Date of Award
Spring 1-15-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA - Master of Arts
Department
Mindfulness Studies
First Advisor
Melissa Jean
Second Advisor
Andrew Olendzki
Abstract
Philanthropy serves a vital role in the United States, bringing resources and support to a vibrant field of nonprofit organizations serving community needs. Despite its noble goals to better humankind, philanthropy often does harm through its grantmaking practices, perpetuating hierarchical power structures and inequity, and exacerbating the wealth and income gap that increasingly divides the country. This paper examines the structural, systemic aspects of philanthropy that foster potentially harmful practices and highlights ethical challenges in the field, and then demonstrates how mindfulness offers a means of countering those challenges to support a more ethical, equitable, and effective sector. A mindfulness-based professional development program for philanthropic practitioners is proposed as a means of effecting transformative, positive change in the field, supported by research that directly links mindfulness practices to intervention points in philanthropy.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Borden, Tref, "How a Mindfulness-Based Professional Development Program Supports More Ethical and Equitable Philanthropy" (2023). Mindfulness Studies Theses. 76.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/mindfulness_theses/76
