The practice of philanthropy, which releases private property for public purposes, represents in many ways the best angels of our nature. But this practice's noteworthy virtues often obscure the fact that philanthropy also represents the exercise of private power. In The Tyranny of Generosity, Theodore Lechterman shows how this private power can threaten the foundations of a democratic society. The deployment of private wealth for public ends may rival the authority of communities to determine their own affairs. And, in societies characterized by wide disparities in wealth, philanthropy often combines with background inequalities to make public decisions overwhelmingly sensitive to the preferences of the rich. Allowing private wealth to dictate social outcomes collides with core commitments of a democratic society, a society in which people are supposed to determine their common affairs together, on equal terms. But why exactly is democracy valuable? How should these values be weighed against the liberty of donors and the many social benefits that philanthropy promises? Lechterman explores these questions by examining various topics in the practice of philanthropy: the respective roles of philanthropy and government, public subsidies for private giving, the use of donations for political speech, instruments of perpetual giving, the rise in giving by commercial corporations, and "effective altruism" as a guide for individual giving. These studies build to a surprising conclusion: realizing the democratic ideal may be impossible without philanthropy-but making philanthropy safe for democracy also requires fundamental changes to policy and practice.

From the Social Enterprise Alliance, the organization dedicated to building a robust social enterprise field, comes "Succeeding at Social Enterprise." This practical guide is filled with the best practices, tools, guidance, models and successful cases for leaders (and future leaders) of social ventures and enterprises. A groundbreaking work, it brings together the knowledge and experience of social enterprise pioneers in the field and some of today's most successful social entrepreneurs to show what it takes to implement and run an effective social venture or organization. Succeeding at Social Enterprise focuses on real life examples, lessons learned and the core competencies that are needed to run a social venture in a nonprofit, highlighting such skills as managing and leading, business planning, marketing and sales, and accounting.

Praise for "Succeeding at Social Enterprise"

"This is a must read for anyone starting or growing a social enterprise. The lessons learned offer valuable, practical and real insights from pioneers in the field. The frameworks and tools presented can be implemented immediately to help drive success and expand your social impact."
--Kriss Deiglmeier, executive director, Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Graduate School of Business

"By successfully weaving together the best thinking and advice from a diverse set of our field's leading experts and practitioners, Succeeding at Social Enterprise will be the new 'must have' handbook for Social Enterprise."
--Jed Emerson, www.BlendedValue.org

"This is a timely book needed for a movement that's taking off. The leading thinkers and top practitioners in this book make today's pressing issues clear to both the novice and the experienced social entrepreneur."
--Kevin Jones, founding principal, Good Capital

"Written by the nation's leading experts on starting, building and leading a successful social venture, this book is a profoundly important contribution to the growing body of literature on social entrepreneurship. No other book brings to bear this kind of business experience, practical advice and wisdom on the challenges of creating and sustaining a social enterprise."
--David Roll, founder, Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation

Intended as an essential introduction to philanthropy, this book provides a balanced, analytical, interdisciplinary overview of a complex, and often controversial, topic. Using case studies to illustrate the narrative, it covers everything from the history of individual, sometimes eccentric, philanthropists, to the controversies and challenges of 'philanthrocapitalism'. This book explores philanthropists and their motivations: who are they and why do they give their money away? It explains what philanthropy does: its history and scope, and the impacts it has in areas such as science and the arts. The governance of philanthropy is explored: how decisions are reached about donations and their accountability. The book addresses the major controversies surrounding philanthropy, and discusses the difficulties involved in giving and receiving, e.g. the importance of ensuring that these processes are transparent and accountable. Lastly, the book considers the future of philanthropy, especially its changing role in society and the disruptive impact of digital technologies. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers interested in philanthropy, innovation and entrepreneurship, the motivations for individual and corporate donations, and the business of giving in general.

Footwork is an original street-corner ethnography drawing on the themes of urban regeneration, lost space and the 24-hour city. From the rough sleeping homeless to street drinkers and sex workers, it shows how urban modernisation, development and austerity politics impact the hidden lives of people living and working on the streets. To create this anthropology of the modern British city, Footwork follows the work of a team of outreach workers in Cardiff, tasked to look out for the homeless and others similarly vulnerable, harried and exposed. Tom Hall's fieldwork study encompasses aspects of urban geography, care work and street-level poverty, violence and isolation, this book reveals the stories of the vulnerable and isolated - people living in the city we often choose to ignore.

