Kent Philanthropy
A blog about philanthropy research

Author: Beth Breeze

What is Effective Altruism?

By Beth Breeze | 19 September 2016

This blog post is written by Dr. Eddy Hogg, Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent Discussions of effective altruism have been around for some time, … Read more

Charity Shops: Between a rock and a kind face

By Beth Breeze | 07 March 2016

This post is written by Dr Triona Fitton, Pears Philanthropy Fellow at the University of Kent. A recent report published by the True and Fair … Read more

Zuckerberg: the applause, the criticism and the need to discuss philanthropy

By Beth Breeze | 02 December 2015

Our blog has gone a bit quiet over the past few months whilst we’ve focused on lots of research projects and getting our new Masters degree … Read more

Philanthropy (or not) on the stage: a review of ‘The Money’ by Kaleider theatre company

By Beth Breeze | 01 May 2015

‘The Money’ is a piece of participative theatre in which half the audience (the ‘benefactors’) get to decide how to spend a pile of cash … Read more

7 days is also a long time in philanthropy

By Beth Breeze | 27 April 2015

The political sphere normally lays claim to a monopoly on momentum, with the oft-quoted line: ‘a week is a long time in politics’. But the last 7 days have … Read more

Kent: The Philanthropy Story

By Beth Breeze | 26 January 2015

This blog post is written by Dr Triona Fitton, Research Associate in the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent The University of Kent, much like the … Read more

Why teach and study philanthropy at UK universities?

By Beth Breeze | 28 December 2014

This blog is about why we are trying to build the field of philanthropic studies in our Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent. Over … Read more

The Morality of Charity: Five Key Questions

By Beth Breeze | 18 November 2014

This blog is written by Dr Eddy Hogg, Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent On Friday myself and 5 Kent colleagues attended a seminar at … Read more

Loneliness in Older Age: How Can Volunteering Help?

By Beth Breeze | 16 October 2014

 This is a guest blog from my colleague Dr Eddy Hogg Research by the International Longevity Centre and the charity Independent Age demonstrates the growing … Read more

Secrets of online fundraising success

By Beth Breeze | 13 August 2014

This blog is written by my colleague Dr Eddy Hogg: Next month my wonderful Mum turns 70. To celebrate she is asking her family and friends … Read more

Winning the Philanthropy World Cup

By Beth Breeze | 17 July 2014

This blog post is written by my colleague Dr Eddy Hogg, in the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent Last Sunday the World Cup … Read more

Bossy Boots’ best books on philanthropy

By Beth Breeze | 23 June 2014

In 2009 I blogged about how much I love being asked to suggest good books on philanthropy. I like to think it’s a type of gift to … Read more

Volunteers are philanthropists too

By Beth Breeze | 02 June 2014

This blogpost is written by my colleague, Dr Eddy Hogg This week is the 30th annual National Volunteers Week, a week of celebrations across the … Read more

Making the most of baby boomer volunteers

By Beth Breeze | 01 April 2014

This guest blog post is written by my colleague Dr Eddy Hogg, whose research focuses on volunteering: This week sees the launch of the Commission … Read more

Making sense of the #nomakeupselfie trend

By Beth Breeze | 21 March 2014

One of the great benefits of teaching is the amount you learn from your students. My current ‘Fundraising and Philanthropy’ class are a particular delight … Read more

Inspirational Fundraising & moral philosophy in action

By Beth Breeze | 28 February 2014

You may have already seen this advert as it has had more than 12 million views on YouTube,  but I only became aware of it … Read more

Top marks for donor appreciation

By Beth Breeze | 14 February 2014

I’m buzzing after spending the morning at our university’s ‘Donor Appreciation Day’. This was a super initiative, led by Anne-Marie Rigley in our development office, … Read more

Debunking Philanthropic Myths

By Beth Breeze | 21 January 2014

Just a quick blog today, as I start teaching the new intake of students on our Masters-level class in ‘Fundraising and Philanthropy’ this afternoon. But I … Read more

How I learnt that charity begins at home

By Beth Breeze | 09 January 2014

This is a guest post written by Caroline Walsh,  Honorary Research Associate in the Kent Centre for Philanthropy: The question of how we decide what … Read more

Giving quietly or ostentatiously?: The case of the Teddy Bear Toss

By Beth Breeze | 09 December 2013

This is a guest post from my new colleague, Dr Eddy Hogg Research published by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) last week showed that Britain … Read more

Something worth blogging about: Open Philanthropy UK

By Beth Breeze | 05 August 2013

One of the paradoxes of engaging in social media is that the busier you are doing things that are actually worth blogging or tweeting about, … Read more

Guest blog: Reflections on Social Justice Philanthropy conference

By Beth Breeze | 17 May 2013

I am delighted to introduce this blog, written by my good colleagues Dr Balihar Sanghera and Dr Kate Bradley, who have spent the past year … Read more

Why do people avoid fundraisers?

