The philanthropic LLC: Business influence over/via EdTech

Lara Patil and Dana Brakman Reiser

International Journal of Educational Development, 2025, vol. 115, issue C

Abstract: This paper presents a specific legal vehicle for for-profit philanthropy, the limited liability corporation, and analyzes: to what extent the philanthropic limited liability corporation is blurring the lines between high-net-worth individuals and the corporations they found and lead; how new modes of engagement are shifting dynamics between corporate capitalist business rationales and philanthropic endeavors and, in turn, impact the nature of education technology solutions made available; and how technology and philanthropic sector convergence is affecting power relations, educational inequalities, and global North/South relations. The theoretical framing draws from contemporary comparative education research, where scholars are comprehensively unpacking transnational education transfer processes, and contributes to a growing body of critical EdTech scholarship rethinking the presence of technologies in our lives and schooling. The findings demonstrate how the autonomy of for-profit philanthropy is increasingly linked to the institutional profit rationales of affiliate corporations, with elite philanthropists leveraging philanthropy to advance their own business development and growth impact.

Keywords: For-profit Philanthropy; Limited Liability Corporation; Education Governance; Global North/South Relations; High-net-worth Individuals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059325000707
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:115:y:2025:i:c:s0738059325000707

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103272

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Educational Development is currently edited by Stephen P Heyneman

More articles in International Journal of Educational Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().