Nonprofit Groups Thrive when Business Smarts and Compassion Mix

The Business of Heart: How Everyday Americans Are Changing the World
by Michael J. Glauser

The entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael J. Glauser offers the narratives of 25 people who have created nonprofit organizations to tackle problems in their communities, and explains how the use of business tactics has made their endeavors both successful and more self-sufficient.

Henri Landwirth, for example, stresses that his strict budgeting practices, aggressive marketing techniques, and strong networking skills have helped his organization, Give Kids the World, grow into one of the nation’s largest charities. Likewise, Steadman Graham, who built Athletes Against Drugs, says that his organization has survived primarily because of its sound accounting, financial, and legal services.

In the book’s last chapter, Mr. Glauser describes eight keys to building a successful nonprofit organization. But he also argues that business smarts alone will not guarantee success: Only the combination of “extraordinary compassion and organizational savvy” will produce the type of fruitful social enterprise he offers as examples in this book.

Mr. Glauser also intends the book to spur readers to action. Early in the first chapter, he asserts that it is each American’s duty to serve others and to give assistance to those who need it. Drawing on various historical texts and events, he reasons that “all citizens should work together for the good of society.” Most people want to experience “the miracles of giving,” he says, but simply don’t know where to start.

Publisher: Shadow Mountain, a division of Deseret Book Company, 40 East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111; (801) 534-1515 or (800) 453-4532; fax (801) 517-3392; http://www.deseretbook.com; 250 pages; $19.95; I.S.B.N. 1-57345-547-4.