Charities make a huge contribution to life in the UK. The larger ones are highly complex organisations often working in very challenging situations that place huge demands on their leadership and management. Yet, surprisingly, remarkably little is known about how leadership teams are structured, how stable their membership is, how members work as a team, what they do to invest in their development and to provide leadership across their organisations. This publication answers these questions by investigating, for the first time in detail, the workings of the leadership teams of the UK!|s larger charities. Leading consultants, Compass Partnership, working with the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Cass Business School, have surveyed over 100 of the country!|s largest charities and identified the key drivers of effective leadership. Boards, chief executives, directors and managers can use these empirical findings to focus their efforts on the characteristics of leadership that deliver results. Published in association with CASS Business School

This book is a collection of papers presented at the International Conference on Youth Empowerment over the last four years. It explores the relationship between youth volunteerism and empowerment which is considered as an inherent cornerstone in the social and psychological growth for youth. Written by a team of experts on issues about youth, the book presents the various theories, models, paradigms and concepts related to youth empowerment and volunteerism. With selected examples in countries around the world, it also reveals to us how different cultures infuse their own history, language, mores, laws, policies, demographics, and socio-political infrastructures in facilitating youth empowerment and volunteerism. Youth hold the key to the world of the future, and empowering youth is actually a human empowerment toward a better world of great hope. In this collection, one clearly sees how youth are empowered through volunteerism; given the chance to serve their communities, youth can indeed become responsible citizens of tomorrow.

'This is the definitive book on philanthropy - its history, contradictions and future' - John Gray, Emeritus Professor of European Thought, London School of Economics 'Good books lay out the lie of the land. Important books change it. This book is both' - Giles Fraser, priest, journalist and broadcaster The super-rich are silently and secretly shaping our world. In this groundbreaking exploration of historical and contemporary philanthropy, bestselling author Paul Vallely reveals how this far-reaching change came about. Vivid with anecdote and scholarly insight, this magisterial survey - from the ancient Greeks to today's high-tech geeks - provides an original take on the history of philanthropy. It shows how giving has, variously, been a matter of honour, altruism, religious injunction, political control, moral activism, enlightened self-interest, public good, personal fulfilment and plutocratic manipulation. Its narrative moves from the Greek man of honour and Roman patron, via the Jewish prophet and Christian scholastic - through the Elizabethan machiavel, Puritan proto-capitalist, Enlightenment activist and Victorian moralist - to the robber-baron philanthropist, the welfare socialist, the celebrity activist and today's wealthy mega-giver. In the process it discovers that philanthropy lost an essential element as it entered the modern era. The book then embarks on a journey to determine where today's philanthropists come closest to recovering that missing dimension. Philanthropy explores the successes and failures of philanthrocapitalism, examines its claims and contradictions, and asks tough questions of top philanthropists and leading thinkers - among them Richard Branson, Eliza Manningham-Buller, Jonathan Ruffer, David Sainsbury, John Studzinski, Bob Geldof, Naser Haghamed, Lenny Henry, Jonathan Sacks, Rowan Williams, Ngaire Woods, and the presidents of the Rockefeller and Soros foundations, Rajiv Shah and Patrick Gaspard. In extended conversations they explore the relationship between philanthropy and family, faith, society, art, politics, and the creation and distribution of wealth. Highly engaging and meticulously researched, Paul Vallely's authoritative account of philanthropy then and now critiques the excessive utilitarianism of much modern philanthrocapitalism and points to how philanthropy can rediscover its soul.

This book challenges the taken-for-granted status of organizations such as the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres by problematizing humanitarianism. In the experience of the Author working with such organizations, they are selective of the type of suffering that receives attention. Empirical studies of humanitarianism note that the suffering it purports to alleviate is increasing although aid is now highly organized, funded, and globalized. These observations inform the key question of the book: what purpose does the humanitarian organization serve? Rostis explores this question through a Foucauldian genealogy of humanitarianism focusing on the European colonial era and the Biafra War. The role of colonialism in the humanitarian organization is made apparent, and facilitates an interpretation of the results of his inquiry using postcolonial theory. This unique contribution to organization studies re-reads humanitarianism to show that humanitarian organizations essentially serve as global disciplinary institutions. It will be essential reading for scholars in political science, international sociology, organization studies and international affairs.

