Challenges for Nonprofits and Philanthropy: The Courage to Change (Civil Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives) [Hardcover]

Pablo Eisenberg (Author), Stacy Palmer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2004

For nearly three decades, Pablo Eisenberg's speeches and articles have provoked thoughtful, and at times contentious, debate in the nonprofit world. Intellectually vigorous, rigorously honest, and unstintingly courageous, he has addressed the questions and challenges facing philanthropy today, and his forthright commentary has influenced contemporary philanthropy. The works collected here include the best of Eisenberg's published and unpublished pieces on American and global philanthropy--its challenges, responsibilities, hits and misses, accountability, and leadership--and on his views of what lies ahead as the greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth in U.S. history looms. The book incorporates tributes to many of the leading lights in late-twentieth-century American philanthropy, including John Gardner, Paul Ylvisaker, John Filer, and David Hunter, men Eisenberg knew well. Every nonprofit leader, donor, grant maker, anyone involved with poverty-fighting organizations as well as faculty members and researchers who study nonprofit organizations will need this collection of writings by of one of the nation's most prominent leaders in the nonprofit world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Eisenberg's speeches, articles and essays examine the past and look to the future of the nonprofit world."--Shelterforce

"If Eisenberg strikes some as a harsh critic of nonprofit and foundation practices, it's because he holds such high expectations for the sector. In the past, he maintains, civil society's nonprofits led to charge in abolishing slavery, tackling the plutocracy of the Gilded Age, and attacking discrimination by race, gender, sexual preference, and disability. And so he expects nonprofits today to assume a major share of responsibility for the most serious challenges he sees facing the nation."--The Philanthropy Roundtable

"This book has value as a collection of the writings of a major figure in the philanthropic world."--Eleanor L. Brilliant, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

" Dozens of essays included in Challenges for Nonprofits and Philanthropy provoke a passionate reaction . . . Part observer, part interlocutor, he challenges his nonprofit audience toward self-assessment."--Shelterforce

Review

"In his long and characteristically thoughtful Preface, Pablo Eisenberg urges the philanthropic world to summon up more 'guts and brains.' These are the qualities Pablo has brought to the voluntary and nonprofit sector for many decades. He practically invented the notion that philanthropic foundations need to be responsible to their donees, and he has steadfastly championed the right of the poor to be at the center of philanthropic activity. This son of privilege has spent his professional career urging philanthropists lead rather than react, to democratize their organizations and their giving programs, and to speak out. I wish I could say that I thought that Pablo, near the end of his public career has succeeded. He knows he has not, and we owe it to him to read these essays in order to reflect on where we have gone wrong--for I agree that we have." (Stanley N. Katz, Professor, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Tufts University Press; 1ST edition (November 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158465421X
• ISBN-13: 978-1584654216
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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