Please Be Good at Philanthropy
An Introduction to Grantmaking Strategy and Practice
Everyone who joins a foundation is a beginner, however senior they were in their last job, and Jen Ford Reedy has written the book she wishes someone had handed her on day one.
Reedy has led the Minnesota-based Bush Foundation since 2012, and this is a candid, practical guide to the nature of foundation strategy, aimed at board members, staff and anyone finding their feet in grantmaking.
Her argument is that the skills that make someone successful in business, government or the nonprofit sector do not automatically transfer to philanthropy, and that good intentions are not the same as good practice. The book sets out what good grantmaking actually looks like, including how power dynamics between funder and grantee play out, how to separate effort from impact, and how to hold humility and ambition together rather than treating them as opposites.
The examples are drawn from US foundation practice, rather than the UK. That said, the underlying questions, about the responsible use of power that flexible funding gives a foundation, about avoiding box-ticking evaluation, about genuinely learning from grantees, apply just as directly to UK trusts and foundations in their grantmaking and need to remain responsive to grant recipients and applicants.
Kathleen Enright, president and chief executive of the Council on Foundations, calls it “simply a must-read”, while Nicholas Tedesco of the National Center for Family Philanthropy expects it “quickly [to] become required reading for anyone interested in the practice of effective philanthropy.”
A companion volume, The Please Be Good at Philanthropy Workbook, with discussion questions and exercises for board and staff onboarding, is published alongside it.
About Jen Ford Reedy
Jen Ford Reedy is president of the Bush Foundation, a role she has held since 2012. She teaches a popular Philanthropy 101 class for new foundation staff and board members, and this book grew out of that teaching combined with her own consulting background and, by her own account, a lifelong fascination with philanthropic history and strategy.
Reviews
Related books
- How We Give Now: a Philanthropic Guide for the Rest of Us (Bernholz)
- Philanthropy in Democratic Societies: History, Institutions, Values (Reich, Cordelli and Bernholz, eds.)
- Governing with Purpose (Cavanagh)