In 1921, after six years of unrelenting war and revolution, Russia was in ruins. The economy had collapsed, the country was ravaged by disease and starvation claimed the lives of millions. People were so desperate for food that there were reports of cannibalism, reports that were revealed to be horribly accurate. Remarkably, it was a young American aid worker who uncovered the truth and, even more remarkably, it was the US-backed charity that had sent him to Russia that would save Lenin’s fledgling government by feeding his people.

In The Russian Job, acclaimed historian Douglas Smith tells the gripping story of how an American charity fought the Russian famine. Backed by $20 million from the US government, and founded by Herbert Hoover, US Secretary of Commerce, the American Relief Administration recruited more than three hundred young Americans, many of them war veterans. They would oversee the distribution of food, clothing and medical supplies to people throughout Russia’s vast landmass, saving millions of lives.

Vividly written, with a rich cast of characters and a deep understanding of the period, The Russian Job shines a bright light on this strange and shadowy moment in history.

This book explores the rich history of voluntary action in the United Kingdom over the past 100 years, through the lens of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which celebrates its centenary in 2019. From its establishment at the end of the First World War, through the creation of the Welfare State in the middle of the twentieth century, to New Labour and the Big Society at the beginning of this century, NCVO has been at the forefront of major developments within society and the voluntary movement. The book examines its many successes, including its role in establishing high-profile charities such as Age Concern, the Youth Hostels Association, and National Association of Citizens' Advice Bureaux. It charts the development of closer relations with the state, resulting in growing awareness of the value of voluntary action, increased funding, and beneficial changes to public policy, tax and charity law. But it also explores the criticisms NCVO has faced, in particular that by pursuing a partnership agenda and championing professionalisation, it has contributed to an erosion of the movement's independence and distinctiveness.

A prerequisite for effective develoment work is a knowledge and understanding of the approach, perspective and value-base from which the practitioner works. This handbook aims to provide a source of knowledge and inspiration to those actively engaged in development work. It demonstrates that the discipline of the field worker is an art which demands imagination, flexibility, the ability to work with ambiguity and contradiction, and to use guidelines but not rules. It provides suggestions on how western-trained workers should think about themselves and their work, and views development from various viewpoints - the individual, the organization, community and society.

As a freelance filmmaker, Nikole Lim's career allowed her to step in and out of the lives of marginalized people around the world. But when confronted with the prevalence of sexual violence in Kenyan and Zambian communities, she commits to advocating alongside the courageous survivors whose lives have intersected with hers. These women's powerful stories inspire her to embark on a new vocation, partnering with survivors of sexual violence to launch a nonprofit organization that equips women to lead through the rewritten stories of their lives. But as Lim seeks to help her friends experience healing and liberation, her perspective is altered. Spiritually depleted, she finds herself ministered to by the women she came to serve-the once oppressed become her liberators. Illustrated with dramatic full-color photography from Lim's own camera, Liberation Is Here transports us to forgotten corners of the world. From the slums of Nairobi, hospitals of Lusaka, killing fields of Kigali, and the back alleys of Barcelona, Lim weaves together a narrative of God's grace and healing amid fear and trauma. Her journey proves that liberation is not just near, but it is here-in the eyes of the broken, the hearts of the oppressed, and the untold stories of our global community.

When Jamie Summerlin felt the calling to do something more meaningful with his life, the Marine Corps veteran came up with an extreme idea. His desire to bring attention and assistance to wounded veterans led to a 100-day, 3,452-mile run across America. His journey was intended to inspire those who sacrificed for America's freedom, but along the way Summerlin realized he was the one being inspired. Freedom Run not only tells the story of Summerlin's amazing run across America and his attempt to raise awareness and money for charitable organizations that serve wounded U.S. veterans, but it reveals the heartfelt stories of the many veterans he met along the way. Beginning in Coos, Oregon, and ending in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Summerlin's trek across the nation and the stories of the veterans he encountered serve as an inspiring and eye-opening tale of courage, determination, and honor in America.

