since the year 2000. Just under 5,000 more were established in 2011 alone. This deluge of philanthropy has helped create a world where billionaires wield more power over education policy, global agriculture, and global health than ever before.

In No Such Thing as a Free Gift, author and academic Linsey McGoey puts this new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope-paying particular attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As large charitable organizations replace governments as the providers of social welfare, their largesse becomes suspect. The businesses fronting the money often create the very economic instability and inequality the foundations are purported to solve. We are entering an age when the ideals of social justice are dependent on the strained rectitude and questionable generosity of the mega-rich.

"Fierce . provocatively examines the power imbalances and ambiguities of charitable giving . a clear-eyed and much-needed study." - Guardian

"McGoey correctly questions whether Big Government would, in fact, be more efficient than Big Philanthropy in addressing the rise of inequality." - New Republic

"It's worth hearing what she has to say, because it's not said enough . we give too little scrutiny to people like Gates, and too much credence to the idea that philanthrocapitalism can 'save the world.'" - Fast Company

"Picking up the cudgels wielded by Ida Tarbell and her fellow trustbusters, McGoey produces a startling report." - Kirkus

"A timely criticism of a society that allows an individual to accumulate such a distorting amount of financial power; it is an indictment of unaccountable power." - Maclean’s

"In this valuable, dense, but accessible book, McGoey illuminates a major cultural shift in leadership and control of power in the US. Highly recommended." - Choice

"A lively and well-argued antidote to the comfortable but superficial assumption that giving money away is, by definition, good: it helps you understand why things are more complicated than that." - Third Sector

"Essential reading for any scholar interested in contemporary development issues . McGoey convincingly shows that contemporary philanthropic thinking abides by the same underlying ideology than that of the so-called robber barons." - Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies