Charity & Philanthropy For Dummies
Despite tough economic times, rates of donations are on the rise. If you want to make a difference but don’t know where to start, you need Charity & Philanthropy For Dummies.
This is your one-stop, no-nonsense guide to charitable activities. Inside you’ll find lots of strategies for philanthropic work such as volunteering your time, raising funds, donating your own cash or expertise, impact investing, and social entrepreneurship. You’ll also find lots of case studies from charities big and small to show you what works and what doesn’t.
- Help with selecting where to donate or invest
- Ideas for how you can make a difference without having pots of money
- Advice on socially responsible and impact investing
- Techniques for reaching out to others to help your cause – from a local to a global level
- You don’t need deep pockets to make a difference—you need Charity & Philanthropy For Dummies.
Reviews
Charity and Philanthropy for Dummies is essentially an introductory guide for wannabe philanthropists. The authors have a lot to get through. It’s a massive subject.
Beginning with a celebration of how great it is to support charities, and how you don’t have to be super-wealthy do be a philanthropist, the book then takes the reader through the types of organisation that they could support, and various ways in which they can do so (such as volunteering one’s time, raising money, making donations, through to social enterprise).
It’s billed as a ‘no-nonsense guide’ and does indeed fulfill this brief, with the various standard “for Dummies” icons such as “Tip”, “Warning” and “Technical stuff” serving to make the text accessible and easy to follow.
It’s also packed with interesting case studies and examples from around the world.
Having spent two decades working in the charity sector, I am used to reading how-to guides written for the charity professional. This book is worth a read, most especially because of its different approach. It’s not written for fundraisers. It’s written for people who are interested in supporting charities but aren’t sure how to, or indeed who to support.
Fundraisers may spend a professional lifetime perfecting ways to say “Choose us!” to a prospective supporter. Here, as the reader is taken on a canter through the various types of charities across the world, I found a refreshing change of perspective.
However, Charity and Philanthropy for Dummies is a hugely ambitious book.
While its UK edition has been well-researched, it seems pretty clear that it was originally written for a US audience. This leads at times to a slightly jarring tone (there may be a few too many exclamation marks for UK tastes, for example) and the odd slightly incongruous error (NSPCC are described as founded in the 18th Century). Some more selective editing of the US examples that remain in the book could also have been helpful.
And the subject matter is astonishingly broad, and ever-changing. Is it really possible to categorise the various charity sectors without making the reader go glassy-eyed, and possibly lose the will to donate? It will also be a big job ensuring that the information within it doesn’t go out of date.
However, there is much to be admired in this book. The authors focus unwaveringly on the importance of impact throughout, urging the reader to focus on outcomes rather than outputs. The list of ‘compelling reasons to give’ alone may make you reappraise your own charity’s case for support.
Most of all, though, it constitutes an interesting shift of perspective for hardened charity professionals. We need to see the world of charities through the eyes of potential supporters, and reading this book is a great way to do it.
Richard Sved
3rd Sector Mission Control
12 May, 2014
