April 15, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution
by Lucy Bernholz
The charitable contributions of individuals and grant makers would have a greater effect if the “system of philanthropy as a whole” were redesigned, writes Lucy Bernholz, founder of Blueprint Research & Design, a consulting firm in San Francisco that serves foundations.
She suggests that foundations share more information among themselves and with individual donors. In particular, Ms. Bernholz writes, foundations should make their research and evaluations of nonprofit groups available to other philanthropists to assist them in deciding which causes and groups to support. Ms. Bernholz also advocates combining financial resources to combat social problems. She writes that if foundations, government agencies, and individual donors were to exchange scientific studies and pool donations, they might succeed, for example, in eradicating tuberculosis worldwide.
The book also discusses how individuals can structure their giving, such as through community or private foundations or donor-advised funds at commercial banks. Ms. Bernholz writes that donors would more easily be able to select the appropriate giving method if there were better ways to monitor and assess these giving options and if donors were able to gain access to evaluations of past grant making.
Other chapters describe the effects of new technology and demographic shifts on philanthropy, and the interaction between philanthropic institutions and the government agencies that regulate them.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (877) 762-2974; http://www.wiley.com; 264 pages; $45; I.S.B.N. 0-471-44852-4.
