Centre of Excellence first for UK philanthropy research

The UK’s first independent, multidisciplinary, and academically based Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy has now been established, with three programmes and a hub receiving joint investment of £2.2m over 5 years.

With the announcement in November of the successful bids to run the ‘spokes’, the question now being asked is how the Centre will become “a centre of excellence”, as stated by its new Director, Professor Jenny Harrow.

These bids, now establishing themselves as research programmes, are as follows.

1. Individual and Business Giving – Professor Charles Harvey based at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strathclyde University
2. Charitable Giving and Social Redistribution – led by Professor John Mohan from Southampton University and Dr Iain Wilkinson at Kent University
3. Institutionalised Giving Structures – based at Cass Business School and Edinburgh University, and to be led by Professor Jenny Harrow and Professor Stephen Osborne.

Beth Breeze, Philanthropy UK’s Publications Editor, and a researcher at Kent University, will be intrinsically involved in the research work of the second ‘spoke’ on Charitable Giving. She and Cathy Pharoah, the Centre’s co-ordinating Hub’s co-director spoke with Philanthropy UK about their involvement in the research, aims, and projected outcomes; and how the Centre will become a centre of excellence.

The Centre is being jointly funded by The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) in the Cabinet Office, the Carnegie UK Trust, and the Scottish Government. Cathy Pharoah, former director of research at Charities Aid Foundation, said, “A significant amount of money has been invested in this, and we'll be judged by our results.

“We see a key role as creating links between the different communities of interest and expertise. This is not all motherhood and apple-pie. It is about creating networks, forums and materials which stimulate genuine engagement and information-sharing, and have an impact on policy-makers, practitioners and research agendas.”
 
With regards to becoming a centre for excellence, Pharoah said that the Chair of the Centre, Professor Nicholas Deakin, would have an important role in bringing the hub and ‘spokes’ together, and ensure that experience and knowledge is shared across all programmes.

This will be reflected in the developing programmes, and the first project for the Charitable Giving spoke, beginning in April 2008, will entail the mapping of the geographical distribution of charities and resources - a first for the UK - and will also replicate US methodology.

Breeze said, “We know very little about how the distribution of charities and charitable resources relates to patterns of social inequality, for example, between rich and poor areas, or between urban and rural areas. This work will provide a detailed analysis of this question. 

“Alongside the other research the Centre’s spokes will be doing, this will transform the evidence base both quantitatively and qualitatively, and will allow the UK to engage internationally. Finally we can say there is impartial and objective research into philanthropy.”