Best nonprofit organizations books according to redditors
We found 45 Reddit comments discussing the best nonprofit organizations books. We ranked the 24 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 45 Reddit comments discussing the best nonprofit organizations books. We ranked the 24 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
I would strongly recommend the book called: "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond The Non-Profit Industrial Complex" It is a collection of essays about the history and function of non-profits in America. If you do read it, feel free to skip the first essay in the book. It is very difficult to read. That other essays are all much better and you will definitely learn a lot about how the wealthy have used non-profits to prevent meaningful social and economic change.
https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Will-Not-Funded-Non-Profit/dp/0822369001
These UN councils and commissions are usually a forum for states to interact with various nonprofits and NGOs. These organizations purport to be philanthropic, but their true material function is to serve as liaisons between government control and private sector wealth. They funnel public money into private hands, and they also redirect the energies of threatening social-justice movements from below into activities and agendas that increase state (and capitalist) power, like for example using womens' liberation to justify imperialism, or using "anti-harrassment" to justify censorship and beef up the surveillance and police state.
This is exactly right, and is documented really well in the book Uncharitable by Dan Pallotta. The problem is that percentages are not usually reported with absolute dollar amounts sent to the cause. In your example, that's an extra $10,000,000 that wouldn't otherwise be used to get guns off the streets.
And, in addition, it's super easy to game the numbers. I start a foundation to study lupus. I get $10,000,000 in donations. I donate all but $1,000,000 to some random university studying it that I found in 10 seconds of googling. I keep the $1,000,000 for myself. I have a rather sterling 90% given to the cause and only 10% for "administrative expenses".
In short, you need a much better metric than % to cause.
https://www.amazon.com/Such-Thing-Free-Gift-Philanthropy/dp/1784786233
Interesting that one of the fastest growing business in the world is philanthropy. Even though Gates is "giving" his wealth away, he's still making billions.
So, two things: is this something you actually want to do? It's not going to suddenly become your life's path to be a manager if you take this promotion, but if it's something you're pretty sure you don't want to do yet, it's OK to push back against it.
Secondly, if this is something you want to do, I'd like to aggressively recommend the book which helped me to make the transition myself, Managing to Change The World by Allison Green. To me, it's the bar-none best book for new managers to learn how to develop the skills they're going to need to be effective managers. If you can, visiting one of The Management Center's trainings on your company's dime is also almost certainly worth the money, if you have any kind of training budget. The training goes in-depth on the things that the book covers and allows you to spend some time with people in a similar position as you (new managers) to learn from each other over the course of a couple days.
Whichever way you go, best of luck!
A quick google shows "For Dummies" has a book on nonprofits.
Or should we say ... "a non-prophet organization"
I'm reading this book right now about the downfalls of Charitable Giving which you might find interesting. I think the reality is that it might feel really good to give but sometimes your money/efforts might go further elsewhere.
https://www.amazon.com/Being-Generous-Theodore-Roosevelt-Malloch/dp/9380619022
Boom. Headshot.
"Thought you might like(need) this, bro!"
Here's a good book to read:)
https://www.amazon.com/Such-Thing-Free-Gift-Philanthropy/dp/1784786233
Thank you for the links, I'll read them and respons on them when done.
Maybe you like this as well: http://www.amazon.com/The-Secrets-Masonic-Washington-Ceremonies/dp/1594772665#reader_1594772665
Very usefull, I add it to the doc. and yes CGO has ties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Freemasons_%28A%E2%80%93D%29 first name under C.
My next essay will be about this, the depth and width about cagliostro and how it all connects.
He's giving from one hand, taking back from the other basically. And his giving on one hand is done for spectacle, for public image, it's what a PR firm told him to do after the 1999 microsoft monopoly trials.
