From 1999 to 2009, The Northern Manhattan Community Voices Collaborative put Columbia University and its Medical Center in touch with surrounding community organizations and churches to facilitate access to primary care, nutritional improvement, and smoking cessation, and to broker innovative ways to access healthcare and other social services. This unlikely partnership and the relationships it forged reaffirms the wisdom of joining "town and gown" to improve a community's well-being.

Staff members of participating organizations have coauthored this volume, which shares the successes, failures, and obstacles of implementing a vast community health program. A representative of Alianza Dominicana, for example, one of the country's largest groups settling new immigrants, speaks to the value of community-based organizations in ridding a neighborhood of crime, facilitating access to health insurance, and navigating the healthcare system. The editors outline the beginnings and infrastructure of the collaboration and the relationship between leaders that fueled positive outcomes. Their portrait demonstrates how grassroots solutions can create productive dialogues that help resolve difficult issues.

In a challenging environment, many charities have found that grant funding is an increasingly important source of income. But knowing where to look for grants, and how to navigate the process, can be very daunting for the uninitiated. But open this book and you will. - Find funding sources - Navidate the application process - Make a compelling case - Get money for your organization

Voluntary Associations and Nonprofit Organizations in Our Current Uncertain World provides students with a collection of enlightening readings that present major topics related to voluntary associations and nonprofit organizations from a multidisciplinary perspective, including sociological. The text is organized into six units that cover: the historical background, definition, and theories of nonprofit organizations; the nonprofit sector relations and other partnerships; organization and structure; communication and nonprofit organizations; funding, strategy, and management; and policy issues, globalization, and the future of nonprofit organizations. The readings explore a wide variety of topics, including the role of nonprofits in society, civic engagement, governmental relations, the importance of mission and vision statements, best practices for online advocacy, budget and finance, the global drivers of change, and much more. Each reading is framed by an introduction and discussion questions to reinforce key concepts and stimulate critical thinking. Filling a gap in the current literature, Voluntary Associations and Nonprofit Organizations in Our Current Uncertain World is an ideal resource for courses that explore all aspects of voluntary associations and nonprofit organizations.

Drawing on more than two years of participant observation in the American Midwest and in Madagascar among Lutheran clinicians, volunteer laborers, healers, evangelists, and former missionaries, Conversionary Sites investigates the role of religion in the globalization of medicine. Based on immersive research of a transnational Christian medical aid program, Britt Halvorson tells the story of a thirty-year-old initiative that aimed to professionalize and modernize colonial-era evangelism. Creatively blending perspectives on humanitarianism, global medicine, and the anthropology of Christianity, she argues that the cultural spaces created by these programs operate as multistranded "conversionary sites," where questions of global inequality, transnational religious fellowship, and postcolonial cultural and economic forces are negotiated. A nuanced critique of the ambivalent relationships among religion, capitalism, and humanitarian aid, Conversionary Sites draws important connections between religion and science, capitalism and charity, and the US and the Global South.

Our faith is centered around giving and offering support, yet our belief about those who need "help" must be reexamined. Philanthropy is steeped in myths that hurt communities of color rather than help them. Many current philanthropic strategies fail because they neglect the experience, wisdom, and gifts of those receiving "help," and prioritize and perpetuate false myths. These myths fuel deficit-based models of philanthropy that do not work and will not change poverty.Froswa' Booker-Drew offers a solution that transforms philanthropy at individual and collective levels. Eliminating common myths and misinterpretations can bring about a more effective model of philanthropy-one that relies on a community's social, human, and cultural capital and champions the insights and strengths of those being served. In addition, the voices of those most impacted by philanthropy must be included in board membership, program development, leadership in nonprofits, and charitable giving. Empowering Charity serves as catalyst and conversation starter for tolerance and authentic inclusion in our workplaces, organizations, and communities. Booker-Drew supplies strategies for involving those who are often unknown, overlooked, or viewed as "other," strategies that will have a collective impact in the community of God and transform philanthropy to highlight God's love for all people and effect real change.

On January 29, 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order creating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. This action marked a key step toward institutionalizing an idea that emerged in the mid-1990s under the Clinton administration--the transfer of some social programs from government control to religious organizations. However, despite an increasingly vocal, ideologically charged national debate--a debate centered on such questions as: What are these organizations doing? How well are they doing it? Should they be supported with tax dollars?--solid answers have been few.

"In Saving America?" Robert Wuthnow provides a wealth of up-to-date information whose absence, until now, has hindered the pursuit of answers. Assembling and analyzing new evidence from research he and others have conducted, he reveals what social support faith-based agencies are capable of providing. Among the many questions he addresses: Are congregations effective vehicles for providing broad-based social programs, or are they best at supporting their own members? How many local congregations have formal programs to assist needy families? How much money do such programs represent? How many specialized faith-based service agencies are there, and which are most effective? Are religious organizations promoting trust, love, and compassion?

The answers that emerge demonstrate that American religion is helping needy families and that it is, more broadly, fostering civil society. Yet religion alone cannot save America from the broad problems it faces in providing social services to those who need them most.

Elegantly written, "Saving America?" represents an authoritative and evenhanded benchmark of information for the current--and the coming--debate.