By Beth Breeze | 17 April 2013

This time of year in a university is pretty full-on. We finished teaching last week, and need to tackle the mountain of assignments to be … Read more

Great Greek Grads & Giving Pledge Goes Global

By Beth Breeze | 22 February 2013

I’ve been in Athens this week, teaching a condensed version of my ‘fundraising and philanthropy’ masters level course, to 16 University of Kent students who … Read more

A victory that needs to be front page news

By Beth Breeze | 07 February 2013

Last week’s front page of The Times made many people’s hearts sink – including mine. The Times had exposed a scam that takes advantage of … Read more

The Secrets of Fundraising Success

By Beth Breeze | 09 January 2013

Happy New Year! 2013 is going to be a good year for lots of reasons. But the one I’m thinking about today is that I’ll … Read more

Fundraising pearls of wisdom – and all for free

By Beth Breeze | 14 December 2012

I’m an avid follower of the Institute of Fundraising’s LinkedIn discussion pages. If you have even a passing interest in how fundraising works, and the … Read more

More Million Pound Donors but fall in total value of their donations

By Beth Breeze | 10 December 2012

I’ll blog properly soon about the latest Million Pound Donors Report, released today. But for now here’s the press release: The annual Coutts Million Pound … Read more

Understanding Philanthropy – three years on

By Beth Breeze | 14 November 2012

Read here an article about the Centre on Philanthropy’s first three years.

Philanthropy, Fairness and Democracy

By Beth Breeze | 09 November 2012

The past year has been a turbulent one for philanthropy in the UK. Whilst progress has been made in doing more to celebrate and encourage … Read more

The wonderful world of fundraising, plus another grumble

By Beth Breeze | 23 October 2012

Just a quickie today, more to draw attention to what someone else has written than to share anything original from my desk. But with an … Read more

The real cost of headlines about charity re-brands

By Beth Breeze | 08 October 2012

Today’s Third Sector carries an article about a re-brand of a major UK charity. The headline is: Institute of Cancer Research launches £187k rebrand This … Read more

How paying tax differs from giving to charity

By Beth Breeze | 11 September 2012

The debate about the relationship between taxes and philanthropy was opened up by this year’s Budget and its (thankfully) ill-fated proposal to cap tax reliefs … Read more

Rich ghettos deplete generosity

By Beth Breeze | 28 August 2012

Fascinating new research from the US finds that living in rich-only enclaves rather than in mixed income communities is related to lower levels of philanthropy. … Read more

Views from the receiving end of charity

By Beth Breeze | 21 August 2012

After a media launch with a comment piece in the Guardian last week, we spent today mailing out copies of our new report User Views … Read more

U-turn is the best Jubilee gift for charities

By Beth Breeze | 01 June 2012

Yesterday the Chancellor announced he would not proceed with the proposed limits on tax reliefs for charitable donations. This was a surprising, yet deeply welcome … Read more

Language Matters: do we ‘manage’ or ‘respect’ our donors?

By Beth Breeze | 16 May 2012

Yesterday I enjoyed taking part in a lively online discussion organised by the Guardian newspaper’s Voluntary Sector Network. The topic was ‘Managing Major Donors’ and … Read more

Charity tax relief cap: what the politicians are saying

By Beth Breeze | 17 April 2012

Nearly a month after the Chancellor dropped his bombshell in the Budget, announcing a cap on tax reliefs for charitable donors, the House of Commons … Read more

7 days is a long time in philanthropy

By Beth Breeze | 29 March 2012

Just over a week ago, I was relaxing after giving one of the final lectures on my ‘Fundraising and Philanthropy’ course, anticipating the chance to … Read more

Are donors really giving all they can?

By Beth Breeze | 20 March 2012

The headline in yesterday’s Third Sector news made depressing news: ‘Almost half of donors are giving all they can, says Institute of Fundraising survey’. Really? Do … Read more

Turning the anti-philanthropy media tide?

By Beth Breeze | 09 March 2012

The Guardian newspaper is my paper of choice, and read by pretty much everyone that I know and like. I met my husband with the … Read more

Best Books on Corporate Philanthropy

By Beth Breeze | 11 January 2012

I love being asked to recommend books, in fact one of the favourite parts of my job is writing book reviews and brief notices of … Read more

UK Donors to watch in 2012

By Beth Breeze | 05 January 2012

I love a challenge, so I couldn’t resist it when Martin Brookes asked me to name the UK equivalent of the US ‘donors to watch … Read more

What’s the point of the Million Pound Donors Report?

