An estimated 600 million people now live in informal or 'squatter' settlements in the rapidly growing cities of the developing world. With such settlements often lacking basic necessities, there is an urgent need to address this urban crisis. Recently, innovative approaches have focused on the role of community-based organizations (CBOs) in setting up self-help and participatory programmes. This incisive book questions whether communities have the ability to organize, engage government and undertake major redevelopment. It also examines when and how mobilization of communities occurs and if such organizations possess any influence in the intensely political decision-making arena of urban land development. It is illustrated by a detailed analysis of the experience of CBOs in Manila, as the Philippine government has undertaken what is perhaps the most radical experiment in decentralized, participatory approaches to urban governance in the world. The book emphasizes the external conditions that influence patterns of collective action within communities and addresses issues such as the local political economy and the communities' place within the global economy.

The Life of an Activist is a non-fiction narrative that describes key steps on how to become and evolve into an effective activist and community leader. The book describes social movements and provides useful advice on how to successfully manage non-profits to accomplish positive social change that truly improves people's lives. The author is a lifelong activist who was born in the United States but was deported to El Salvador as a baby. He spent his childhood in El Salvador but moved back to the United States and grew up in South Central Los Angeles during the tumultuous and violent decades of the late 1970s and 1980s. He has also lived and worked in Rochester, Minnesota; Madrid, Spain; Washington, D.C.; and Alexandria, Virginia. In each of these cities, he observed and learned a great deal about social movements and activism. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to improve their own lives and communities through activism. As Gandhi stated, "Be the change you want to see in the world." The Life of an Activist: In the Frontlines 24/7 will truly be life-changing and inspirational.

How do non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations initiate, terminate and extend their project activities? Humanitarian aid organizations regularly face difficult decisions about life and death in a context of serious time constraints which force them daily to select whom to help and whom not to help. Liesbet Heyse focuses on how humanitarian aid organizations make these decisions and provides an inside view of the decision making processes. Two NGO case studies are used as illustration - Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and Acting with Churches Together (ACT) - both of which operate in an international network and represent specific types of NGOs often found in the community. This book opens up the black box of NGO operations, provides an empirical account of organizational decision making and combines insights of organization theory and organizational decision making theory.

Since the early 1990s, voluntary programs have played an increasingly prominent role in environmental management in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. Programs have attempted to address problems ranging from climate change and energy efficiency to more localized air and water pollution problems. But do they work? Despite a growing theoretical literature about how and why voluntary programs might be effective, there is limited empirical evidence on their success or the situations most conducive to their approaches. Even less is known about their cost-effectiveness.

Getting credible answers to these questions is important. Research to date has been largely limited to individual programs, and protagonists and antagonists to the trend are at ever greater disagreement, sometimes drawing opposite conclusions about the same program. This innovative book seeks to clarify what is known by looking at a range of program types, including different approaches adopted in different nations. The focus is on assessing actual performance via seven case studies, including the U.S. Climate Wise program, the U.S. EPA's 33/50 program on toxic chemicals, the U.K. Climate Change Agreements, and the Keidanren Voluntary Action Plan in Japan.

The central goals of Reality Check are understanding outcomes and the relationship between outcomes and design. Most of the programs it studies have positive results, but they are small compared with business-as-usual trends and the impact of other forces -- such as higher energy prices. Importantly, potential gains may be quickly exhausted as the "low-hanging fruit" is picked up by voluntary programs. By including in-depth analyses by experts from theU.S., Europe, and Japan, the book advances scholarship and provides practical information for the future design of voluntary programs to stakeholders and policymakers on all sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.

This new volume presents a systematic and comparative analysis of the current and future role of foundations in Europe and beyond.
While cross-national studies of business firms, government agencies and service-providing nonprofit organizations are increasingly becoming available, little is known, in a systematic way, about the challenges foundations are facing. This book therefore includes a mapping and appraisal of foundation visions, policies and strategies, and an overall assessment of the current and future policy environment in which they operate. It goes beyond a quantitative profile of foundations in Europe, and probes deeper into their role and contributions in meeting the economic, cultural, environmental and educational needs of European societies. Developed from an international research project, this study includes twenty country studies comparing foundations in Europe, the Europe Union and the US.
This valuable reference will be of interest to researchers and students of foundations, policy-making, comparative politics and international business, as well as to policy-makers and professionals.

