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Linsey McGoey

No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy Hardcover – October 20, 2015

by Linsey McGoey (Author)

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Philanthro-capitalism: How charity became big business

The charitable sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the global economy. Nearly half of the more than 85,000 private foundations in the United States have come into being since the year 2000. Just under 5,000 more were established in 2011 alone. This deluge of philanthropy has helped create a world where billionaires wield more power over education policy, global agriculture, and global health than ever before.

In No Such Thing as a Free Gift, author and academic Linsey McGoey puts this new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope—paying particular attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As large charitable organizations replace governments as the providers of social welfare, their largesse becomes suspect. The businesses fronting the money often create the very economic instability and inequality the foundations are purported to solve. We are entering an age when the ideals of social justice are dependent on the strained rectitude and questionable generosity of the mega-rich.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Verso
Publication date

October 20, 2015
Dimensions

5.77 x 1.1 x 8.49 inches
ISBN-10

1784780839
ISBN-13

978-1784780838
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The charitable model represented by the Gates Foundation is failing to address the root causes of inequality and ecological crisis. This path-breaking book is a sorely needed, historically grounded investigation into the difference between philanthropy and justice.”
—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

“Fierce … provocatively examines the power imbalances and ambiguities of charitable giving … a clear-eyed and much-needed study.”
—Andy Beckett, Guardian

“On both the left and the right, social critics sense that there is something deeply corrupt in the way we live now … With extraordinary insight and original investigation, Linsey McGoey understands how this twenty-first century mess was made. Her voice is reasoned and never shrill, her research is solid, and her courage is remarkable. Rather than spin far-fetched conspiracy theories, she simply shows what the oligarchs are doing in plain sight, which is frightening enough.”
—Jonathan Rose, author of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

“McGoey correctly questions whether Big Government would, in fact, be more efficient than Big Philanthropy in addressing the rise of inequality.”
—New Republic

“It’s worth hearing what she has to say, because it’s not said enough … we give too little scrutiny to people like Gates, and too much credence to the idea that philanthrocapitalism can ‘save the world.’”
—Fast Company

“Picking up the cudgels wielded by Ida Tarbell and her fellow trustbusters, McGoey produces a startling report.”
—Kirkus

“A timely criticism of a society that allows an individual to accumulate such a distorting amount of financial power; it is an indictment of unaccountable power.”
—Maclean’s

“A brave, intelligent and important book that raises vital questions about the full impact of a key source of the world’s public health funding. As the book shows the drive to do good can raise a host of ethical and policy questions—many of which have not been considered or even acknowledged prior to this book.”
—Arthur Caplan, New York University

“A book that is by equal measure provocative and compelling that finally gives a voice to concerns that many have silently harbored … charts the speed of the Foundation’s emergence and influence with conceptual fluency and historically referenced gusto that in parts left me gobsmacked.”
—Sophie Harman, Queen Mary, University of London

“Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Linsey McGoey’s book is the best and most complete examination of the Gates Foundation and the workings of big philanthropy. A must-read for anyone concerned with where the world is heading.”
—Michael Edwards, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos

“In this valuable, dense, but accessible book, McGoey illuminates a major cultural shift in leadership and control of power in the US. Highly recommended.”
—Choice

“A lively and well-argued antidote to the comfortable but superficial assumption that giving money away is, by definition, good: it helps you understand why things are more complicated than that.”
—Third Sector

“Essential reading for any scholar interested in contemporary development issues … McGoey convincingly shows that contemporary philanthropic thinking abides by the same underlying ideology than that of the so-called robber barons.”
—Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies

About the Author

Linsey McGoey is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex. She has been a member of the World Health Organization’s expert steering group on the impact of a human rights–based approach to maternal and children’s health. She has published reviews and op-eds for the Guardian, Spectator, Globe and Mail and Open Democracy.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Verso (October 20, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1784780839
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1784780838
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.77 x 1.1 x 8.49 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,003,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #394 in Philanthropy & Charity (Books)
- #561 in Nonprofit Organizations & Charities (Books)
- #757 in Poverty

Customer Reviews:
45 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Romi Mahajan

A Harrowing Indictment of Big Philanthropy and the Gates Foundation

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2016

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No Such Things as a Free Gift is a brilliant and balanced indictment of "Big Philanthropy" and of the "Scientism" and technocratic conservatism of The Gates Foundation. The book is a panoramic view of so-called philanthropy that has had a variety of nefarious (and predictable) effects on education, healthcare, disease management, and other areas and yet is lauded as incredible generosity and right-minded work of the highest caliber. McGoey cites enormous amounts of evidence and combines it with a harrowing critique of the philosophy espoused in the world of "giving."

This book must be read. The power of Big Money and Big Foundations/Big Philanthropy is incredible and what is at stake is the quality of human life. The complexities of poverty, inequity, and disease far outweigh those of running corporations no matter how big and successful.

13 people found this helpful

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Cricket Scotchpoodle

Great

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2018

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Highly recommend this well researched, readable and compelling book. I found it randomly and am so glad very glad I did!

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction...

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2016

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Using the Gates Foundation as an example, this paints a strong picture of the power of philanthropy, its winners and losers, and the results, intended or unintended.

