Resources: Reference Books

Basic Philanthropy

a horizontally integrated reading list compiled by Dwight Burlingame and Varden Hadfield

Twenty Years at Hull-House

Addams, Jane, New York: Macmillan Company, 1981. Addams recounts her experiences during her residence in a settlement house in Chicago's West Side slums from 1889 to 1909. In her account, she emphasizes the importance of providing for the physical, spiritual, educational, and cultural needs of the poor people in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

Bellah, Robert N. et al, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. An analysis of two hundred interviews with middle class Americans to examine their pursuit of the good life. The authors discuss an increasing individualism and self-interest and a lack of a language to describe what makes people happy. They then present involvement in voluntary organizations as a way to mediate the harm of individualism and to enjoy the good life.

American Philanthropy

Bremner, Robert H, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. A social history of American philanthropy from colonial times to the present, examining such fields as religion, education, humanitarian reform, social service, war relief, and foreign aid.

Capacity for Change? The Nonprofit World in the Age of Devolution

Burlingame, Dwight F. et al, Indianapolis: Indiana Center on Philanthropy, 1996. A collection of essays that discuss the impact of decreased government funding for nonprofits, or the increased reliance on nonprofits to do government's work, on the nonprofit sector. Discusses the possible impacts of this movement and potential nonprofit responses.

Corporate Philanthropy at the Crossroads

Burlingame, Dwight F. and Dennis R. Young, eds, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. Organizes the discussion of corporate philanthropy into four areas: (I) neo- classical/corporate productivity model, (2) ethical/altruistic model, (3) political model, (4) stakeholder model. A variety of perspectives examine the implications of current trends as well as suggestions for the future of corporate philanthropy. Examines volunteerism, firm size, business performance, power, and ethics.

The Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie, Andrew, Indianapolis: Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, 1993. Originally published in 1889, Carnegie discusses the proper administration of wealth and the best fields for philanthropy. He encourages philanthropists to give away their fortunes during their lifetimes, not after they die. He suggests a ranked order of causes including universities, libraries, hospitals and medical laboratories, public parks, meeting halls, and churches.

Democracy in America

DeToqueville, Alexis, New York: Harper & Row, 1966. Presents a French visitor's view of America in the early 1800's, from its geographic features to its government, to the people's deep involvement in associations and politics. DeToqueville discusses a comparative perspective between Europe and the United States, emphasizing the uniqueness of the American experiment in democracy.

Nonprofit Organizations: Cases and Materials

Fishman, James J. and Schwarz, Stephen, New York: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1995. A comprehensive text on laws affecting nonprofits. Presents and discusses a variety of cases related to tax-exempt organizations, their trustees and directors, and their donors.

Inventing the Nonprofit Sector and Other Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations

Hall, Peter Dobkin, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Analyzes the development of America's fastest growing institutional sector. Examines the public perception of nonprofits, their structure, and the consequences of that structure for management and public policy. He discusses the difficulties of research on the nonprofit sector as well as thoughts on the future of the sector .

Effective Fund-Raising Management

Kelly, Kathleen S, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1998. An academic text outlining the practice of fund-raising including programs, processes, and publics. Topics include historical, organizational, legal, ethical, and theoretical contexts of annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, capital campaigns, and donors.

The Politics of Knowledge: The Carnegie Corporation, Philanthropy, and Public Policy

Lagemann, Ellen Condliffe, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. A history of the Carnegie Corporation, a foundation created to give a way Andrew Carnegie's fortune from its founding in 1911 to the present. The corporation moved through scientific, cultural, and strategic philanthropy phases It was criticized for promoting the white, middle-class culture in the United States.

Heart of Altruism: Perceptions of a Common Humanity

Monroe, Kristen Renwick, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Explores the causes of altruism using an analysis of interviews with philanthropists, entrepreneurs, heroes, and rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. Monroe sketches a hierarchy of levels of altruism, and suggests that altruists have a somewhat different way of viewing the world, although they don't feel much different than everyone else.

The Third America: The Emergence of the Nonprofit Sector in the United States

O'Neil, Michael, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1989. Identifies and discusses several major nonprofit sub-sectors-religion, private education, health care, and others. Discusses the social influence of each of the nonprofit sub-sectors on American business, government, and society. Provides insights into the direction, growth, and role of the third sector during the next 25 years.

Philanthropy Voluntary Action/or the Public Good

Payton, Robert L, Oryx Press, 1988. Presents Payton's reflections on the place of voluntary action, association, and giving in American life First, Payton explores the variety of philanthropic experiences in America and defines the boundaries of the philanthropic tradition Then, moving from theory to practice and back, he explores the most important problems and issues in philanthropy.