Christina Schwabenland's book is based on extensive research into stories told by people working in voluntary organizations in the UK and in India. With a view to social change, the author employs hermeneutic methods to explore how stories create and sustain meaning and how storytelling contributes to the making and remaking of our social world. Specific topics addressed in the book include the role of storytelling in starting a new organization, managing hope and despair, empowering participatory leadership, and stimulating creativity and innovation. The book will be of interest to theorists and practitioners interested in the role of storytelling in organizational analysis, the role of organizations in achieving social change, the growing centrality of the voluntary sector in public policy, and the intersection between the corporate, public and voluntary sectors.

Philanthropy and endowed foundation are good and vitally important institutions of modern society. They fit in well with the way advanced market economies are developing, in particular with the nexus between private and public benefit in an era of "small" government and greater social diversity. As institutions, however, they are facing new threats: declining resources relative to needs, and questions about their accountability and performance. In recent years individual philanthropists and foundation leaders have looked to strategic philanthropy as a way of becoming more effective and efficient. Strategic philanthropy can help foundations to think about structures and processes, but it does not provide any answer to the more fundamental questions about foundations' distinctive roles in contributing to public good. This important new book provides an overview of creative philanthropy along with an analysis of the theory and practice of philanthropy. The authors spell out the implications of their study for management and policy and provide readers with the tools and techniques of creative philanthropy. Essential reading for all those who study or work infFoundations, philanthropy and nonprofit organizations this important new book explicates this complicated but vital subject area.

Philanthropy and endowed foundation are good and vitally important institutions of modern society. They fit in well with the way advanced market economies are developing, in particular with the nexus between private and public benefit in an era of "small" government and greater social diversity. As institutions, however, they are facing new threats: declining resources relative to needs, and questions about their accountability and performance. In recent years individual philanthropists and foundation leaders have looked to strategic philanthropy as a way of becoming more effective and efficient. Strategic philanthropy can help foundations to think about structures and processes, but it does not provide any answer to the more fundamental questions about foundations' distinctive roles in contributing to public good. This important new book provides an overview of creative philanthropy along with an analysis of the theory and practice of philanthropy. The authors spell out the implications of their study for management and policy and provide readers with the tools and techniques of creative philanthropy. Essential reading for all those who study or work infFoundations, philanthropy and nonprofit organizations this important new book explicates this complicated but vital subject area.

Through an examination of the Chicago Initiative, a local collaboration created by foundations and corporate funders following the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, Ira Silver analyzes how elite philanthropists exercise social control over community organizations that do work in poor neighbourhoods. Silver's book investigates how community-based organizations strategically attempt to assert influence over foundation funding priorities. The book draws upon several years of qualitative research about comprehensive community initiatives undertaken by philanthropic foundations during the eighties and nineties; initiatives that aimed to give community based organizations unprecedented access to foundation's purse strings. A chief dilemma built into these initiatives, was that despite their novelty, foundations still maintained a vested interest in retaining control over the kinds of neighbourhood revitalization reforms that community-based organizations would receive funding to undertake. These research findings are of timely significance given how extensively policymaking responsibility for mitigating poverty has shifted over the past two decades from the public to the philanthropic sectors. M

Examines the increasing significance of the volunteer and volunteerism in African societies, and their societal impact within precarious economies in a period of massive unemployment and faltering trajectories of social mobility. Across Africa today, as development activities animate novel forms of governance, new social actors are emerging, among them the volunteer. Yet, where work and resources are limited, volunteer practices have repercussions that raise contentious ethical issues. What has been the real impact of volunteers economically, politically and in society? The interdisciplinary experts in this collection examine the practices of volunteers - both international and local - and ideologies of volunteerism. They show the significance of volunteerism to processes of social and economic transformation, and political projects of national development and citizenship, as well as to individual aspirations in African societies. These case studies - from South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Malawi - examine everyday experiences of volunteerism and trajectories of voluntary work, trace its broaderhistorical, political and economic implications, and situate African experiences of voluntary labour within global exchanges and networks of resources, ideas and political technologies. Offering insights into changing configurations of work, citizenship, development and social mobility, the authors offer new perspectives on the relations between labour, identity and social value in Africa. Ruth Prince is Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology at the University of Oslo; with her co-author Wenzel Geissler, she won the 2010 Amaury Talbot Prize for their book The Land is Dying: Contingency, Creativity and Conflict in Western Kenya. Hannah Brown is a lecturer in Anthropology at Durham University.

