Giving Well, Doing Good ─ Readings for Thoughtful Philanthropists

This anthology explores the enterprise of philanthropy—assumptions, aspirations, and achievements. It brings together key texts that can provide guidance to current and prospective donors, trustees and professional staff of foundations, and leaders of nonprofit organizations. Organized thematically, these texts seek to illuminate fundamental questions about the idea and practice of philanthropy, to promote more thoughtful discussion about practical issues facing the philanthropic sector, and to point a way toward a philanthropic practice that is more responsible, more effective, and more civic-spirited.

Amy A. Kass has selected readings from sources that range from the classics to the contemporary, from foundational statements on philanthropy to reflections on key issues of novelists and poets. Each illuminates some aspect of philanthropy. The book is arranged according to themes: goals and intentions; gifts, donors, and recipients; grants, grantors, grantees; bequests and legacies; effectiveness; accountability; and leadership.

Amy A. Kass is Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago. She is editor of The Perfect Gift: The Philanthropic Imagination in Poetry and Prose (IUP, 2002); American Lives: Cultural Differences, Individual Distinction; and Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying (with Leon Kass).