The Nonprofit Sector A Research Handbook

Powell, Walton, ed., New Haven Yale University Press, 1987. An extensive, empirically-based overview of the nonprofit sector including many tables, figures, and references as a guideline for a basic understanding of the sector Includes articles from a variety of experts on the scope of the sector, its relationship with the state and private enterprise, and processes within the sector and within nonprofit organizations.

The Return of Civil Society: The Emergence of Democratic Spain

Perez-Diaz, Victor M, Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1993. Examines the transition of Spain from a pre-industrial economy with an authoritarian government to a modem, democratic state with a market society and voluntary associations such as trade unions and political parties Discusses both broad reflection on relations between the state and civil society and empirical analysis of the Church, the economy, the workers, and the unions in Spain.

Making Democracy Work Civic Traditions in Modern Italy

Putnam, Robert, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1993. A 20-year, thoroughly empirical study of the development of regional government in Italy from 1970-1990 Putnam examines why some regions were more successful than others in developing the social networks that make up a civil society. Contrasting the North with the South, he includes the history of these regions back to early medieval times in his analysis.

Giving Western Ideas of Philanthropy

Schneewind, JB., ed., Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1996. A collection of articles on the a variety of conceptions of charity and philanthropy, from the middle ages to Victorian England, and including both African-American and International perspectives Discusses ways we understand charity and how we come to these understandings.

Private Wealth and Public Life: Foundation Philanthropy and the Reshaping of American Social Policy from the Progressive Era to the New Deal

Sealander, Judith, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. A historical analysis of seven major foundations during the early 1900's, primarily from 1903 to 1932. Discusses ways these large foundations attempted to influence public social policy. Although their agendas sometimes became policy, often they did not, but these institutions helped expand the American role in providing social services.

The Idea of Civil Society

Seligman, Adam B., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Discusses the intellectual history of the concept of civil society for over two thousand years. After examining the input of Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber , the author outlines the idea's history and influence in America.

Entrusted: The Moral Responsibilities of Trusteeship

Smith, David H., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. Discusses reasons why trustees are the best way to govern a nonprofit organization-especially that trusteeship is a moral matter. Then examines the major duties of trustees, their common problems, how they should be related to the rest of the organization, and the prime virtues of a trustee.

Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting

Smith, Steven Ratgeb, and Michael Lipsky, London: Harvard University Press, 1993. As government increasingly uses nonprofits to perform its services by funding voluntary organizations, nonprofits may be increasingly responsive to government priorities, not their local communities. Smith and Lipsky discuss the potential problems and costs involved in contracting, and encourage government to reform current procedures. Walzer, Michael. Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad, Indiana:' University of Notre Dame Press, 1994. In a set of arguments about justice, social criticism, and nationalist politics, Walzer describes two kinds of interrelated moral argument. Thick arguments entail our own history and culture here at home, and thinner ones that provide a way of talking about people abroad, recognizing the aspects of our life that we have in common.

The Nonprofit Economy

Weisbrod, Burton A., Harvard University Press, 1988. Weisbrod presents the nonprofit sector as a provider of services that are not adequately provided by public or private firms. After emphasizing the overlap among the sectors, he presents a "collectiveness index" as a gauge of an organization's external social benefit. He argues that current policies governing thee nonprofit sector are inadequate because of their lack of empirical bases.

The Shadow State: Government and Voluntary Sector in Transition

Wolch, Jennifer R., New York: The Foundation Center, 1990. The "shadow state" refers to voluntary organizations outside the political system which receive government funds, and are still subject to some state control. Wolch develops a theory which maps the new, changed terrain between the state and the voluntary sector and examines implications of the new interactions between government and nonprofits.

Patterns of Generosity in America: Who's Holding the Safety Net?

Wolpert, Julian, New York: The Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1993. A thorough discussion of American generosity and the effects of decentralizing government programs. It provides a historical perspective as well as an analysis of the effects of decentralization upon and within the nonprofit sector.

Acts of Compassion: Caring for Others and Helping Ourselves

Wuthnow, Robert, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991. Relying heavily on evidence from surveys and interviews, Wuthnow attempts to unravel the paradox of extensive voluntarism and compassion in an American society which highly values individualism, and self-interest. He discusses the languages of compassion, the importance of faith, the limits of caring, and compassion in context of the larger society.

Economics for Nonprofit Managers

Young, Dennis R. and Richard Steinberg, The Foundation Center, 1995. The first introductory economics textbook intended primarily for nonprofit management students. The text introduces the basics of micro economics, using examples from the nonprofit world. It also examines the role of nonprofits in addressing the problems of market failure.

Continue to next page of Resources: A Vertically Integrated Reading List by Subject.