A decade ago, Thomas J. Tierney left Bain & Company to cofound The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit focused on helping donors and nonprofit leaders to develop and execute strategies to accelerate social change. In Give Smart , Tierney pools his hands-on knowledge with Duke professor Joel L. Fleishman's expertise to create a much-needed primer for philanthropists and the nonprofit organizations they support. Drawing from personal experiences, research spanning twentieth- and twenty-first-century philanthropy, contemporary interviews, and Bridgespan's extensive field work, Give Smart presents the definitive guide to engaged philanthropy.

During the next twenty years, as part of the largest transfer of wealth in history, more than $500 billion is expected to pour into the philanthropic sector. Some of it will come from retiring baby boomers, but even more will come from newly rich Silicon Valley billionaires. Since 2006, the appeal of "giving while living" has grown, so much so that many philanthropic donors now expect not just to give money during their lifetimes, but to create organizations or ventures-some for profit, others not for profit-whose missions are expected to be completed within the lifetime of the donors. The combination of these two trends has transformed the not-for-profit sector in scale and dynamism, attracting some skeptical scrutiny along the way. Philanthrocapitalism has acquired some of the trappings of financialization, and has the potential to deliver ever greater impact. But will it? And will the demand that the impact be quickly realized mean that longer-term institution-building missions will be neglected? Joel L. Fleishman is one of the wisest of wise men in philanthropy whose advice is routinely sought by organizations and individuals across the country. In Putting Wealth to Work, he tells the story of a uniquely American financial sector, all but created by Andrew Carnegie's example, that since 1995 has become more dynamic with every passing year. Staggering personal fortunes are made and given away, from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, as in no previous era since the golden age of American capitalism. America currently leads the world in this trend-of the 138 signers of the giving-while-living pledge, 110 were American-but the world is following in its footsteps. This movement of socially motivated capital is unprecedented and its consequences are potentially transformative for the American economy and the world at large.

Private foundations have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet just over 10 percent of the public knows they even exist; and for those who are aware of them, as well as even those who seek grants from them, their internal workings remain a complete mystery. Joel Fleishman knows the sector like few others, and in this groundbreaking book he explains both the history of foundations--with their fledgling beginnings in the era of the robber barons seeking social respectability--through to the present day. This book shows how, why foundations matters, and how the future of foundations can provide a vital spur to the engine of the American, and the world's, economy--if they are properly established and run.

Unique in all the world, the American foundation sector has been an engine of social change for more than a century.

In this companion volume to "The Foundation: A Great American Secret," Joel Fleishman, Scott Kohler, and Steven Schindler explore 100 of the highest-achieving foundation initiatives of all time. Based on a rich array of sources--from interviews with the principals themselves to contemporaneous news accounts to internal evaluation reports--this volume presents brief case studies of foundation success stories across virtually every field of human endeavor.

The influence of the foundations on American, and indeed global society, has only occasionally come into the public view. For every well-known foundation achievement--Andrew Carnegie's massive library building program or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's public efforts to curb tobacco use--there are a great many lesser-known, but often equally important stories to be told.

The cases in this volume provide a wealth of evidentiary support for Joel Fleishman's description of, and recommendations for, the foundation sector. With lessons for grant-makers, grant-seekers, public officials, and public-spirited individuals alike, this casebook pieces together 100 stories, some well known, others never before told, and offers hard proof of the foundation sector's immense and enduring impact on scientific research, education, public policy, and many other fields. The work that foundations have supported over the past century has achieved profound results. Yet foundations are capable of more and better. This volume, a window onto great successes of the past and present, is at once a look back, a look around, and a point of reference as we turn to the future.