A lot of his non-profit aid consist in paying for-profits that are often already responsible for the issues in Africa, or aid that benefit microsoft following this simple scheme : give money to for-profit to help education -> this for-profit then use the money to buy microsoft license to help said education. In 2014 they have 2.2 millions dollars of their foundation invested in for profit prison, probably more now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation#Criticism
They are monsanto's dog :
https://americaoutloud.com/the-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-is-the-gangster-godfather/
https://www.amazon.com/Such-Thing-Free-Gift-Philanthropy/dp/1784786233
https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-45-the-not-so-benevolent-billionaire-bill-gates-and-western-media-b1f8e0fe092f
Microsoft is a scam, it's a malware and spyware, designed for control, thanks to him the USA have an awesome way to spy easily basically anybody who uses it. Microsoft is an active participant to the PRISM project.
Devil's best trick is make us believe he doesn't exist.
Here are a few tips, some of which I use with my own kids, some of which my parents used for me and my wife's parents use for her:
A. Whenever possible, take the kids shopping with you. Sure the kids might be asking for you to buy stuff constantly, but that's the perfect opportunity to teach. Make every shopping trip a real learning experience. Teach them the difference between wants and needs. Compare prices of different brands and different types of foods. Explain how credit cards work, and how some people pay them off every month, and some people spend a lot extra! Explain how some people forego the luxuries today, so they save, invest, and retire early; and also how some choose to spend every sent their earn, ensuring they'll never have any savings for the future.
B. Have you heard of Robert Kiyosaki's Cash Flow 101 board game? It's a fun and really effective way to learn about buying and selling real estate, playing stocks, luxury expenses, the difference between assets and liabilities, borrowing to invest, etc. Tons of really important stuff. My son, who's 10 now, learned to play it last year, and he loves it. That said, it might be too complicated for some kids. And for that reason, Kiyosaki also created a Cash Flow for Kids board game, which we've also tried. My son prefers the adult version, so YMMV.
C. Wallets/Jars: My wife and I took a financial seminar which taught us to divide up our earnings (after expenses) into 6 jars or wallets: necessary expenses (50%), fun/play (10%), education (10%), plan/long-term savings (10%), freedom/wealth (10%), and angel/give (10%). Here's a very brief description of the wallets:
For younger kids, you can simplify this into fewer wallets and not have your kids worry about expenses.
This system teaches the kids saving strategies, the difference between luxury items and necessities, assets vs. liabilities, delayed gratification, the fun aspect of money, charity, and much more. It's a brilliant system.
My kids are co-investors in their own businesses now (paper route, and a toy rental company), and any money that comes in (after expenses) is divided up into the different wallets. They save for their own big gifts now (learning delayed gratification and gaining a sense of accomplishment.) They buy presents for their friends birthdays. And they re-invest in their rental business through asset acquisition using their freedom account (learning entrepreneurialism and long-term wealth building).
D. We're also teaching the kids about the big business quadrant (from Kiyosaki) -- instead of delivering their own papers on the paper route, they hire kids in the neighborhood to do it for them, and act as the manager.
E. Another strategy my wife's parents used with her was to allow the kids to handle ALL of their yearly expenses. When you think your kids are ready, give them a large chunk of money in August, before school starts, and explain to them that they will need to budget for the entire year for all of their expenses: luxury and necessities. If they wear out their clothes too fast, they will need to buy themselves new ones. This will make them think twice before wearing holes through the knees in all their pants. If the spend all their fun money at the start of the year, they'll find out that by the end of the year that they should have budgeted better: e.g. when everyone else gets to go bowling and to the movies, but they have to stay at home because they blew all their fun money early, there will be a priceless lesson they'll never forget.
F. There's an amazing book about the ridiculousness of materialism and greed called "The Present's Presents". Highly recommended: http://www.amazon.com/The-Presents-CD-Teresa-Grosbois/dp/1926643062
G. Call around and ask some banks if they have special checking or savings accounts for kids. Often they will get them set up and make a decent sized initial deposit for free.
H. I also don't believe in giving an allowance. I don't believe giving kids money for just existing, or for doing chores they will need to be doing on their own in the future teaches them anything useful. I'm teaching my kids to go out and find ways to earn money to get the things they want, and that chores are a part of life, wherever they live. This is teaching them to be a contribution to the household, self-sufficiency, independence, and entrepreneuralism.
Hope that helps! I'd be happy to answer questions.
Happy belated birthday. I finally have some time to respond to this when I'm at the office and have relevant things handy.
