I Dish Out the Food Your Supermarket Can’t Use

My Neighbors Were Going Hungry, So I Got My Local Trader Joe’s to Donate Carloads of Groceries

In the spring of 2009, my teenage daughter and I attended a memorial service in Pasadena, California, followed by a family-style luncheon. After the service, the retired clergyman who had officiated was holding a plate in one hand and arranging leftovers onto it. The plate was teetering on the edge of the very full table; I walked over and asked if I could help.

I assumed he was preparing food for the family to eat later in the day. Instead, he told me the sandwiches were going to nearby apartments of …

Are We All Wyclef Jean?

So Many Would-Be Helpers Of Haiti Still Manage To Get It Wrong—Especially If They’re Famous

Since the January 2010 earthquake, Hollywood celebrities, like so many Americans, have given their money and loaned their faces and voices to Haiti. But are they helping the country—or are …

How We Got So Good At Giving Our Money Away

Historian Olivier Zunz On the Rise of Philanthropy in the United States

The United States has produced a system of philanthropy distinguished by the breadth of its ambition and the participation of the masses, University of Virginia historian Olivier Zunz said in …

Is Philanthropy Too Powerful?

(We’re Not Talking About You, Of Course)

 

Philanthropy has a good name, but it doesn’t always make friends. Every foundation has its own mission, and these missions can be in conflict with one another. They can also, …