Geographies of Philanthropy

Geographies of philanthropy matter because of the uneven economic distributions of wealth and poverty dictating where philanthropic funds flow from and to, and how these flows of funding across space are tied to diverse historical, developmental, legal, political, cultural, and digital geographies of philanthropy. Philanthropy ostensibly involves an inclusive impulse to care for others in general, manifesting in distinctly localized practices of gift‐giving, territorial outreach, and targeted intervention. Problems with philanthropy have always been geographical, related to who gets to envision the appropriate arenas of beneficence, what people and places merit concern, and where else is excluded. Economic geographies of philanthropy outline the macro‐economic spatial patterns of these divided philanthropic spaces. Microscale analyses reveal complex component “philanthroscapes” that further fragment the geographies of philanthropy in ways that both deterritorialize and reterritorialize contemporary arenas of philanthropic care.