Books to read:
Thanks so much!
As for what to read, it really depends on what you're interested in but I always recommend the classics when it comes to anything to do with the left first.
However, if you'd like something more modern and lighter here are some of my recent favorites:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NZ308I/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
book which presents a solid argument and evidence that lower efficiency does not mean less giving but can definitely mean more.
Couple of things:
You'll want to set up an actual organization if you're going to do this big. Although Occupy didn't have an "organization" driving it in a formal sense, there were a lot of anti-globalization/anarchist folks all over the US who provided the infrastructure and experience to make things happen. They had a relatively common workstyle and ideology, this let the movement get off the ground quickly. However, it was , by definition, pretty loose organizationally and that eventually killed the movement.
The good thing is that Restore the Fourth has clear goals. What it needs is better operational skills, especially media outreach. I think in the NYC coverage, I saw TV cameras, so they got that part. There should have been a national press release, pushed to national media. Local groups could have used the national press release as a shell/template for their own releases to local media. Local media is always looking for stories and if you package something up to make it easy, they will come out, especially to protests.
There is going to have to be a national organization. I thought the idea of a national newspaper ad was excellent. Problem is, who will hold the money? When I saw it, I immediately figured the problem was going to be, who is going to buy the ad? If an individual took responsibility for the money, that's endless tax issues. Plus, once you have money involved, things can get tense really fast. Mo' money mo' problems, to quote a famous philosopher. I can say this from direct experience with Occupy.
What might work is to set up a 501(c)4 since those can do political lobbying. That's what we should have done. There's a book called Fiscal Sponsorship that explains how to do it.
There's every reason to set it up as a democratic organization, in terms of decision making and so on. Restore the 4th need something like that to interface with the financial system, buy ads, receive donations, etc.
As far as the permits for marching, that can be good or bad. Some communities (for ex. a lot of undocumented folks) will not participate in nonpermitted marches because they know if they are arrested, they will get deported. There's a time to confront the system directly, and in some cases, that's why doing stuff without a permit can be important, provided you can get community support and not act like assholes. It sounds like Restore the 4th is so far pretty well behaved, probably too well behaved.
His “charitable giving” to media companies helps build that kind of public sentiment. Look under the surface and it’s not so rosy.
The Eight Principles of Sustainable Fundraising
https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Principles-Sustainable-Fundraising-Transforming/dp/1612060668/
This is not a how-to book. This is about laying the foundation so you can be successful.
> Rich people do not monetarily benefit from charitable donations unless they’re committing fraud.
Here is a whole book about it. And yes, they have very creative ways to get returns on their investments. Tax avoidance being a big one.
I'm 38, not in as deep - but trying to sort things out. I've given plenty of overtime in previous years, time that could have been spent with family. I'm slowly figuring it out.
I just picked this book up yesterday - haven't read a page yet: http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Microsoft-Change-World-John-ebook/dp/B000UOJU16 It's about a high-ranking Microsoft employee who left to help people less fortunate. You might also find it interesting (as I'm sure I will).
I read this 5 years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Five-Secrets-Must-Discover-Before/dp/1576754758/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1415336429&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=the+five+things+you+must+learn It helped get me started down a better path.
>do you disagree that my model is reasonable?
I don't think its a good model. To start with I don't know what c is, I'm assuming its supposed to be the actual benefit of whatever charity you do (if its not that, then your formula is incredibly flawed for not taking into account the recipient of charity). If that is the case c should not be a constant, giving a starving person food is not the same as giving them a new iphone. I also don't think you should multiply c and 'sum_of_others_happiness'. For one there is no evidence of a relationship between how effective your charitable giving is, and how happy people are about that charitable giving. There might even be a negative relationship, someone wrote an entire book about how the gates foundation is terrible.
>If everyone is perfectly rational and everyone has that utility function, then charitable givings has a tragedy of the commons problem and government intervention is beneficial. Do you agree?
