I’ve been studying philanthropy for the past few years, learning about its history in the United States, understanding its beginnings, and navigating the landscape. Every history book on philanthropy I was required to read either failed to mention anything about Muslim philanthropy or Islam’s influence on Western philanthropy or had one paragraph dedicated to it… Read more »
by Meredith McNabb By my credentialing, it might appear as if I am a “master of divinity”—though I can assure you that my M.Div. degree might have done more to assure me of how very little I even can master about the ultimate nature of the divine than anything else. I was reminded of my research-scientist-spouse’s raised-eyebrow… Read more »
by Elise Erikson Barrett Last month, I had the opportunity to represent Lake Institute (wearing my graduate student intern hat) and participate in a convening that was held here in Indianapolis, focused on faith-informed models of “neighborhood economics” that have the potential to help move economic structures and relationships in more life-giving directions. (To engage… Read more »
By Dilnaz Waraich This April, Muslims around the world will be observing the holiday of Ramadan—a month-long period of fasting from dawn to sundown, and of thinking of others, and of giving back. Philanthropy is deeply rooted in the Muslim faith, as well as my own. When I was a child, the month before Ramadan,… Read more »
By Meredith McNabb Associate Director for Educational Programming Lake Institute on Faith & Giving A lot of nonprofit organizations are out of breath in January after the end-of-the-year nonprofit fundraising rush, and in plenty of religious nonprofit organizations there’s also been an end-of-the-year budgeting dash plus an end-of-the-year holiday crunch: it might feel like the… Read more »