# Please Be Good at Philanthropy

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/please-be-good-at-philanthropy/
- Published: 2026-07-15T09:39:15+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**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.

!["Accessible and informative, particularly to those who are new to the industry...
A thoughtful, broadly useful coaching tool for philanthropic professionals." Kirkus
Reviews. Review of Please Be Good at Philanthropy.](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2026/07/image.png)

Image: Bush Foundation

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](https://bushfoundation.org/books),
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

![](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2026/07/image-1.png)

![](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2026/07/image-2.png)

![](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2026/07/image-3.png)

## Related books

 * **[How We Give Now: a Philanthropic Guide for the Rest of Us](https://fundraising.co.uk/books/how-we-give-now-a-philanthropic-guide-for-the-rest-of-us/)(
   Bernholz)**
 * **[Philanthropy in Democratic Societies: History, Institutions, Values](https://fundraising.co.uk/books/philanthropy-in-democratic-societies-history-institutions-values/)(
   Reich, Cordelli and Bernholz, eds.)**
 * **Governing with Purpose (Cavanagh)**