I can't understand the equation so I don't know if it would actually lead to a tragedy of the commons situation. If it did lead to such a situation there are additional hurdles before it makes sense for government intervention. The main hurdle being: does government actually help the situation given public choice constraints.
perhaps an apropos book to the topic
I'm sure some non-profit compensation packages are inappropriate, but you can't simply look at the salary and determine whether or not that's the case, as you did in your comment. And nothing is wrong with spending a large percentage of your budget fundraising as long as the end result is a bigger and better impact improving the world.
The simple truth is that there's a huge untapped pool of charitable donations that people would make if they were asked in the right way. Instead, people in the non-profit industry are cautious and shy about making an aggressive case for their own causes, for fear of looking selfish.
Of course, the real problem at the core of the non-profit industry is "how do you measure success?" In the for-profit world, cash is the bottom line, but non-profits too often gauge their success on misleading and unscientific surveys or on simple "dollars moved" stats. I heartily recommend givewell.org for the work they do encouraging donating based on good science, and the book Uncharitable if you want to read more about how the culture of non-profits is self-sabotaging.
Donor pressure mostly. There's also more here, but I've only seen the author speak; I haven't read the book.
I brought it up because the implication in the article is that only genuine altruism should be attempted. I don't think that's a good reason. The problem with welfare is that the money is dirty, not that it doesn't come from the heart.
theres only one Zack G
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Luminous-hand-flash-light-hand-shot-for-palm-shoot-concert-neon-stick-toy/1555423345.html
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Hand-Pointers-Set/dp/B0006PKZ1I
best i could do
https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Change-World-Nonprofit-Managers/dp/1118137612/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503537038&sr=8-1&keywords=managing+to+save+the+world
This book is amazing. While it is geared towards the non-profit sector, it is absolutely helpful for managers in all fields.
Glad it was helpful! Managing is tough and I've definitely made similar mistakes. I actually didn't have a specific post in mind, though I'm sure it's come up. The whole website is great, and she has lots of great advice about how to communicate well with employees. Her book is really good too, though targeted at nonprofits definitely applies well outside them.
https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Change-World-Nonprofit-Managers/dp/1118137612
My success securing these sponsors boiled down to two things.
(1) Skills
(2) Clearly defining the exponential value of those skills
The skills I highlighted when pitching were:
(1) Writing
(2) Motorcycling
My value was twofold:
(1) "I'm not just doing any trip.. I'm going coast-to-coast across America on a motorcycle!..."
(2) "...sound exciting? Good! Because I'm a writer. Which means I can insert your company into that exciting narrative. All in a compelling way that people will engage with. It will be way more exciting than any advertisement you do - all for 1/10 the cost."
From there, it was just a matter of listening to what specific goals they had and what they wanted to highlight. e.g., in the case of Shell, they just launched a new fuel line -which is super sweet by the way and I'm not just saying that because they sponsored the ride- that was what they wanted to promote.
So I made sure to mention it by name in the content, have photos of us refueling, etc. (hence gas station photos).
All of this started by just by cold emailing people. No connections, introductions or anything. I just had the idea and started emailing. From there the companies who were interested hopped on the phone with me to learn more about the ride, start date, end date, etc.
Also: Patricia Martin wrote an awesome book on sponsorships that helped me a ton.
Here, friend. Read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Such-Thing-Free-Gift-Philanthropy/dp/1784786233
I'm a socialist and this is right on. We have to distinguish between long term goals (a more equal society) and short term relief of suffering. I think we (the left) should be more willing to consider market solutions in the short term.
One example would be letting charities play by the same rules as companies. Yes, the people who make money in the charity business would make more money, but it would also give more help to those the charities exist to help. (http://www.amazon.com/Uncharitable-Restraints-Nonprofits-Contemporary-Perspectives/dp/1584659556/)
I think we need to drop our ideology with regard to the short term, in favor of what works. There are a couple of heterodox economists I really like, lefties to be sure, but with interesting nuanced appreciation of the good that markets can do:
They have both written really good books, too.
If market policies succeed (as I believe they often can), and this leads less power for the left, so be it. But I don't think that will be the case.
https://www.amazon.com/First-100-Days-Non-Profits-Wilderness/dp/1481004697/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359157163&sr=1-1&keywords=zoot+velasco
http://zoot.podbean.com/