Philanthropy - the use of private resources for public purposes - is undergoing a transformation, both in practice and as an emerging field of study. Expectations of what philanthropy can achieve have risen significantly in recent years, reflecting a substantial, but uneven, increase in global wealth and the rolling back of state services in anticipation that philanthropy will fill the void. In addition to this, experiments with entrepreneurial and venture philanthropy are producing novel intersections of the public, non-profit and private spheres, accompanied by new kinds of partnerships and hybrid organisational forms. The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy examines these changes and other challenges that philanthropists and philanthropic organisations face. With contributions from an international team of leading contemporary thinkers on philanthropy, this Companion provides an introduction to, and critical exploration of, philanthropy; discussing current theories, research and the diverse professional practices within the field from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy is a rich and valuable resource for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers working in or interested in philanthropy.

This is the inside story of the more than 8,000 recent college graduates who have joined Teach for America and committed two years of service to teaching in the nation's most troubled public schools. These inexperienced teachers come to class armed with little more than their idealism and the conviction that every student, regardless of race or background, deserves an excellent education. They take the toughest jobs at the toughest schools in the toughest districts, and they face the raw realities of America's public education system: dilapidated schools, too few books, and overcrowded classrooms. Written in the tradition of Studs Terkel, Lessons to Learn showcases the insights of a wide range of individuals with real life expertise, combining interviews and essays from TFA corps members and alumni as well as principals, superintendents, parents, and noted education experts. Current and former TFA members reflect on their teaching successes and failures, the life lessons they gathered along the way, and their insights about the challenges facing out nation's public schools. Education professionals and other experts help establish the broader context of the fight for meaningful public education reform. Lessons to Learn is essential reading for teachers, parents, policy makers, and anyone who cares about the fate of this nation's struggling public education system.

Faith-based organizations play a major role in providing a host of health, educational, and social services to the public. Nearly all these efforts, however, have been accompanied by intense debate and numerous legal challenges. The right of faith-based organizations to hire based on religion, the presence of religious symbols and icons in rooms where government-subsidized services are provided, and the enforcement of gay civil rights to which some faith-based organizations object all continue to be subjects of intense debate and numerous court cases. In Pluralism and Freedom, Stephen Monsma explores the question of how much autonomy should faith-based organizations retain when they enter the public realm? He contends that pluralism and freedom demand their religious freedom be respected, but that freedom of all religious traditions and of the general public and secular groups be equally respected, ideals that neither the left nor the right live up to. In response, Monsma argues that democratic pluralism requires a genuine, authentic-but also a limited-autonomy for faith-based organizations providing public services, and offers practical, concrete public policy applications of this framework in practice.

Winner of the 2002 Skystone Ryan Research Prize from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Sponsored by the prestigious Council on Foundations, Opening Doors is a down-to-earth guide for fundraising practitioners who want to broaden their funding base and reach new donors or improve the diversity of their existing development programs. Based in solid research, Opening Doors provides information about the cultural and charitable practices of four broad groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. It is filled with illustrative personal stories, real-life examples, and proven strategies. In addition, this hands-on resource:

• Helps readers understand the rich philanthropic traditions in diverse American populations
• Shows how to encourage prospects to become donors through personal meetings, house parties, special events, and direct mail
• Presents practical ideas for seeking gifts from business owners of diverse cultural backgrounds
• Describes ap propriate and effective ways to encourage small donors to become large donors

Fundraisers at all levels discover the art of leading up

Fundraisers know that in order to be successful in their demanding profession, they have to get things done. And to get things done, they need to exercise leadership from whatever rank or position they hold--often from the middle. This concept is called "leading up." Recognizing that all fundraisers must be leaders, Leading Up teaches professionals the skills and traits they need to be successful in their philanthropic roles.