The last three decades have witnessed a proliferation of nongovernmental organizations engaging in new campaigns to end the practice of female genital cutting across Africa. These campaigns have in turn spurred new institutions, discourses, and political projects, bringing about unexpected social transformations, both intended and unintended. Consequently, cutting is waning across the continent. At the same time, these endings are misrecognized and disavowed by public and scholarly discourses across the political spectrum. What does it mean to say that while cutting is ending, the Western discourse surrounding it is on the rise? And what kind of a feminist anthropology is needed in such a moment? The Twilight of Cutting examines these and other questions from the vantage point of Ghanaian feminist and reproductive health NGOs that have organized campaigns against cutting for over thirty years. The book looks at these NGOs not as solutions but as sites of "problematization." The purpose of understanding these Ghanaian campaigns, their transnational and regional encounters, and the forms of governmentality they produce is not to charge them with providing answers to the question, how do we end cutting? Instead, it is to account for their work, their historicity, the life worlds and subjectivities they engender, and the modes of reflection, imminent critique, and opposition they set in motion.

A forensic examination of the mutual relationship between art and real estate in a transforming Los Angeles Underlying every great city is a rich and vibrant culture that shapes the texture of life within. In The Speculative City, Susanna Phillips Newbury teases out how art and Los Angeles shaped one another's evolution. She compellingly articulates how together they transformed the Southland, establishing the foundation for its contemporary art infrastructure, and explains how artists came to influence Los Angeles's burgeoning definition as the global city of the twenty-first century. Pairing particular works of art with specific innovations in real estate development, The Speculative City reveals the connections between real estate and contemporary art as they constructed Los Angeles's present-day cityscape. From banal parking lots to Frank Gehry's designs for artists' studios and museums, Newbury examines pivotal interventions by artists and architects, city officials and cultural philanthropists, concluding with an examination of how, in the wake of the 2008 global credit crisis, contemporary art emerged as a financial asset to fuel private wealth and urban gentrification. Both a history of the transformation of the Southland and a forensic examination of works of art, The Speculative City is a rich complement to the California chronicles by such writers as Rebecca Solnit and Mike Davis.

How do faith-based organizations influence the work of transnational peacebuilding, development, and human rights advocacy? How is the political role of such organizations informed by their religious ideas and practices? This book investigates this set of questions by examining how three transnational faith-based organizations-Religions for Peace, the Taize Community, and International Justice Mission-conceptualize their own religious practices, values, and identities, and how those acts and ideas inform their political goals and strategies. The book demonstrates the political importance of prayer in the work of transnational faith-based organizations, specifically in areas of conflict resolution, post-conflict integration, agenda setting, and in constituting narratives about justice and reconciliation. It also evaluates the distinctive strategies that faith-based organizations employ to navigate religious difference. A central goal of the book is to propose a new way to study "religion" in international politics, by actively questioning and reflecting on what it means for an act, idea, or community to be "religious."

Free markets alone do not work effectively to solve certain kinds of human problems, such as education, old age care, or disaster relief. Nor have markets ever been the sole solution to the psychological challenges of death, suffering, or injustice. Instead, we find a major role for the non-market institutions of society - the family, the state, and social institutions. The first in-depth anthropological study of charities in contemporary Chinese societies, this book focuses on the unique ways that religious groups have helped to solve the problems of social well-being. Using comparative case studies in China, Taiwan and Malaysia during the 1980s and onwards, it identifies new forms of religious philanthropy as well as new ideas of social 'good', including different forms of political merit-making, new forms of civic selfhood, and the rise of innovative social forms, including increased leadership by women. The book finally argues that the spread of these ideas is an incomplete process, with many alternative notions of goodness continuing to be influential.

The first comprehensive history of American Jewish philanthropy and its influence on democracy and capitalism For years, American Jewish philanthropy has been celebrated as the proudest product of Jewish endeavors in the United States, its virtues extending from the local to the global, the Jewish to the non-Jewish, and modest donations to vast endowments. Yet, as Lila Corwin Berman illuminates in The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex, the history of American Jewish philanthropy reveals the far more complicated reality of changing and uneasy relationships among philanthropy, democracy, and capitalism. With a fresh eye and lucid prose, and relying on previously untapped sources, Berman shows that from its nineteenth-century roots to its apex in the late twentieth century, the American Jewish philanthropic complex tied Jewish institutions to the American state. The government's regulatory efforts-most importantly, tax policies-situated philanthropy at the core of its experiments to maintain the public good without trammeling on the private freedoms of individuals. Jewish philanthropic institutions and leaders gained financial strength, political influence, and state protections within this framework. However, over time, the vast inequalities in resource distribution that marked American state policy became inseparable from philanthropic practice. By the turn of the millennium, Jewish philanthropic institutions reflected the state's growing investment in capitalism against democratic interests. But well before that, Jewish philanthropy had already entered into a tight relationship with the governing forces of American life, reinforcing and even transforming the nation's laws and policies. The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex uncovers how capitalism and private interests came to command authority over the public good, in Jewish life and beyond.

