October 30, 1997 | Read Time: 9 minutes
The Advancement President and the Academy: Profiles in Institutional Leadership
Edited by Mary Kay Murphy
In this book, current and former heads of educational institutions — all of whom have backgrounds in fund raising and public affairs — explain how the lessons they learned raising money helped them to secure their jobs and perform the functions of their office.
“If you are an advancement professional seeking to lead an institution, there is no better time, nor more challenging time, than the present to do so,” writes Peter McE. Buchanan, former president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, in a foreword.
The collected essays explore how a fund-raising background can propel a career and prepare one for the challenges faced by heads of colleges, universities, and private schools.
For example: D. Bruce Johnstone, former chancellor of the State University of New York at Buffalo, argues that a president with a fund-raising background has an edge in dealing with public-policy makers who use state dollars to “leverage” private donations.
Appendixes include a list of universities that offer degrees or certificates in fund raising and non-profit management, and a list of current and former heads of institutions who have held fund-raising positions.
Ms. Murphy is the associate vice-president for development at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. The book is part of a series on higher education published by the American Council on Education and Oryx Press in affiliation with CASE.
Publisher: Oryx Press, P.O. Box 33889, Phoenix 85067-3889; (602) 265-2651 or (800) 279-6799; fax (602) 265-6250 or (800) 279-4663; World-Wide Web http://www.oryxpress.com; 199 pages; $34.95; I.S.B.N. 1-57356-028-6.
Communication Power: Energizing Your Nonprofit Organization
By Larry D. Lauer
The public’s perception of a non-profit group is shaped most by the performance of the group’s top executives, Mr. Lauer writes. He offers this guide to help non-profit leaders better articulate their goals — and their organizations’ gains — to the world at large.
“Media campaigns that do not involve out-front executive leadership do not move very far,” writes Mr. Lauer, the associate vice-chancellor for communications and public affairs at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
Ten chapters cover such topics as staging effective presentations, improving communications within the office, connecting with board members and donors, winning favorable coverage from the press, and salvaging a public-relations crisis. Mr. Lauer touts concentrating on a specific audience at all times and, in a world that he says is saturated with information, cautions that more information is not always better.
An appendix lists specific objectives and discussion questions from the topics covered to help executives write and speak to the best of their abilities.
Publisher: Aspen Publishers, 7201 McKinney Circle, Frederick, Md. 21704; (800) 638-8437; World-Wide Web http://www.aspenpub.com; 208 pages; $49; I.S.B.N. 0-8342-0893-8.
Environmental Grantmaking Foundations, 1997 Directory
Corinne R. Szymko, Senior Editor
The fifth edition of this directory profiles 740 foundations that made grants for environmental causes. Those funds manage a combined $77-billion in assets and give away nearly $500-million in environment-related grants each year, the compilers say.
Each entry contains up to 12 elements, including contact information, history and philosophy of the grant maker, a list of its officers and directors, financial data, an analysis of its giving patterns, sample grants, geographic emphasis, and the types of issues and activities that the grant maker favors (e.g., biological diversity, endangered lands, or oceans).
The guide includes nine appendixes and eight indexes. One appendix lists the membership of the Environmental Grantmakers Association as of May 1997.
New to this year’s edition is a list of World-Wide Web addresses for 25 grant makers and indications of grant makers that support only preselected organizations.
The compilers stress that all groups listed may not be potential sources of funds. “The book is a research document as well as a guide for grantseekers,” they say.
Publisher: Resources for Global Sustainability, P.O. Box 22770, Rochester, N.Y. 14692-2770; (800) 724-1857; fax (716) 473-0968; World-Wide Web http://home.eznet.net/~rgs; 1,004 pages; $95 includes postage and handling; available on CD-ROM for $110 — call for specifications and restrictions; I.S.B.N. 0-9631943-4-8.
Practical Guide to Planned Giving 1998
By Leonard G. Clough, David G. Clough, Ellen G. Estes, and Ednalou C. Ballard
As the philanthropic world prepares for a multitrillion-dollar transfer of wealth between generations, planned-giving options such as charitable remainder trusts, pooled-income funds, and deferred-payment annuities stand to mushroom in popularity, say the authors.
This guide advises non-profit organizations on how to tap into that wealth, of which only an estimated 7 per cent is cash: “Many [wealthy] people may not even be in a financial position to make large outright gifts from income, and planned giving is the only way to unlock the value inherent in their assets,” writes Bruce E. Bigelow, president of the International Planned Giving Foundation, in a foreword.
Various sections examine how to start and manage a planned-giving program, the tax considerations of planned gifts from individuals and organizations, and the responsibilities of a successful “gift-planning team,” whose players include the financial planner, insurance professional, lawyer, accountant, and marketing professional.
