<![CDATA[Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World]]>

false <![CDATA[Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185606348m/1593813.jpg 1593813 17 Talks about the ability to give and volunteer to make the world a better place. Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations—and by individuals—to solve problems and save lives both “down the street and around the world.” Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, “regardless of income, available time, age, and skills,” can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams. Bill Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers, representing a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as contributions of money. From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old California girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised drives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton introduces us to both well-known and unknown heroes of giving. Among them: Dr. Paul Farmer, who grew up living in the family bus in a trailer park, vowed to devote his life to giving high-quality medical care to the poor and has built innovative public health-care clinics first in Haiti and then in Rwanda; a New York couple, in Africa for a wedding, who visited several schools in Zimbabwe and were appalled by the absence of textbooks and school supplies. They founded their own organization to gather and ship materials to thirty-five schools. After three years, the percentage of seventh-graders who pass reading tests increased from 5 percent to 60 percent;' Oseola McCarty, who after seventy-five years of eking out a living by washing and ironing, gave $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to endow a scholarship fund for African-American students; Andre Agassi, who has created a college preparatory academy in the Las Vegas neighborhood with the city’s highest percentage of at-risk kids. “Tennis was a stepping-stone for me,” says Agassi. “Changing a child’s life is what I always wanted to do”; Heifer International, which gave twelve goats to a Ugandan village. Within a year, Beatrice Biira’s mother had earned enough money selling goat’s milk to pay Beatrice’s school fees and eventually to send all her children to school—and, as required, to pass on a baby goat to another family, thus multiplying the impact of the gift. Clinton writes about men and women who traded in their corporate careers, and the fulfillment they now experience through giving. He writes about energy-efficient practices, about progressive companies going green, about promoting fair wages and decent working conditions around the world. He shows us how one of the most important ways of giving can be an effort to change, improve, or protect a government policy. He outlines what we as individuals can do, the steps we can take, how much we should consider giving, and why our giving is so important. Bill Clinton’s own actions in his post-presidential years have had an enormous impact on the lives of millions. Through his foundation and his work in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, he has become an international spokesperson and model for the power of giving. “We all have the capacity to do great things,” President Clinton says. “My hope is that the people and stories in this book will lift spirits, touch hearts, and demonstrate that citizen activism and service can be a powerful agent of change in the world.” 2567225 4 9 2007 Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World total:878|5:115|4:258|3:337|2:132|1:36| 878 2918 1700 255 3 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 11:17:20 -0700 2007 Tue Dec 25 22:26:02 -0800 2007 Giving is inspiring in that it illuminates a myriad of ways that service can be offered, both in the United States and abroad. I also was heartened to find out how much particular individuals and groups are already doing to fight AIDS, eliminate hunger, improve literacy, mentor...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 14:26:31 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 21 07:10:53 -0700 2007
The stories of individuals making small differences in the world (read: large differences in their communities) gradually segue into those of contributors to multi-million dollar N...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 23 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 30 10:29:30 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 11:13:15 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 true true Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue May 19 16:24:04 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 16:33:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Oct 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 06:13:23 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 14:52:14 -0700 2009
The major problem with this book is that it reads like a laundry list or a back patting/name dropping list. Bill Gates did thi...more...]]> 0 1 false false Wed May 28 12:26:38 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 12:42:03 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 08:51:49 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 08:55:32 -0700 2009
I don't think that he said enough about giving that comes with strings. One of the reasons India ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 21:03:31 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 04:43:51 -0800 2009
Lines I loved:

All over the world, intelligence and energy are evenly distributed, but opportunity, investment, and effective ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 08:54:41 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 09:00:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 02 06:06:39 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 02 06:13:24 -0700 2008
I was fascinated by the many organizations that exist to help others and t...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 26 16:32:11 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 26 17:12:03 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 07 12:32:30 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 08 10:57:33 -0800 2007 Click here to check it out

I'm learning about tons of really good organizations, and ways for everyone to help. I love how this is organized (by how you can g...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 18 11:24:38 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 05 11:31:08 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 31 08:19:07 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 08:19:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Mar 16 16:55:18 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 09:22:05 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Apr 17 07:58:55 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 08:03:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 18 16:14:26 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 20:14:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Dec 05 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 15:40:36 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 12:10:28 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 20:30:59 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 20:34:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 09 14:03:41 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 14:16:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1593813