By Beth Breeze | 02 January 2012

There’s only one question on people’s lips when we launch each new edition of the annual ‘Coutts Million Pound Donors Report’: “Who are they?” Instead … Read more

FT coverage of 2011 Million Pound Donors Report

By Beth Breeze | 10 December 2011

As the first coverage of our new report on donors making gifts worth £1m or more is hidden behind a paywall, I’ll paste it here … Read more

Some of my best friends are prospect researchers, but…

By Beth Breeze | 18 October 2011

I’m not a fan of confrontation but I recently felt the need to pick a fight with those people who knock fundraising research and say … Read more

‘Thankyou’ is not the hardest word

By Beth Breeze | 05 October 2011

Today I finally heard some common sense from the Manchester gathering of Tories, as Ed Vaizey MP told his party conference that charity chief executives … Read more

Media friendly or media tart?

By Beth Breeze | 15 September 2011

Now I’ve been back from maternity leave for a few weeks, it’s time to get into the swing of one of the best bits of … Read more

Media overload and the role of ‘disaster porn’

By Beth Breeze | 09 August 2011

As others have noted, there is too much news at the moment. The current UK riots are the latest massive story to grab the headlines … Read more

Why does the philanthropy sector ignore fundraisers?

By Beth Breeze | 11 July 2011

Wonderful to spend time at the Institute of Fundraising convention last week. I bumped into lots of great colleagues and enjoyed hearing Adrian Sargeant, Joe Saxton, … Read more

Learning to love ‘appalling’ and ‘quease-making’ philanthropists

By Beth Breeze | 04 July 2011

Today is my first day back at work after a blissful 8 months of maternity leave. I’ll miss hanging out with little Meredith but am … Read more

Jimi Heselden, multi-million pound philanthropist, R.I.P.

By Beth Breeze | 27 September 2010

I was very sad to read about the untimely death of UK philanthropist Jimi Heselden, in a tragic accident yesterday. Mr Heselden kindly agreed to … Read more

Does philanthropy enhance or replace government spending?

By Beth Breeze | 13 September 2010

Good news over the weekend about John Sainsbury’s £25 million gift to the British museum. That is a seriously large donation by UK standards, from … Read more

A wizard of a £10m philanthropic gift

By Beth Breeze | 31 August 2010

In today’s news we learn that Harry Potter author JK Rowling is giving £10 million to the University of Edinburgh to fund a new research clinic … Read more

Fundraising is about raising money not changing behaviour

By Beth Breeze | 19 August 2010

Nice to see New Philanthropy Capital’s blog about our research on How Donors Choose Charities, which argues that charitable giving is more often ‘taste based’ … Read more

3 research projects, 2 deadlines and 1 baby

By Beth Breeze | 16 August 2010

Summers are meant to be quiet times in universities but the pace of my work seems to have increased these past weeks. Two big reports … Read more

RSS Follow me on Twitter

Tags

charitable giving donations million pound donors philanthropy research University of Kent

Recent Posts

  • What is Effective Altruism?

    UNCATEGORIZED

  • Charity Shops: Between a rock and a kind face

    PHILANTHROPY IN THE NEWS

  • Zuckerberg: the applause, the criticism and the need to discuss philanthropy

    PHILANTHROPY IN THE NEWS

  • Philanthropy (or not) on the stage: a review of ‘The Money’ by Kaleider theatre company

    PHILANTHROPY EVENTS

  • 7 days is also a long time in philanthropy

    PHILANTHROPY IN THE NEWS

  • Kent: The Philanthropy Story

    UNCATEGORIZED

  • Why teach and study philanthropy at UK universities?

    UNCATEGORIZED

  • The Morality of Charity: Five Key Questions

    PHILANTHROPY RESEARCH

  • Loneliness in Older Age: How Can Volunteering Help?

    PHILANTHROPY IN THE NEWS

  • Secrets of online fundraising success

    PHILANTHROPY RESEARCH

Categories

  • COP-news
  • Philanthropy Events
  • Philanthropy in the News
  • Philanthropy Research
  • Uncategorized

Charity Sector

  • Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
  • CAF (Charities Aid Foundation)
  • NCVO Foresight

Fundraising

  • Fundraising.co.uk
  • Institute of Fundraising

Other blogs I read

  • Bubb’s Blog
  • Confident Philanthropy
  • Just Giving
  • New Philanthropy Capital
  • Parkeslife
  • Rob Dyson beta

Philanthropy advice

  • Institute for Philanthropy
  • New Philanthropy Capital (NPC)
  • Philanthropy UK

Research Centres

  • Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy
  • Centre for Philanthropy
  • nfpSynergy

University of Kent

  • School for Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
  • University of Kent

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of the University of Kent. More about Kent blogs and blogging guidelines. Report concern