Carnegie UK Trust in partnership with the UK Government, Office of the Third Sector and Scottish Executive and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) are establishing the UK’s first independent, multidisciplinary, academically based Charitable Giving and Philanthropy Research Centre in the summer of 2007.
- The Centre will be to support high quality research aimed at developing the necessary evidence base to better understand charitable giving and philanthropy issues, and to influence policy and practice decisions in the UK and the devolved jurisdictions. Its main role will be to strengthen the provision and use of independent, high quality, relevant and robust research and empirical evidence.
- The Centre will develop knowledge, capacity and expertise through in-depth longer-term research and development, and will deliver short and longer-term analyses with sufficient rigour and relevance to inform policy and practice decisions. The Centre will produce syntheses of existing knowledge to ensure maximum benefit is obtained from research expenditure. And it will be responsible for the dissemination of relevant outcomes and analysis through publications, seminars, workshops, professional development support, etc.
- The Centre will draw together leading experts throughout the UK and beyond, and bring together research knowledge to strengthen the evidence base. It will become a focus for stakeholder engagement, knowledge exchange and transfer, working closely with, and supporting the work of, regional and national bodies and for cross-national and international collaboration. It will support overall research capacity through the development of skilled researchers with expertise in charitable giving and philanthropy research, and by developing and facilitating the use of data and other resources required for high quality research.
Smarter, more effective philanthropy
Independent funders in the UK, both the established trusts and foundations and new philanthropists, have taken a lead in recent years in promoting smarter and more effective philanthropy, informed by substantive R&D. Examples include the establishment of New Philanthropy Capital, the Institute of Philanthropy and Philanthropy UK (an initiative of the Association of Charitable Foundations). In 2005 the Carnegie UK Trust commissioned a consultation of foundations across the UK, which endorsed the proposal that a ‘virtual’ research centre to support more creative philanthropy in the UK be established.
The Carnegie UK Trust report Stepping Up the Stairs found that those involved in philanthropy in the UK had been engaged in three significant debates in recent years. First, a concern about the amount of giving. Second, a concern to improve the processes used in giving money away. And third, to ensure that foundation money focuses on the effective pursuit of social justice as the key outcome. The report concluded that there was a need for a research Centre that would assist foundations and philanthropists to be able to understand and address each of these concerns more creatively.
