November 9, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
NEW BOOKS
Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy
by Peter Frumkin
Though philanthropy often is — and should be — an emotional expression of personal values, donors must be cool-headed and thoughtful in their giving strategies, writes Peter Frumkin.
“Only when giving becomes strategic will donors have a higher probability of creating value for the public and for themselves,” he argues.
Mr. Frumkin is a professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, both at the U. of Texas at Austin, and is a frequent contributor to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. He advises donors to consider five dimensions of their philanthropic strategy to ensure the money will be as useful as possible: value of the intended result to the donor and to the community; type of program or organization to receive the gift; the method of giving; the donor’s level of engagement; and the timing of the gift. Using both case studies and theory, he describes how and why philanthropists strategize.
The donor’s personal satisfaction should not be ignored or thought of as selfish, he writes. Instead, “philanthropy is best conceived as a private activity that allows donors to use their funds to explore their own private visions of the public good.”
Mr. Frumkin sees a core strength of philanthropy in this very arrangement — one that is “individualistic in nature, yet it operates in the public sphere.”
Other topics covered in the book include problems of philanthropy’s accountability, effectiveness, and legitimacy; the history of modern philanthropy; and philanthropy’s role relative to government.
“Philanthropy is unlikely to really achieve the ultimate potential if all it seeks to do is shadow and supplement public provision,” Mr. Frumkin writes.
(See Mr. Frumkin’s opinion article in the September 28 issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy.)
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, Ill. 60637; http://www.press.uchicago.edu; 458 pages; $39; ISBN 0-226-26626-5.
