In a world both fraught with challenges and rich in opportunities, which relies on the collective action of its citizens to positively progress, a group of powerful philanthropic actors who can help to achieve transformative change have been consistently overlooked: our children.

Philanthropy plays a fundamental role in civil society, with children and young people globally being one of the most common beneficiaries of philanthropic gifts. Yet children's voices are all too often absent from philanthropic conversations and decision making. We frequently ignore their role as current social actors and, importantly, as active members of the philanthropic ecosystem. Throughout the pages of this book, I argue why it is not only important that we start to take children's philanthropic engagement more seriously, but also that is vital if we are to achieve a more just, equitable society which works for all.

Philanthropy – ‘the love of humankind’, ‘good will to others’, ‘voluntary action for social good’ – why would anyone take issue with such a notion? Nonetheless, it is a concept which attracts a great deal of scrutiny, debate and indeed criticism, often associated with ideas of power, influence and privilege. I don't dismiss these criticisms; indeed, I think these debates within philanthropy are important, necessary and healthy. However, I worry that within this scrutiny and common focus on big philanthropy, we have lost sight of what to me is a more central, uniting and unifying debate: what does it mean to be philanthropic and why does this matter? In this book I present our philanthropic behaviours as acts of citizenship, showing the importance of our everyday participation in philanthropic decision making and linking this to social justice, acts of participation and democracy. I argue that our philanthropic actions should not be solely tied to the personal sphere, as is so often the case, but instead should be understood through a lens of participation and indeed collective action, alongside our moral obligation and responsibility to others as fellow citizens. In essence, our philanthropic self should be a central consideration of our citizenship. So, I have come to spend much of my time considering the act of philanthropy through this lens of citizenship, and something I have termed ‘philanthropic citizenship’.