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Giving That Gets Things Done

"All outstanding philanthropic successes have one thing in common: They started with a smart strategic plan," say authors Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Hal Harvey, president of ClimateWorks.

Money Well Spent explains how to create and implement a strategy that ensures meaningful results. Components of a smart strategy include:
--Achieving great clarity about one's philanthropic goals
--Specifying indicators of success before beginning a project
--Designing and implementing a plan commensurate with available resources
--Evidence based understanding of the world in which the plan will operate
--Paying careful attention to milestones to determine if you are on the path to success or if midcourse corrections are necessary

Drawing on examples from over 100 foundations and non-profits, Money Well Spent gives readers the framework they need to design a smart strategy. This is a book for everyone who wants to get the most from a philanthropic dollar: donors, foundations, and non-profits..
Price: $16.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations—and by individuals—to solve problems and save lives both “down the street and around the world.” Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, “regardless of income, available time, age, and skills,” can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams.

Bill Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers, representing a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as contributions of money. From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old California girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised drives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton introduces us to both well-known and unknown heroes of giving. Among them:

Dr. Paul Farmer, who grew up living in the family bus in a trailer park, vowed to devote his life to giving high-quality medical care to the poor and has built innovative public health-care clinics first in Haiti and then in Rwanda;
a New York couple, in Africa for a wedding, who visited several schools in Zimbabwe and were appalled by the absence of textbooks and school supplies. They founded their own organization to gather and ship materials to thirty-five schools. After three years, the percentage of seventh-graders who pass reading tests increased from 5 percent to 60 percent;'
Oseola McCarty, who after seventy-five years of eking out a living by washing and ironing, gave $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to endow a scholarship fund for African-American students;
Andre Agassi, who has created a college preparatory academy in the Las Vegas neighborhood with the city’s highest percentage of at-risk kids. “Tennis was a stepping-stone for me,” says Agassi. “Changing a child’s life is what I always wanted to do”;
Heifer International, which gave twelve goats to a Ugandan village. Within a year, Beatrice Biira’s mother had earned enough money selling goat’s milk to pay Beatrice’s school fees and eventually to send all her children to school—and, as required, to pass on a baby goat to another family, thus multiplying the impact of the gift.

Clinton writes about men and women who traded in their corporate careers, and the fulfillment they now experience through giving. He writes about energy-efficient practices, about progressive companies going green, about promoting fair wages and decent working conditions around the world. He shows us how one of the most important ways of giving can be an effort to change, improve, or protect a government policy. He outlines what we as individuals can do, the steps we can take, how much we should consider giving, and why our giving is so important.

Bill Clinton’s own actions in his post-presidential years have had an enormous impact on the lives of millions. Through his foundation and his work in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, he has become an international spokesperson and model for the power of giving.

“We all have the capacity to do great things,” President Clinton says. “My hope is that the people and stories in this book will lift spirits, touch hearts, and demonstrate that citizen activism and service can be a powerful agent of change in the world.”

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Price: $4.72 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Money changes everything, especially in politics Politicians, think tanks, and political parties would not be where they are without monetary gifts. Yet, when it comes to celebrating donors, the media often praise liberals for their selfless giving and criticize conservatives for their selfish hoarding. But Ron Robinson and Nicole Hoplin, leaders of Young America's Foundation, set the record straight in Funding Fathers: The Unsung Heroes of the Conservative Movement. Part historical account of the conservative movement and part exposé about political philanthropy, Funding Fathers busts the myth that conservatives donate less money than democrats and exposes how the media, liberal organizations, and even conservatives perpetuate this lie. In Funding Fathers, Robinson and Hoplin reveal:

* How conservative donors have had as much influence on the conservative movement as people like Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley Jr.
* Why anonymous donations can do more harm than good to the conservative movement
* How donations benefiting conservative ideas are often misappropriated at universities across the U.S.
* How conservative politicians and organizations use donations more efficiently than liberals

Money matters. But it is not the size of the donation that counts, it is the impact it makes. Funding Fathers shows how the unsung heroes of the conservative movement have not only influenced the past, but also how they continue to shape the future..
Price: $13.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Years from now don't be surprised if The 11 Questions Every Donor Asks and the Answers All Donors Crave is singled out as a watershed book in the field of fundraising

People might well point to Harvey McKinnon's work and say, "That's when the conversation with our donors changed - literally." And they'd be right.

