Participatory philanthropy

Current philanthropic practices often funnel power into the hands of a few individuals in positions of power, whose world views and cultural ideologies take precedence in all aspects of philanthropic endeavour. There are numerous ways to address these philanthropic problems, including practical changes to legal structures, adaptation of processes, changes to how, who and what we fund and changes to the culture and values of the philanthropic sector.  

This paper aims to look at only one of these methods of change - participatory philanthropy. It will briefly examine the pros and cons of participatory philanthropic practice, as well as describing a range of models of practice, using case studies of organisations as a descriptive tool.