Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker [Hardcover]

Bill Somerville with Fred Setterberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008

A veteran philanthropist calls for decisive, hands-on grantmaking Bill Somerville believes that foundations can do a better job Grassroots Philanthropy explains how. Endless paperwork, bureaucracy, and beleaguered foundation heads bog down many bold new ventures. The cowboy approach advocated by Bill Somerville encourages philanthropists to actively engage with the community, meet people who are doing extraordinary things, and fund those in need quickly with a minimum of process and paperwork. Somerville s style is straightforward, urgent, emphatic, and persuasive. He encourages foundations to take calculated risks and to fund ideas for actual change, rather than for fact-finding reports that exhaustively sum up what s wrong with the world. This is an illuminating book for those in the foundation and nonprofit worlds alike. With an unprecedented transfer of generational wealth expected over the next half-century, it is also a call to the upcoming generation of philanthropists to step up and use their wealth to ensure that real change happens quickly and creatively.

Editorial Reviews

Review

''Bill Somerville provides us with ideas, suggestions, and experiences that would help any foundation, large or small, experienced or new, and any employee or board member.''--Colburn Wilbur, former president and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation

''Bill is my hero--a friend to all of us who care about our communities, our children, our country. Someone who can see the great ideas when others just see chaos or problems; someone who listens and reaches down to the grass roots to discover new trends, new ideas.''--Catherine Milton, Founder, Friends of the Children, former Executive Director, Save the Children

''Working with Bill Somerville continues to be a joy in every regard. It is difficult to imagine how we could accomplish much of our grantmaking, both regionally and internationally, without his assistance.''--Thomas C. Layton, President, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation

''Bill Somerville has inspired my community work in ingenious and provocative ways.'' --Alice Waters, Founder and Director, Chez Panisse Foundation

''Every day Bill Somerville demonstrates that a foundation can be instantly responsive, sensitive, interested in your ideas, and helping as many people as possible.'' --Ed Nathan, Vice President of Van Loben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation and former Executive Director of the Zellerbach Family Fund

Every day Bill Somerville demonstrates that a foundation can be instantly responsive, sensitive, interested in your ideas, and helping as many people as possible. Ed Nathan, Vice President of Van Löben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation and former Executive Director of the Zellerbach Family Fund --Van Loben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation

Working with Bill Somerville continues to be a joy in every regard. It is difficult to imagine how we could accomplish much of our grantmaking, both regionally and internationally, without his assistance. Thomas C. Layton, President of the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation --Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Bill Somerville is a nationally recognized expert on creative grantmaking. He has consulted at over 350 community foundations in the United States, Canada, and the U.K. on innovative grantmaking and effective operations. In 1991 he founded Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, which specializes in responsive approaches to grantmaking, such as paperless discretionary grants and grants with a forty-eight-hour turnaround. Fred Setterberg is the coauthor of several books about the nonprofit sector and philanthropy, including Grantmaking Basics, with Colburn Wilbur and Barbara Kibbe, and Beyond Profit, with Kary Schulman. He is also the coauthor of Under the Dragon: California s New Culture, published by Heyday Books in 2007

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Heyday Books (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597140848
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140843
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,558,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Giving Face to Face, January 26, 2008

By 

Philip B. Cubeta (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grassroots Philanthropy (Paperback)

Bill Somerville is the President and Founder of Philanthropic Ventures Foundation. Born poor, he was the first in his family to attend college. Now, with 48 years experience in nonprofit work, he has written a short, passionate, and wise book, with Fred Setterberg, Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker. Bill recommends funding people, not projects. To get to know people, Bill suggests that funders push back from their paper laden desks, and go out into the community, not just to talk to grant-seekers, but to seek out high potential change agents, and get to know them, whether or not they have applied for a grant. To free up time for such direct engagement, Bill suggests ways to streamline paper flow. Bill's advice comes across as that of a man driven by an ethic of service. Those in need are not abstractions to him, nor statistics. With all that money in foundations, he seems to feel, surely more can be done right now to make a positive difference in the lives of people the funder can meet, and should meet, face to face. I can see this book being very helpful not only to salaried grant-makers at large foundations, but also to the founder and family members of unstaffed private foundations, or those who might have a donor advised fund, or just anyone who wants to make gifts not as transactions by mail, or online, but hand to hand, heart to heart, and eye to eye.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Elegance of Simplicity, March 25, 2008

By 

Linda Peterson "A fan of simplicity" (SF Bay Area, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grassroots Philanthropy (Paperback)

Philanthropists - large, small, individual, family, institional - have generous impulses. But what gets in the way of identifying needs and putting those generous impulses to work? Bureaucracy, cumbersome application processes, "gaming" the system, losing sight of what power a gift can provide. Bill Somerville, a legend in philanthropy and an innovator in grant-making, has created a book that brings us back to the basics. Bill's history, commitment, and straightforward approach restore faith in what gifts (or investments, as he often calls them) can do.
Less paper, less process, more generosity, more impact. The math is simple, the approach is elegant -- the man who invented "fax a grant" speaks and we'd all do well to listen. His co-author, Fred Setterberg, has captured Bill's passion and his joy. We all benefit.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing!, March 9, 2008

By 

Radha Stern "Radha Stern" (Mill Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grassroots Philanthropy (Paperback)

I find Bill and Fred's book very refreshing. It is not the same boiler plate philanthropic advice. We should all dare to be different and get our philanthropic best foot out into the world!