PLEASE BE GOOD AT PHILANTHROPY https://ift.tt/lsCUpPm

In this debut business book, Reedy offers her solution to a fundamental problem of the philanthropy sector: There’s no standard training model and no consensus on what makes a foundation and its employees good at the work they do. The author outlines five broad principles of philanthropy: Making change is often difficult; grantmakers give away both money and control when they fund projects; foundations face limited risk; philanthropists determine their organizations’ limitations; and philanthropic results are hard to measure. With these propositions at the core of her argument, Reedy makes a case for specific ways in which foundations and their employees should set goals, act strategically, and pursue their founders’ agendas in concrete ways. (An appendix addresses issues specific to community, corporate, and family foundations, and the author occasionally references a companion workbook.) The author’s straightforward tone and cleareyed approach to the strengths and weaknesses of the philanthropic sector make the book both accessible and informative, particularly to those who are new to the industry. Reedy mostly avoids jargon while making standard terminology like “theory of change” easily understood. The book draws on the author’s own professional experience for many of its elements and incorporates case studies and anecdotes from a wide range of foundations, demonstrating success and failure across a span of locations, endowment sizes, and philosophies. Another strength of the book is Reedy’s insistence that, while there are inarguably some wrong answers, each question about how a foundation should operate also has many right answers. As a result, Reedy doesn’t attempt to prescribe to readers what their outcomes or processes should be; she instead guides them through a series of questions designed to help them find those answers that are best aligned with their specific needs.

from Kirkus Reviews https://ift.tt/b5IW6Ho