Introduction

In December 2013 the Conservative think tank, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), reprised its arguments that ‘charity deserts’ existed in the UK, and that this constituted evidence of a dearth in social action in communities. Their argument rested on comparisons of variations in the ratio of charitable organisations to population between local authorities in England. The CSJ was relatively silent on what might be done about this situation, apart from expressing the hope that ‘something's got to give’: in other words, an increase in philanthropic activity was desirable. Whether this will have much effect on the manifest variations in the distribution of charitable resources is the subject of this paper.

The CSJ were by no means the first commentators to consider whether charitable giving promotes a socially just distribution of resources. John Stuart Mill argued that ‘charity almost always does too much or too little. It lavishes its bounty in one place, and leaves people to starve in another’ (1907, V.11.47). A more recent academic analysis argued that philanthropy has four distinct limitations: philanthropic amateurism, insufficiency, particularism and paternalism (Salamon, 1987, p40). The second of these, the inability of philanthropy to allocate resources to places and causes where they are most needed, is closely related to the concerns of the CSJ, and in this chapter I consider the challenges of mapping the distribution of charitable resources. There is a need for clarity in our assessments of this question. Considerable hopes are currently vested in voluntary initiatives and philanthropy, and there is optimism about the promise of the new philanthropy. Yet without a realistic appraisal of the current distribution of charitable resources, there is a risk that the new philanthropy might replicate the weaknesses of the old.

An assessment of the degree of social justice and redistribution achieved by charitable resources raises a number of questions. Donors may have a range of motivations for their generosity, and achieving social justice may not be one of them. Charitable activity has direct and indirect impacts on people and communities. The benefits might include the delivery of services, advice and support, and the provision of access to resources, whether in cash or in kind. The benefits of charitable activity may, however, be indirect, non-monetary and difficult to quantify.