Peace Corps volunteers seem to exemplify the desire to make the world a better place. Yet despite being one of history's clearest cases of organized idealism, the Peace Corps has, in practice, ended up cultivating very different outcomes among its volunteers. By the time they return from the Peace Corps, volunteers exhibit surprising shifts in their political and professional consciousness. Rather than developing a systemic perspective on development and poverty, they tend instead to focus on individual behavior; they see professions as the only legitimate source of political and social power. They have lost their idealism, and their convictions and beliefs have been reshaped along the way. The Death of Idealism uses the case of the Peace Corps to explain why and how participation in a bureaucratic organization changes people's ideals and politics. Meghan Elizabeth Kallman offers an innovative institutional analysis of the role of idealism in development organizations. She details the combination of social forces and organizational pressures that depoliticizes Peace Corps volunteers, channels their idealism toward professionalization, and leads to cynicism or disengagement. Kallman sheds light on the structural reasons for the persistent failure of development organizations and the consequences for the people involved. Based on interviews with over 140 current and returned Peace Corps volunteers, field observations, and a large-scale survey, this deeply researched, theoretically rigorous book offers a novel perspective on how people lose their idealism, and why that matters.

Although a range of program and policy responses to youth gangs exist, most are largely based on suppression, implemented by the police or other criminal justice agencies. Less attention and fewer resources have been directed to prevention and intervention strategies that draw on the participation of community organizations, schools, and social service agencies in the neighborhoods in which gangs operate. Also underemphasized is the importance of integrating such approaches at the local level.

In this volume, leading researchers discuss effective intervention among youth gangs, focusing on the ideas behind, approaches to, and evidence about the effectiveness of community-based, youth gang interventions. Treating community as a crucial unit of analysis and action, these essays reorient our understanding of gangs and the measures undertaken to defeat them. They emphasize the importance of community, both as a context that shapes opportunity and as a resource that promotes positive youth engagement. Covering key themes and debates, this book explores the role of social capital and collective efficacy in informing youth gang intervention and evaluation, the importance of focusing on youth development within the context of community opportunities and pressures, and the possibilities of better linking research, policy, and practice when responding to youth gangs, among other critical issues.

Why, despite decades of high levels of foreign aid, has development been so disappointing in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to rising numbers of poor and fueling political instabilities? While not ignoring the culpability of Africans in these problems, Carol Lancaster finds that much of the responsibility is in the hands of the governments and international aid agencies that provide assistance to the region. The first examination of its kind, "Aid to Africa" investigates the impact of bureaucratic politics, special interest groups, and public opinion in aid-giving countries and agencies. She finds that aid agencies in Africa often misdiagnosed problems, had difficulty designing appropriate programs that addressed the local political environment, and failed to coordinate their efforts effectively.
This balanced but tough-minded analysis does not reject the potential usefulness of foreign aid but does offer recommendations for fundamental changes in how governments and multilateral aid agencies can operate more effectively.

Individuals who are civically active have three things in common: they have the capacity to do so, they want to, and they have been asked to participate. New Advances in the Study of Civic Voluntarism is dedicated to examining the continued influence of these factors-resources, engagement, and recruitment-on civic participation in the twenty-first century. The contributors to this volume examine recent social, political, technological, and intellectual changes to provide the newest research in the field. Topics range from race and religion to youth in the digital age, to illustrate the continued importance of understanding the role of the everyday citizen in a democratic society. Contributors include:Molly Andolina, Allison P. Anoll, Leticia Bode, Henry E. Brady, Traci Burch, Barry C. Burden, Andrea Louise Campbell, David E. Campbell, Sara Chatfield, Stephanie Edgerly, Zoltan Fazekas, Lisa Garcia Bedoll, Peter K. Hatemi, John Henderson, Krista Jenkins, Yanna Krupnikov, Adam Seth Levine, Melissa R. Michelson, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Dinorah Sanchez Loza, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Dhavan Shah, Sono Shah, Kjerstin Thorson, Sidney Verba, Logan Vidal, Emily Vraga, Chris Wells, JungHwan Yang, and the editor.