Proposal Philanthropy

Philanthropy -­‐ Research Paper Outline Lisa Hebenstreit Research Question: Why are consulting firms growing of importance in the third sector and are there country specific differences? In today’s society the need of giving increases. This development is reflected by more and more philanthropic foundations coming into life, which enable investing in a broad variety of social concerns. Due to the wide range of giving possibilities, donators face the agony of choice in which foundation to invest. To come to a proper decision requires knowledge and detailed information about the foundations’ measures and goals. It is for this reason that along with the rising number of foundations, the landscape of consulting companies has dramatically developed during the past decade.1 In one part of my research paper, I would like to analyze the development of philanthropic consultancies and what kind of services they offer within the third sector. As the consultancy services comprise not only providing advice to individual donors but also providing strategic and management advice to organizations, I would like to examine which kind of consultancy service is requested most and underlying reasons for this trend. In