The final section — dubbed a “planned-giving toolbox” — comprises a glossary of relevant terms, sample forms for various trusts and bequests, a bibliography of resources, state regulations for charitable gift annuities (and maximum gift-annuity rates), sample disclosure statements, a code of ethics, and forms, schedules, and publications from the Internal Revenue Service.
All four authors are fund-raising consultants with backgrounds in planned giving.
Publisher: The Taft Group, 835 Penobscot Building, 645 Griswold Street, Detroit 48226-4094; (800) 877-8238; 930 pages; $130; I.S.B.N. 1-5699-5054-7; I.S.S.N. 1053-0436.
Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services
By Joe Loconte
Lawmakers who steer public funds to charities perpetuate an uneasy and debilitating alliance, writes the author of this book.
Mr. Loconte, a deputy editor at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, maintains that state and federal support of non-profit groups fosters bureaucratic meddling that impedes services and can compromise the organizations’ missions.
His conclusions are based on research and interviews conducted at 15 social-services organizations in Massachusetts that receive state funds and on talks with officials at Massachusetts agencies that provide such funds.
Mr. Loconte argues that charities’ reliance on public money extends the arms of government into what should be community- and volunteer-based social services and smothers innovative approaches to society’s problems. What’s more, he says, non-profit groups that jockey for government contracts often find that obstructive and intractable regulations are part of the bargain.
For example, he writes, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation’s guidelines for reporting injuries has turned “every bruise into a possible government probe” at private facilities that serve disabled people. And St. Ann’s Home, a residence for troubled youths in Methuen, Mass., sued the state in 1995 for what it perceived to be a threat to withhold funds because the facility’s executive director had been critical of state-issued directives.
“It seems inescapable that government entities — with or without private agency consent — will leverage significant control over the most personal of caregiving decisions,” Mr. Loconte writes.
His recommendations for change include providing vouchers to families and individuals for social services, establishing a tax credit for people who wish to earmark a portion of their income for social services, and giving charities — not states — the power to approve and license people who work at social-services groups.
Publisher: Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, 85 Devonshire Street, Eighth Floor, Boston 02109; (617) 723-2277; fax (617) 723-1880; World-Wide Web http://www.pioneerinstitute.org; 140 pages; $15; I.S.B.N. 0-929930-18-5.
Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide and Workbook
By Michael Allison and Jude Kaye
This book provides a step-by-step guide to writing a document that spells out why a non-profit organization exists, what it hopes to accomplish, and how it will meet its goals — a “blueprint for action.”
Mr. Allison and Ms. Kaye, consultants at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management in San Francisco, outline seven stages in the planning process: getting ready, articulating the mission, assessing the environment, agreeing on priorities, and writing, implementing, and evaluating the organizational plan.
The book was written with small- to mid-sized non-profit organizations in mind. The authors invent an AIDS-services charity to serve as a case study for the book’s 21 worksheets, which cover such topics as the group’s history and evaluating its current programs. The hypothetical final planning document is also provided.
Appendixes include self-assessment surveys for staff and board members. A computer disk, for use with Microsoft Word Version 2.0 or higher, provides blank copies of the worksheets.
The authors caution that the final plan should be malleable. “Ultimately, the end sought is to be effective in pursuing your mission, not to correctly predict the future,” they write.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Avenue, New York 10158-0012; (800) 879-4539; fax (212) 850-6135; 277 pages; $39.95, includes a 3.5-inch computer disk; I.S.B.N. 0-471-17832-2.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
The Fundraising Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Creating the Perfect Event, by Micki Gordon, explores how to plan a special event, from recruiting volunteers to garnering donations to attracting publicity. Ms. Gordon, director of resource development at the Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington, also covers such details as time lines and insurance considerations, and she includes appendixes meant to be of use to fund raisers who seek more information, such as a list of academic programs devoted to philanthropy. Publisher: The FIG Press, Gaithersburg, Md.; available from Q Corp, 49 Sheridan Avenue, Albany, N.Y. 12210; (800) 877-2693; 184 pages, spiralbound; $19.95 plus $4.75 postage and handling; I.S.B.N. 0-9649299-3-7.
The Future of Children: Children and Poverty, edited by Richard E. Behrman, is the Summer/Fall 1997 edition of a continuing series from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Center for the Future of Children. It provides a statistical analysis of children and poverty in the United States, as well as essays from child-care professionals on poverty’s causes and on programs that mitigate its effects. Recommendations include creating a refundable income-tax credit of $1,000 per year for all children up to age 18 and reworking the criteria for the official measure of poverty to reflect economic and social changes. Publisher: Center for the Future of Children, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 300 Second Street, Suite 102, Los Altos, Cal. 94022; fax (415) 948-6498; World-Wide Web http://www.futureofchildren.org; 160 pages; free; I.S.S.N. 1054-8289.
