July 21, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Rethinking Philanthropic Effectiveness: Lessons From an International Network of Foundation Experts
edited by Dirk Eilinghoff
In early 2001, Atlantic Philanthropies, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Bertelsmann Stiftung, and four other U.S. and European foundations began a three-year series of meetings on the role of global philanthropy. This collection of essays is a product of those discussions and an analysis of the challenges and the opportunities for grant makers operating at the international level.
The contributors, including scholars, senior officers at foundations, and other experts on philanthropy, examine the potential of grant making to solve problems caused by government or market failures. They reflect on the challenges of starting civil-society groups overseas, and of building coalitions with citizen groups and other organizations in the developing world.
Other essays describe the opportunities for foundations to work on global problems with a local focus, like the MacArthur Foundation’s efforts to preserve tropical ecosystems. Still other topics include the United Nations Foundation’s philanthropy and challenges facing foundations that use their largess in countries devastated by years of war.
While the contributors say there is no “one size fits all” approach to making philanthropy effective, they advise foundations that give internationally to focus on working with existing or potential coalitions that can carry out programs locally. The writers also recommend that grant makers pursue projects that require the resources and expertise that only international organizations can provide, and that they help to pool data and share advice with local groups involved in the projects.
Publisher: Bertelsmann Stiftung, Carl-Bertelsmann-Strasse 256, 33311 Gutersloh, Germany; http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de; 181 pages; $36; ISBN 3-89204-782-0.
