---
title: The Missing Profession
number: 15
summary: Charitology proposes a shared craft for studying how generosity is aimed across causes and moral frameworks, building on existing philanthropy and evaluation professions.
evidence: hypothesis
node: field
flip: Charitology is a recognized craft. People train in it, practice it, check each other’s work and pass it on, the way medicine and engineering do.
sources:
  - title: About the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    publisher: Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    url: https://philanthropy.indianapolis.iu.edu/about/index.html
---

## What it looks like

Rocket science has a discipline. So does brain surgery, and so does mixing a cocktail. Philanthropy has scholars too: Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy describes itself as the first school dedicated solely to the study and teaching of philanthropy. There are evaluators, consultants and advisors.

Charitology proposes a practical craft that compares giving across causes, methods and moral frameworks. Whether that adds something useful to existing fields is a question to test. The availability of a domain name is not evidence that a field or profession is absent.

## Why it happens

The working concern is that knowledge spread across causes and professions may not be shared well enough. The [other fourteen conditions](/diagnosis/) suggest questions for such a craft; they do not prove that existing practitioners lack methods or training.

## This is a hypothesis

Charitology’s founding claim is that a profession would change where money goes, the way medicine changed how illness is treated. That hasn’t been tested. Testing it is [Open Problem 17, the Profession Question](/open-problems/the-profession-question/).

## No one is to blame

Naming a proposed craft is an invitation to learn and test it. It is not a verdict on existing professions.