June 26, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Giving Well, Doing Good: Readings for Thoughtful Philanthropists
edited by Amy A. Kass
“New codes and regulations cannot address the growing interest in larger questions about the future of American philanthropy,” writes Amy A. Kass, a senior lecturer in humanities at the University of Chicago. “With philanthropy on the threshold of an exciting new era, it is especially fitting that present and future philanthropists reflect more deeply on the whys and wherefores of their activities.”
Ms. Kass has gathered selections from many different sources — including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Pope Benedict XVI, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ogden Nash — to help donors, foundation staff members, nonprofit leaders, trustees, and others answer questions and consider new ideas about philanthropy.
The selected articles, book excerpts, stories, and poems focus on six themes: goals and intentions; gifts, donors, and recipients; bequests and legacies; effectiveness; accountability; and philanthropic leadership.
In the section on accountability, Ms. Kass includes works from Plato, Robert Frost, Ralph Ellison, and Benjamin Franklin, among others. The readings focus on accepting responsibility for others, keeping promises, dealing with guilt, and teaching the next generation about philanthropy.
The selections, Ms. Kass writes, are collected to help “point a way toward a philanthropic practice that is more responsible, responsive, and civic-spirited, and above all successful — fulfilling for givers, useful for recipients, beneficial for all.”
Publisher: Indiana University Press, 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, Ind. 47404; (800) 842-6796; fax (812) 855-7931; iuporder@indiana.edu; http://iupress.indiana.edu; 490 pages; $19.95; ISBN 978-0-253-21955-8.