Leading Up centers around author Lilya Wagner's unique model, which exemplifies the concept of leading up. Here, fundraisers will discover: how to get things done when they're not in charge; how to motivate others when they don't have formal authority; how to convince or persuade their colleagues and superiors about their need for action and involvement; and how to lead when they're not recognized leaders by virtue of power or position.

Focusing on problem-solving concepts, Leading Up is packed with thought provoking questions, exercises, and practical application steps that allow professionals to practice and implement the principles they've just learned. The book also includes inspirational quotes on leadership from recognized and successful professionals and leaders.

Leadership qualities have to be learned and practiced by all who wish to achieve success in fundraising, whether boss or not. Leading Up provides readers with the groundwork they need to not only build up their causes and organizations, but also influence a professional field that is still developing.

Serving as an introduction to the UK's voluntary sector, this book builds on an earlier book published by the same author. Using a comparative perspective to place the UK voluntary sector in perspective, this book considers its scope, scale and structure, as well as the impact of voluntary sector activities on society. Based on both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the book includes statistical mapping of the sector, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with voluntary sector policy actors. A much-needed addition to the current literature, The Voluntary Sector provides a theoretical framework and in-depth analysis of an increasingly important area.

Serving as an introduction to the UK's voluntary sector, this book builds on an earlier book published by the same author. Using a comparative perspective to place the UK voluntary sector in perspective, this book considers its scope, scale and structure, as well as the impact of voluntary sector activities on society. Based on both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the book includes statistical mapping of the sector, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with voluntary sector policy actors. A much-needed addition to the current literature, The Voluntary Sector provides a theoretical framework and in-depth analysis of an increasingly important area.

Originally published in 1981, this book analyses how development aid works in practice. It presents a critique of the practice of foreign aid, analyses the aid process, who controls it and investigates the exercise of leverage by donors. It examines the interests of the different parties involved, identifies problems and suggests alternatives which may allow the aid process to operate more effectively in the interest of those who need it.

In Global Humanitarianism: NGOs and the Crafting of Community, author Rob DeChaine explores a narrative common to the nongovernmental organization community about the promise and confusion of living together in post/modern times. Palpable in their affective admixture of idealism, fear, hope, anger and uncertainty, the protagonists of the story are humanitarian social actors, engaged in a vivid social drama. Their audience, as made apparent by DeChaine's excellent scholarship, is intimately engaged in the drama as well. According to DeChaine, the action takes shape in a multivocal polyphony of solidarity and, at times, cacophony of protest and dissent, with actors mobilizing symbolic resources in the service of uniting a public who would join with them in the cause. A major source of the actors' labor is symbolic, consisting in the successful rallying of formative energies in and around a cluster of key related terms, words and phrases, in order to dramatize and publicize the exigency of the crisis at hand. DeChaine argues that crises are embodied in the form of an intensifying hegemonic struggle over the articulation of 'community' in a global/ized world. The struggle brings into tension local and global priorities, national governments and civil society, and state-centered forms of identity and allegiance and a broad-based vision of global citizenship and belonging. DeChaine demonstrates that the crisis of community is one of the defining themes of our contemporary era, one that we ignore at our peril. This book is not only important to the NGO community but represents cutting edge analysis in rhetoric, cultural studies, semiotics, sociology and social organizations.

An important roadmap for fundraising in today’s multicultural communities

Raising money in today’s diverse communities is a growing challenge for fundraisers and philanthropists, requiring thoughtful strategies, successful collaborations, and a respectful understanding of people’s differences.

In this groundbreaking new book, the author examines today’s four major ethnic groups–African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American–in terms of their diverse histories, traditions, and motivations, and then applies this information to the proven components of successful fundraising. The result is a timely and important look at how fundraisers can use an understanding of ethnic differences to create a vibrant and balanced nonprofit center through both individual and collective efforts.

In clear, easy-to-understand language, Cultivating Diversity in Fundraising answers the following critical questions:

• Who are diverse donors?
• What are their charitable traditions and interests?
• What fundraising methods will be successful in diverse communities?
• What can fundraisers do to include more diversity in fundraising efforts?

