Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count, by Phil Buchanan. Public Affairs. New York, 2019; 256 pp: ISBN 9781541742253 The act of giving is defined in deceptively simple terms by any dictionary: “to grant or bestow by formal action;to accord or yield to another; to put into the possession of another for…
When a group of Prince Edward County residents decided to establish a community foundation for the pastoral rural island region in eastern Ontario in 2008, they began not with an endowment, as is typically the case, but only a concept and, well, crossed fingers. The region has a few towns and an urban hub, Picton,…
Quand un groupe de résidents du Comté du Prince-Édouard ont décidé de constituer une fondation communautaire pour une région pastorale-rurale d’une île de l’est ontarien, en 2008, il n’a pas d’abord créé un fonds de dotation (habituelle façon de faire), mais uniquement un concept… et s’est croisé les doigts. La région comptait quelques petites municipalités…
Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better, by Rob Reich. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 2018, ISBN 9780691184395 Just Giving, by Stanford University professor Rob Reich, is a fascinating book for students of political philosophy and for thoughtful foundation leaders. It takes on fundamentally important questions: what…
Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow?, by Joel L. Fleischman. PublicAffairs. New York, New York, 2017, ISBN: 9781610395335 Joel Fleischman is the director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at Duke University. He is one of the most respected scholars of philanthropy in the US and…
La plupart des philanthropes mettent sur pied une fondation dans le but de redonner à la société. Ils investissent leur argent, leurs compétences, leur expérience et leurs connaissances dans ce qui leur semble le plus utile et satisfaisant (Fondations philanthropiques Canada, 2015). Tôt ou tard, ils apprennent toutefois que la société ou la communauté qu’ils…
Most philanthropists create a foundation as a way to give back to society. They commit their money, skills, experience, and knowledge to what promises to be most useful and satisfying (Philanthropic Foundations Canada, 2015). Sooner or later, however, they learn that the society or community they wish to serve has very specific opinions and expectations…
Six men killed, six women widowed, 17 children left fatherless, and one survivor paralyzed. Two years on, many Muslims are still reeling from the shock of the attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. As communities across the country gather on January 29 to remember the lives of Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry,…
This is the final article in our series about European philanthropy. The series is published as a collaboration between The Philanthropist and The Lawson Foundation. Early in 2018, well before Theresa May’s Tory government revealed its contentious proposal for splitting with the European Union, the Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros placed a £400,000 bet on an outspokenly anti-Brexit lobby…
Imagine that a couple has decided to remodel their kitchen. In preparation, they visit a tile store. A salesperson there works with them to choose the perfect backsplash. Everyone is happy with the final selection and the salesperson begins making arrangement for payment and delivery. Just then the husband pulls out a document from his…