Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow?

by Joel L. Fleishman, Barry Abrams (Narrator)

During the next twenty years, more than $500 billion is expected to pour into the philanthropic sector. Some of it will come from retiring baby boomers, but even more will come from newly rich Silicon Valley billionaires. Since 2006, the idea of "giving while living" has grown in its appeal such that many philanthropic donors now expect not just to give money during their lifetimes, but to create organizations or ventures-some for profit, others not for profit-whose missions are expected to be completed within the lifetime of the donors. The combination of these two trends has transformed the not-for-profit sector in scale and dynamism, attracting some skeptical scrutiny along the way. Joel Fleishman is one of the wisest of wise men in philanthropy whose advice is routinely sought by organizations and individuals across the country. In Putting Wealth to Work, he tells the story of a uniquely American financial sector, all but created by Andrew Carnegie's example, that since 1995 has become more dynamic with every passing year.

Genres: Finance

Audio CD

Published September 26, 2017

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful account of the history of philanthropy and the balance between perpetual and time-bound foundations. Some helpful excerpts:

- "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted" Albert Einstein
- The larger, more amorphous and complex a problem the longer time horizon needed, and likely the greater focus on advocacy initiatives to shape the needed policy.
- A spend-down foundation's capacity to achieve impact in a fixed period of time varies inversely both with the size of the problem it aims to solve and with the scope of the community or geographic area on which it focuses. A foundation's decision to focus on a narrowly defined place, field or group of people significantly improves the odds. Being relentlessly strategic in attacking a problem or set of problems is also necessary.
- For any donor, the key to a right decision in deploying your philanthropic assets is to align carefully the duration of your philanthropic vehicle with the amount of resources at your disposal and the nature of the values and goals that matter to you.
-Start by consulting with others that have significant knowledge in the areas in which you wish to achieve impact and who have already demonstrated success. Choose highly credible advisors and partners from among them, even if they have not manifested the ability to do exactly what you hope to do. Leverage the experience and knowledge of highly regarded institutions in the field of your interests. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, instead support or endow an experienced, gifted wheelmaker.
- Giving for policy advocacy and in support of candidates who promise to effect desirable policy changes constitutes the greatest opportunity to achieve impact from intended socially beneficial giving, whether from tax-benefitted dollars or from after-tax dollars.

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this an interesting topic, although I have no background in “organized” philanthropy. The author uses this book to describe philanthropic entities of two kinds, perpetual and time-limited. He describes many earlier philanthropies as being perpetual, but in some cases no longer meeting the suspected needs of the originators, or their designees, or perhaps the reason for the existence of the philanthropy has changed (think the Buggy Whip Manufacturers Association). Given these issues, many philanthropic entities more recently have been created with designed end dates. His argument here is that the case against perpetual philanthropies is overblown, and possibly misguided, and that both kinds of charities have value in the world. It was enjoyable reading such a thorough analysis of a seemingly simple topic that has some buried complexities. Also making this interesting is the foundation name-dropping – many of the largest foundations are dissected here, and you learn a lot about the “industry” and its various goals, and you learn quite a bit about the founders of these entities (Rockefeller, Gates, Carnegie, and the like) and how they thought about their fortunes.

[Ben Shute · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much an inside philanthropy work, but not just for philanthopoids. Fleishman addresses the perpetuity vs. spend-down question with great clarity. He “knows the territory” in breadth and depth; brings both his academic and real-world experience to bear, and punctures some myths along the way. (No, Henry Ford II did not resign from the Ford Foundation board in a huff.) It includes some nice examples of successful foundation efforts.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

At times I had trouble forging ahead while reading this book, but I must say that the author knows what he is talking about and certainly is someone to be trusted in this field. Even if you just have a passing interest in the subject, you will obtain some useful knowledge from this book.