Browsing by Subject "charity"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    "Charity Never Faileth": Philanthropy in the Short Fiction of Herman Melville
    (2014) Goldfarb, Nancy D.; Schultz, Jane E.; Eller, Jonathan R., 1952-; Robertson, Nancy Marie, 1956-; Tilley, John J.
    This dissertation analyzes the critique of charity and philanthropy implicit in Melville’s short fiction written for periodicals between 1853 and 1856. Melville utilized narrative and tone to conceal his opposition to prevailing ideologies and manipulated narrative structures to make the reader complicit in the problematic assumptions of a market economy. Integrating close readings with critical theory, I establish that Melville was challenging the new rhetoric of philanthropy that created a moral identity for wealthy men in industrial capitalist society. Through his short fiction, Melville exposed self-serving conduct and rationalizations when they masqueraded as civic-minded responses to the needs of the community. Melville was joining a public conversation about philanthropy and civic leadership in an American society that, in its pursuit of private wealth, he believed was losing touch with the democratic and civic ideals on which the nation had been founded. Melville’s objection was not with charitable giving; rather, he objected to its use as a diversion from honest reflection on one’s responsibilities to others.
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    For Goodness' Sake: A Two-Part Proposal for Remedying the United States Charity/Justice Imbalance
    (2016) Quigley, Fran; Robert H. McKinley School of Law
    The approach to addressing economic and social needs in the United States strongly favors individual and corporate charity over the establishment and enforcement of economic and social rights. This charity/justice imbalance has a severely negative impact on the nation's poor, who struggle with inadequate access to healthcare, housing, and nutrition, despite high overall U.S. wealth. This article suggests a two-part approach for remedying the charity/justice imbalance in the United States. First, the U.S. should eliminate the charitable tax deduction, a policy that does not effectively address economic and social needs, forces an inequitable poverty relief and tax burden on the middle class, and lulls the nation into a false sense of complacency about its poverty crisis. Second, the U.S. should replace the deduction with ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This twopart process would reverse the U.S. legacy of avoiding enforceable commitments to economic and social rights. Charity would take a step back and justice a step forward.
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    Literature Review on High Net Worth Philanthropy
    (2011-10) Osili, Una
    Philanthropic activity among high net worth individuals has received much attention in recent years, becoming the focus of scholarly research and policy interest. High net worth philanthropy has received media attention with a number of stories about wealthy individuals making substantial pledges or contributions. High-profile donors and the efforts of philanthropists such as Oprah Winfrey, George Soros, and Ted Turner, among others, have generated a renewed interest in the idea of the wealthy giving away large portions of their fortunes to charitable causes.
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    Price Ceiling: The Charitable Status of Fee-Charging Nonprofits
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Katz, Robert
    Is a fee-charging nonprofit legally “charitable” if it effectively excludes poor people from its services by charging high fees? This paper compares and contrasts how the English and U.S. legal systems answer this question. The question itself draws attention to the difference between what “charity” and “charitable” mean for laypersons as opposed to lawyers versed in the “common law” i.e., the body of judge-made law that originated in England and was adopted by the U.S. and other former British colonies. In ordinary usage, charity means relief of the poor. Under the common law, however, “charity” can describe any nonprofit entity that (inter alia) advances education (e.g., schools), promotes health (e.g., hospitals) or relieves poverty. These purposes are free-standing: a school can be “charitable” without relieving poverty, and a poverty relief agency can be charitable without advancing education. In Anglo-American common law, the fact that a nonprofit hospital, school, etc., charges fees for its services does not automatically make it non-charitable. Yet what is the upper limit of this principle? In the U.S., nonprofit hospitals must provide charity care to the uninsured and underinsured or risk losing their tax-exempt status. In England, expensive nonprofit private schools can be legally “charitable” even if they offer no financial aid, so long as they at least consider the needs of the poor. Why do the English and U.S. legal systems disagree on the charitability of fee-charging nonprofits? The answer, this paper argues, lies in whether a legal system’s definition of “charitable” is singular or multiple. English law uses the same definition of “charitable” for both common law and tax-exempt purposes, while U.S. law does not. As a result, the U.S. legal system has more flexibility to gradate the fiscal and other advantages it confers upon nonprofits to better reflect the amount of public benefit they provide. For example, it can deem a nonprofit hospital a “charity” for common law purposes (e.g., if “charitable,” a trust can endure indefinitely; private trusts by contrast must expire within a generation or two), while at the same time rejecting the hospital’s charitableness not for tax-exempt purposes. This analysis lays the foundation for drawing normative conclusions, such as “which is better, and why.”