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"Social justice grantmakers aim to go one step beyond teaching a man to fish, to borrow an old saying. They ask why so few people in this man's community can afford to own a fishing pole; why the county incinerator is being sited in his neighborhood, befouling his pond rather than that of his wealthier townsmen; and why he's being taught to fish when he's more likely to earn a living wage as an accountant or engineer." So wrote Albert Ruesga, President and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, in an effort to answer the question: what is social justice philanthropy? He notes that it draws on a number of traditions: the effort to combat structural injustice, to enforce universal human rights, to insure equal distribution of resources, to empower disenfranchised individuals and communities, and several others.

We asked a panel of experts to tackle this question, taking their bearings from Ruesga's reflections on the question in the articles below.

Required Reading
by Albert Ruesga and Deborah Puntenney

by Albert Ruesga