Philanthropy Can Shape Society, Politics for the Better, Author Claims

Making the Money Sing: Private Wealth and Public Power in the Search for Peace
by John Tirman

Money, the author maintains, can be an instrument of remarkable social and political change “when combined with intelligence, courage, hard work, solidarity, and vision.”

John Tirman, founder of the Winston Foundation for World Peace in Washington and the fund’s director from 1986 to 1999, offers his thoughts on how social change happens, who brings it about, and “the way that money can shape history.”

Foundations established by the wealthy, he argues, “do have the power to foment social change, to transform issues of public concern or neglect.”

Mr. Tirman bases such assertions on his experiences working for nuclear disarmament during the cold war. During the late 1980’s, Mr. Tirman joined the forces of his own Winston Foundation with “a few dozen people with access to money” from the Ford, MacArthur, and Rockefeller Foundations, and the Open Society Institute, among others.

Together, he says, they “altered the landscape of global politics” by opposing President Reagan’s cold war principles and working to persuade policy makers to move towards peace.

Accordingly, Mr. Tirman firmly believes that charitable funds can be effectively marshaled to support “not only political goals, but also the political processes by which those goals might be achieved.”

While his book is mostly a chronicle of the strategy sessions, activist meetings, fund-raising battles, and political fallout he witnessed while contesting the cold war, he also means for it to be an inspiration to wealthy readers. Anyone who has money in this economy, Mr. Tirman says, has the ability to carry out “high-performance philanthropy” that just might change the world.

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20706; (717) 794-3800 or (800) 462-6420; http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com; 173 pages; $27.50; I.S.B.N. 0-8476-9922-6.