Philanthropy: Evidence in Favor of a Profession

Philanthropic employees have been cautious in implying that they are pursuing a career in philanthropy. And in this journal, Karl Stauber (2010) presented an argument in support of such caution: that philanthropy failed to meet all seven standards posited by Burton J. Bledstein, that when met, define a profession. This article presents a literature review and findings from a survey of 500 members of the Council on Foundations that offer evidence for the counterargument that philanthropic work requires specialized education and training to master a set of core competencies. While this article does not argue for or against the question, determining whether philanthropy as a field can rightly be considered a profession has important consequences.