The Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact is the first ever set of measurable guidelines that will help foundations and other institutional grantmakers operate ethically and maximize the impact of their dollars. It attempts to answer the questions: What differentiates an exemplary foundation from the rest of its peers? What can foundations do to improve its relevance to nonprofits, the economically and socially underserved Americans and society as a whole?

Several years ago, Eric Friedman decided to donate a substantial percentage of his income to charity. As many people do when making a big decision, he researched the best path he should take to accomplish his goal. After speaking with foundations, consultants, and nonprofit staff members, he found that few could adequately respond to his basic questions: How should donors choose the causes they support? How can donors maximize the impact of their giving? In Reinventing Philanthropy, Friedman shares the answers he found when exploring the world of charitable giving. What he discovered will help readers combine their business acumen with their compassion, soul-searching, and self-awareness so they can become highly effective donors. While many donors choose to direct their giving based on personal interests and passions, Friedman reinvents the best practices in philanthropic giving and demonstrates how the selection of donation recipients can be based more on maximizing a donation's benefits to those in need. He also provides specific strategies for effective giving, including the best ways to identify high-performance nonprofit organizations and the most important criteria for selecting causes to support.

"Gathered together in this unique book on evaluation and effective foundation practice are the experienced-based perspectives and measured insights of both seasoned practitioners and key philanthropic thought leaders. Foundations and Evaluation is a substantial think piece for grantmakers of any size." —Dorothy S. Ridings, president and CEO, Council on Foundations "Foundations and Evaluation explores the intersection between organizational effectiveness and evaluation and demonstrates the need for commitment to evaluation throughout the foundation. . . . A good read for both newcomers to evaluation and those with more experience, written by some of the most highly respected leaders in the field." —Kathleen P. Enright, executive director, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

“The pitfalls, potential, and the ins and outs of charitable giving . . . a must-read for all nonprofit leaders, donors, and students.”—Marjorie Schwarzer, award-winning author of Riches, Rivals, and Radicals There are thousands of books that tell you how to get money, but few that cover something just as challenging: how to give money away. Giving with Confidence provides thoughtful guidance culled from decades of experience in the philanthropy world. Whether you are an individual who donates to your favorite charity or the head of a small to medium-sized foundation, the gentle practicalities of this book will enable you to manage your giving with effectiveness and personal satisfaction. By following its seven core principles, you will have what you need for “improving the reach, scope, and impact” of your contributions. “Reveals the secret sauce of philanthropy with humor, wisdom, and plain good storytelling. This book is a gift for anyone who has considered giving.”—Ralph Lewin, president and CEO of Cal Humanities “There is a ton of advice for the wealthiest givers, but none for those of us who give more than $5,000 but less than $75,000 per year. Here in a non-dogmatic style are some approaches and guidelines to make donors feel more effective. Thank you, Cole and Fred.”—Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits “[An] outstanding guide to creative and effective grantmaking, this time for the individual philanthropist.”—Dawn Hawk, program officer for the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation “Part up-to-date behind-the-scenes guide, part how-to, this potent little book distills the wisdom of a life’s work in philanthropy by one of our best thinkers and most devoted practitioners.”—Marilyn Bancel, author of Preparing Your Capital Campaign

A decade ago, Thomas J. Tierney left Bain & Company to cofound The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit focused on helping donors and nonprofit leaders to develop and execute strategies to accelerate social change. In Give Smart, Tierney pools his hands-on knowledge with Duke professor Joel L. Fleishman's expertise to create a much-needed primer for philanthropists and the nonprofit organizations they support. Drawing from personal experiences, research spanning twentieth- and twenty-first-century philanthropy, contemporary interviews, and Bridgespan's extensive field work, Give Smart presents the definitive guide to engaged philanthropy.

"Examines the private nonprofit sector and the tax-exempt institutions that make up this sector providing important services and benefits to all Americans, with histories behind different institutions and the forces and developments that have buffeted them and what they have done to retain their resilience"--Provided by publisher.

An argument for putting sentiment aside and maximizing the practical impact of our donated dollars: “Powerful, provocative” (Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times). Peter Singer’s books and ideas have been disturbing our complacency ever since the appearance of Animal Liberation. Now he directs our attention to a challenging new movement in which his own ideas have played a crucial role: effective altruism. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profoundly unsettling idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the “most good you can do.” Such a life requires a rigorously unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas, and shows how, paradoxically, living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment than living for oneself. Doing the Most Good develops the challenges Singer has made, in the New York Times and Washington Post, to those who donate to the arts, and to charities focused on helping our fellow citizens, rather than those for whom we can do the most good. Effective altruists are extending our knowledge of the possibilities of living less selfishly, and of allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. Doing the Most Good offers new hope for our ability to tackle the world’s most pressing problems.