Designed as a guide to fundraising as well as a strategic update for existing fundraisers, this book should be required reading for anyone working in today’s nonprofit sector.

A collection of the best articles from past 20 years of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal offering nonprofit organizations a wealth of tips, strategies, and guidance on how to raise money.

Part of the new Kim Klein's Chardon Press Series from Jossey-Bass which focuses on providing fundraising and organizational development tools for community-based and social change organizations.

Contents:
1. Consumption, Identity and Locality: a Theoretical Perspective on Charity Shops I
2. Retailing: a Theoretical Perspective on Charity Shops II
3. Customers and Demand: Thrift, Lifestyle, Convenience and Coming out of the Cold
4. Materialising Profit: from Donation to Distribution
5. Staffing the Charity Shop: Voluntary, Not-So-Voluntary and Paid Staff
6. Pricing and Competition: Hitting the Mark
7. 'It's all in the Mix': Profits, Lifecycles, Lifestyles, and the Future of Charity Shops

The world of the golden donors-the rich and influential philanthropic foundations-is quite likely the least known and yet most pervasive of all the invisible money and power networks in America. Nielsen explores the 36 largest of the 22,000 currently active foundations. He takes the reader inside each of the giants to analyze its people, policies, and performance. From the most famous, Ford and MacArthur, to the most obscure, Mabee and Moody, the author lets in daylight and lets out the bats as well as the butterflies. "Golden Donors" is a journey through 36 fiefdoms, each of which controls upwards of $250 million dollars, beyond the reach of the IRS, in order to encourage medical research, support cultural and artistic endeavors, and not least, to buttress immensely expensive educational institutions. Which of the great foundations in recent years have been spectacular successes and which are failures? Is today's leadership in the third-stream economy equal to the task? Are foundations, seedbeds or killing grounds of new social and political ideas? And what is the federal government, and a variety of administrations, doing to help or harm this new economy? Nielsen provides many surprising and some quite startling answers for the millions of Americans whose lives the golden donors directly or indirectly affect. When "Golden Donors" first appeared, A. Bartlett Giamatti praised it as an historical guide, a shrewd critique, and an impassioned warning. "This remarkable book on the nation's largest foundations must be read by anyone concerned with America's unique not-for-profit sector and the quality of our national life." Kingman Brewster saw the book as "a revealing mirror held up to the faces of big philanthropy...a must book for foundation creators and leaders." Thornton F. Bradsahw said, ""Golden Donors" describes the large American foundations, what they are how they got that way, and wherein lies their strength and their potential. The book is wise, witty, and perceptive-indispensable reading." Waldemar A. Nielsen was born in Pennsylvania, educated in Missouri and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He served as a naval officer, diplomat, expert on Africa, foundation officer and trustee, and foreign affairs analyst. He has written for "The New Yorker, Harper's," and other publications. A leading counselor on philanthropy policy, Nielsen has advised a number of present and former clients, including John D. Rockefeller 3rd, J. Paul Getty, and Robert O. Anderson, as well as major corporations and foundations.

* Invaluable handbook for all voluntary and charitable organizations on raising money* Sets out the strategies and tactics for mobilizing resources from available sources* Published with the Aga Khan FoundationA clear and practical guide aimed at the managers of non-governmental and civil society organizations, primarily in developing countries, on how to raise funds for themselves and become financially self-reliant. The author examines all the options - accessing existing wealth, generating new wealth, and mobilizing non-financial resources - and shows how to identify funding opportunities and how to maximize results. He covers earned income, local foundations, governmental sources, foreign agencies, the corporate sector, micro-credit, the internet and social investments. He sets these within a strategic overview of planning and management effectiveness.

In this pathbreaking study of foundation influence, author Joan Roelofs produces a comprehensive picture of philanthropy's critical role in society. She shows how a vast number of policy innovations have arisen from the most important foundations, lessening the destructive impact of global "marketization." Conversely, groups and movements that might challenge the status quo are nudged into line with grants and technical assistance, and foundations also have considerable power to shape such things as public opinion, higher education, and elite ideology. The cumulative effect is that foundations, despite their progressive goals, have a depoliticizing effect, one that preserves the hegemony of neoliberal institutions.