One person found this helpful

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Samilk

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2016

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It's an interesting read, even though the scope of the critique does not exceed colonial terms.

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Curtis Ackeret

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2016

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VERY GOOD

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Holland McSwain

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2017

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Too much information, so much too wordy.

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David Wineberg

Boys and their toys

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2015

One of the immutable rules of the universe is that nothing ever turns out the way it first seems. So with philanthropies, according to Linsey McGoey in No Such Thing As A Free Gift. The super-rich are out to benefit themselves and their companies, blaming government for failing to address issues, while criticizing them for spending anything on those issues (and not giving them and their firms enough breaks). McGoey uses the whipping boy of The Gates Foundation, which has its own agenda, and outspends governments and in some instances the UN. Its influence is enormous, but its strategy leaves the field cold. Bill Gates’ “obsession” with polio has meant poor attention given to more immediate needs, such as HIV. Some call this obsession the biggest obstacle to lower priced HIV treatment in the world: “The Gates Foundation just leaves chaos. Not only is it changing the ideology of public health – it is deinstitutionalizing public health.” The same feelings are expressed in education, where Gates has run rampant and unchecked.

The charges against Gates boil down to a spoiled brat spending to please himself. Programs and purchases are made to benefit Microsoft and Coca-Cola, which the foundation stands to inherit from board member Warren Buffet. Its grants are made to US firms, three times more often than to local ones, on the ground where the need is both better understood and immediate. Much like government aid that must be used to purchase US goods and be shipped by US transport, The Gates Foundation benefits Americans more than Africans or Asians.

McGoey says Gates follows the footsteps of Andrew Carnegie, the great philanthropist who famously had Pinkertons shoot his employees for striking. He cut their already miserable wages by two thirds, at a time when his company enjoyed a tripling of revenues, all so he could continue to perform his munificent philanthropy. He built libraries, in his own name, all over the country. Today, all kinds of new billionaires take up highly targeted pet causes, with little regard for overall impact, goals or co-ordination, in exchange for massive tax relief. This steals from government revenues while enriching favored suppliers, cronies and politicians. We call this efficiency, and the rich congratulate themselves over it at conferences like Davos. In their minds, they are performing far better than government could. Meanwhile, education and healthcare workers strive to undo the mess they create and leave behind when they get restless.

The book reaches out in many directions, following the money in long tangents. The focus on Gates is valid, but in many ways unfair. The whole sector operates this way. For example, nearly a third of funders are invitation-only; new programs need not apply. Philanthropy is no less corrupt than transnational corporations, politicians or the dictators they support, which is hardly comforting. It makes No Such Thing As A Free Gift both revealing and uncomfortable. If our charities are this misleading, what is left?

David Wineberg

33 people found this helpful

Helpful

A Detailed Look at the Large Foundations

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2015

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

McGoey goes into significant detail to demonstrate the ins and outs of large foundations and their positive and negative effects. While concentrating often on the Gates Foundation, she explores the history of foundations and how they have evolved to be influential players in many areas of domestic and international aid, politics, business and stature. Throughout the book, the author seems to be seeking the answer to the question of whether foundations mostly benefit the poor or the providers and their own agendas and stature. The answers seem to create a mixed bag of results and perceptions. There are no doubts that those behind the large foundations wield considerable power and influence that can be used for good and bad, altruistic and self-serving purposes.

McGoey really zeroes in on some particular areas of aid such as health provisions and agricultural help internationally to see the intricacies of how the lines between altruism and self-serving promotion are not so easily determined. She also explores the backgrounds of how some of the larger foundations came to exist -- for example through less than ethical business practices. The book paints a picture of the enormous wealth of the wealthiest 1% and how foundations serve their own purposes. Again, the focus is largely on Bill Gates and his story of amassing a fortune and giving away a lesser but significant fortune.

In the end, readers will have a better understanding of the role foundations play and will be able to make a more educated analysis of how they fit into our economy and social system. I think what we learn is what the author quotes from one of the opportunists she discusses, "Generosity can be very profitable." The book highlights how the wealthy use foundations to protect huge slush funds of wealth to be used beneficially according to their definition of beneficial.

9 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Heather Bosworth

Revealing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2018

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Not a fan of the Gates'

Robert D'arcy

Confirms suspicions

Reviewed in Canada on December 2, 2015

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An eye opener nd yet much of what I suspected all along about some of the big foundation giving. It retards the local and helps the corporations in the end. Well intended but ill-conceived. Was a bit of a tough and confused read in places but worth getting through. Recommended.

One person found this helpful

mark

A very interesting view supported with a solid research!

Reviewed in Spain on January 6, 2017

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Very well written and interesting book that gives an historical overview of the role, interests and influence of leading foundations.

Adelyne More

Percutant et d'actualité

Reviewed in France on January 24, 2016

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Le titre pourrait égarer: s'il est bien question de la Fondation Gates dans la seconde partie de l'ouvrage, c'est avant tout une réflexion sur un genre en pleine expansion, le "philanthropicapitalisme", à savoir le capitalisme relayé par les fondations. Le ton est critique et incisif, avec des analyses intéressantes du volet médical et du volet scolaire.

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