What should we include in the Philanthropy Canon?
I’ve been working with a team to meet with and mentor community leaders and staff associated with Israel’s first community foundation. The community foundation, Takdim, is based in Ramat HaSharon (a city comparable to Palo Alto) and officially launched in May 2011. The story behind this effort is fascinating and signals the potential shift in philanthropic culture in Israel (the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at the Hebrew University calculates charitable giving at 0.74% of GDP in comparison to the 2.1% in the United States). Two interesting articles about the new community foundation, its challenges and opportunities are available here and here.
As part of my work with Takdim, I was asked to provide a landscape overview of philanthropy in the United States. I took that as an opportunity to focus on some core concepts around best practices in grantmaking and emerging issues affecting charitable giving and philanthropic efforts. But, I also wanted to provide Takdim with a list of seminal articles, essays, books, and blog posts that have been pushed over the past ten years (in the end I extended it out to 12 years) – in essence, an informal canon on philanthropy.
I’ve already had a few interesting conversations through Twitter about several such publications. Below, I’ve summarized my personal favorites. But, I’ve also started a larger list of these published works. What else would you add to the list? And what should belong to the canon?
Author, Title, Publication Date, Publisher, Subject Area, Type
- Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer, “Philanthropy's New Agenda: Creating Value”, 1999, HBR, Effective Practice, Essay
- Joel J. Orosz, The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking, 2000, Jossey-Bass, Effective Practice, Book
- Tony Proscio, In Other Words, 2000, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Effective Practice, Book
- Tony Proscio, Bad Words for Good, 2001, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Effective Practice, Book
- The Center for Effective Philanthropy, “Indicators of Effectiveness: Understanding and Improving Foundation Performance”, 2002, CEP, Effective Practice, Essay
- Ronald A. Heifetz, John V. Kania, & Mark R. Kramer, “Leading Boldly”, 2004, SSIR, Strategy & Leadership, Essay
- The Center for Effective Philanthropy, “Beyond Compliance”, 2005, CEP, Strategy & Leadership, Essay
- Tony Proscio, When Words Fail, 2005, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Effective Practice, Book
- Joel Fleishman, The Foundation: A Great American Secret, 2007, Public Affairs Books, History, Book
- Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, “Assessing the Impact”, 2008, GEO, Effective Practice, Essay
- Grants Managers Network, “Project Streamline: Drowning in Paperwork”, 2009, GMN, Effective Practice, Essay
- Susan Wolf Ditkoff and Susan J. Colby, “Galvanizing Philanthropy”, 2009, HBR, Effective Practice, Essay
- Lucy Bernholz, Edward Skloot, & Barry Varela, Disrupting Philanthropy, 2010, Duke University, Strategy & Leadership, Book
- Monitor Institute, “What's Next for Philanthropy”, 2010, Monitor Institute, Effective Practice, Essay
- Antony Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson, Impact Investing, 2011, Jossey-Bass, Emerging Practice, Book
- John Kania and Mark R. Kramer, “Collective Impact”, 2011, SSIR, Effective Practice, Essay
Tags: Philanthropy, Community Foundations
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Does anybody appreciate the books that critique the field?
The critique of philanthropy since the Gospel of Wealth Came out a few years ago (1889), is that it is a bit too insular, self-satisfied, and not very self-critical. We can't let that happen to this fantastic book list.
Takdim better bone up on the history of philanthropy and develop its own critical appraisal of the field unless it wants to repeat our mistakes.
I'll challenge others to help identify more critical perspectives to their booklist.
Here's a quick rundown of what is in a pile in my office to get you all started:
Just Another Emperor: the Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism, by Michael Edwards
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex by Incite!
Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History by Lawrence J. Friedman and Mark D. McGarvie
American Foundations, an Investigative History by Mark Dowie
A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis: David Rieff
Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, and Ethics by Michael Barnett and Thomas G. Weiss
White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Little Good by Bill Easterly
Prentice Zinn - GMAFoundations
How about Giving 2.0, now #5 on NYT bestseller "advice list"
I really like how this list is shaping up. As someone who has been immersed in the philanthropic sector for 20 years, you hit my all time favorites. As I think about what I might add here...what about something hot-off-the-press? A new favorite of mine, from the founder of Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and a professor at Stanford business school :
GIVING 2.0 by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen hit #5 on the NYT bestseller "advice" list this past week. Given the community foundation context, it seems especially applicable as it focuses on individual philanthropy. It is full of inspirational case studies of people from all walks of life who use their time, talents, networks and money to create meaningful social change. Check out the website and all of the endorsements the book is receiving from some of philanthropy's great leaders : http://giving2.com/the-book/
submitted by: Alexa Cortes Culwell
Great suggestions!
Thanks Sean and Nikki! Those are all great suggestions. I'll add them into the Google list and continue to add from there. I don't suspect we'll ever manage to get at the definitive top-10 list, but even if we provide a fundamental list we would be moving things along.
Sean, the issue of living sites, like blogs, is challenging. There are some posts that resonate in the moment, but there are probably others that have endured. I'd be curious to know what were the top posts on your blog over the past five years.
-Adin
A few additions - From Nikki Gler
Hi Adin,
Great list so far. I'm going to ditto Sean's comment in regards to the SSIR article on the non-profit starvation cycle. I think this article is super important and would be a huge win if emerging philanthropists understood the content of this article. As a grants manager I'm also going to suggest adding in "The Due Diligence Tool" published by GEO and La Piana Associates. It helps with understanding of the nuts and bolts of grant making, which is often not discussed in books and shorter articles. I also often turn to the guides available from GrantCraft which I find quick and easy to understand. Good luck on this project it sounds very exciting and worthwhile!
Best,
Nikki
I think you have to include
I think you have to include Paul Brest and Hal Harvey's Money Well Spent as the authoritative book on Strategic Philanthropy. Forces for Good might be about nonprofits, but it talks about them from the view of the philanthropist. The SSIR article The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle is critical and one of their most read ever. My dark horse special would be Philanthropy Reconsidered by George McCully. How about the Money for Good report? I think the CEP report on how foundation say they are strategic but most don't display even the most basic strategic behavior is important. Both Leap of Reason and Give Smart are new, but two of the best in years (especially when read as a pair).
What about the "living documents" of blogs and other online resources?
Additions to the Canon
Sean,
We knew it was you! Thanks for the reminder about "Leap of Reason" -- certainly a key influence on me, as a rookie in the field. I also suggest "The Art of Giving" by Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon, especially for folks engaging in private philanthropy. -Andrew Skeehan, Change Our Community Foundation.
Last comment
Sorry, I'm (Sean Stannard-Stockton) the author of the last comment.