A pre-loved teddy bear in a second hand store

Book Review – Rob Reich’s “Just giving: Why philanthropy is failing democracy and how it can do better”

Rob Reich’s “Just giving” examines the favourable tax treatment of donations (in Singapore, for example, the tax deduction for qualifying donations is 250 per cent), the definition of the non-profit sector for both public charity and private foundations, as well as the limits of philanthropy. He does so by offering a political theory of philanthropy guided by the theories of liberty and justice under democratic settings, and Reich works to identify the type(s) of institutional arrangements which should define and structure philanthropy.