Books on Giving Better

Here’s part two of our list of our 12 favorite giving resources from the past year. Missed part one? Read about the first six books and websites on charitable giving for 2012.

How can you get the most satisfaction and impact from your charitable giving this year? Our 12 favorite books and websites from the past year will help you make 2012 your best year ever of giving charitably.

We’ll start out with six great books on charitable giving today:

Have you been giving to the same charitable organizations for years, but haven’t checked into what they’re actually doing? Do you give reactively to nonprofit organizations at the urging of your family and friends? Then you’re like most of us.
 

It’s 2025 and many of the world’s greatest challenges have been conquered. Climate change is a dim memory; the genocide in Darfur has ended; disease and poverty around the globe have been dramatically decreased.

Giving has changed. The fusion of social networking and a cause culture has created a new way to give. Want to give a micro-loan to someone on the other side of the world? Online giving makes that easy. Want to spread the word about a cause you’re passionate about? Social networking sites make sharing your cause just a few clicks away.

Nancy Lublin may bill herself as the Chief Old Person, but there’s nothing old about the way she’s led Do Something.org to activate almost 2 million young people as volunteers. Their website is designed to inspire the 25-and-under crowd to become a generation of doers, who think community service is really cool and as normal as watching TV.

If you want your charitable giving to make a bigger difference, Give Smart: Philanthropy that Gets Results can help. Thomas Tierney and Joel Fleishman’s book offers guidance on ways to use the charitable resources you have more effectively.

Americans are the most generous people in the world, giving away more than $300 billion annually to charitable causes. But, a hot new book on charitable giving questions just what, exactly, are we accomplishing with our giving. Are good intentions enough to make a difference?

You feel strongly about a cause. You want to fix a problem. You care deeply about an organization that has touched your life. You want to make a difference.

But, as a donor, how do you know if you’re really making a difference? After making a charitable gift to a nonprofit, you may find it’s difficult to measure the results of your charitable giving. 

What does your family stand for? Even though it is never articulated, “You and your family do stand for something,” says Charles W. Collier in his important book Wealth in Families. For more than 25 years he has worked with individuals and families of wealth through the Harvard University community.