McKinnon has identified 11 core questions, ranging from "Why me?" to "Will my gift make a difference?" to "Will I have a say over how you use my gift?" And the suggested answers are illuminating.

One thing is certain: McKinnon is an eloquent instructor. Rather than dryly tell you to "Do this" or "Do that," the author punctuates his prose with dramatic real-life stories.

And they're highly engaging, each one skillfully selected to drive home a point. You'll discover, for instance:

* How a volunteer coached by a nationally known consultant secured a gift of $175,000 without ever once asking for the gift.

* How the chair of a YWCA sparked a first-time gift of $100,000 with a single disarming question from her heart.

* How by sensing his donor's ability to give, a development officer at a technical institute turned a $100,000 gift into a $1 million gift.

* How by artful negotiation the head of fundraising for a leading HIV/AIDS organization prevented the rock band Queen from donating a vast sum of money to something entirely wasteful.

* How with an exquisite 30-minute presentation, and a double-shot of espresso, the Head of Fundraising for Greenpeace International transformed a $1 million gift into a $10 million gift.

Jerold Panas, who knows a thing or two about fundraising, calls The 11 Questions "A beautifully polished gem, with real-life stories that unerringly hit their mark." That's high praise from America's grandmaster of philanthropy..
Price: $24.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Make Your Commitment Count! Want to work on a volunteer project that really matters but don't know where to start looking? Alternatives to the Peace Corps is the original resource for finding community-based, grassroots volunteer work-the kind of work that changes the world, one person at at time. Thoroughly revised, expanded, and updated in its tenth edition, Alternatives to the Peace Corps has:

* listings for over 100 carefully selected national and international organizations

* NEW tips on researching and evaluating organizations

* NEW help with budgeting and fundraising

* an extensive resource section full of books, websites, and organizations for further reading and research and much more. Whether you want to volunteer at home or abroad, and whether you can spend two years or two weeks, Alternatives to the Peace Corps will help you find a volunteer experience to match your highest ideals..
Price: $9.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

At the age of 48, Moritz Thomsen sold his pig farm and joined the Peace Corps. As he tells the story, his awareness of the comic elements in the human situation - including his own - and his ability to convey it in fast-moving, earthy prose have made "Living Poor" a classic. 'Hilariously funny at times, grimly sad at others and elavened with perceptive insights into the ways of the people and with breathtaking descriptions of the Ecuadorian landscape' - St. Louis Post-Dispatch..
Price: $15.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Foundations are a peculiarly American institution. They have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet they are cloaked in secrecy- their decision-making and operations are inscrutable to the point of obscurity-leaving them substantially unaccountable to anyone.

Joel Fleishman has been in and around foundations for almost half a century...running them, sitting on their boards, and seeking grants from them. And in this groundbreaking book he explains the history of foundations, tells the stories of the most successful foundation initiatives-and of those that have failed-and explains why it matters.

The baby boomer generation is going to participate in the largest transfer of wealth in history when it passes on its assets to its successor generation. The third sector is about to become more powerful than ever. This book shows how foundations can provide a vital spur to the engine of the American, and the world's, economy-if they are properly established and run..
Price: $5.93 [Notify me when price goes down.]

With more than one million copies sold, this is the first, best, and most comprehensive guide to private-sector scholarships, grants, and loans published in America. It gives students essential tips for determining which awards they qualify for, helps them write winning essays, applications, and cover letters, alerts them to scams and rip- offs, and provides useful lists of recommended websites and publications..
Price: $17.42 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Written by a kid for kids, this book offers a comprehensible guide to giving money, volunteering, donating goods, and organizing charity events. It makes it easy for kids to get involved with the organizations that mean the most to them. The perfect graduation gift--a must-have for kids everywhere!.
Price: $5.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]