July 23, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Billions of Drops in Millions of Buckets: Why Philanthropy Doesn’t Advance Social Progress
by Steven H. Goldberg
Charitable giving has never been higher yet social ills persist and are even worsening — a problem, the author argues, that stems from the lack of market-driven approaches.
Steven H. Goldberg, a former lawyer and former chief operating officer at Cradles to Crayons, a charity that provides basic needs to poor children, says that philanthropy is rarely performance-based but instead guided by loyalty.
Donations are given with no strong sense as to which charities are the most effective, causing leaders to spend increasing amounts of time raising money rather than focusing on programs.
To remedy this, Mr. Goldberg suggests creating an “impact index,” a nonprofit stock market that would rank charities according to their perceived effectiveness.
Such a market would be based on the idea that predictions and estimates made by large groups are frequently better than those made by individuals. Using the index, he says, donors could give money to effective charities.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Fourth Floor, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (201) 748-6000; fax (201) 748-6088; http://www.wiley.com; 302 pages; $39.95; ISBN 978-0-470-45467-1.
