The first in a series of articles on social justice philanthropy was published in Alliance Online in December 2005. In this first article, Colin Greer and Barry Knight attempted to answer some basic questions about what social justice philanthropy is and why it matters. In their next article, in March 2006, they traced the history of philanthropy in the US and Europe since the end of the nineteenth century. Now they take up the discussion to try to tease out exactly what the role of social justice philanthropy is and who its targets are.

Barry Knight Despite much charitable effort and expenditure, the world remains in a terrible mess: widespread failure to meet basic needs alongside ever more greed, environmental meltdown, war, and so on.