Foundations and philanthropy: More probings of different parts of the elephant?

• Author: Stacey Daniels
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.4130070109
• Published date: 01 September 1996
• Date: 01 September 1996

BooK

REVIEWS

Foundations and

Philanthropy:

More

Probings

of

Different Parts

of

the

Elephant?

Stacey Daniels

Evaluation

for

Foundations: Concepts, Cases, Guidelines, and

Resources,

by the Council on Foundations. San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass, 1993.

320

pp.,

$42.95,

cloth.

Private Foundations and Public Policy: The Political Role

of

Philanthropy,

by Mary

A.

Colwell. New York: Garland, 1993.

296 pp., $71.00, cloth.

A

Hand Up: Black Philanthropy and Self-Help in America,

by

Emmett

D.

Carson. Washington,

D.C.:

Joint Center for Polit-

ical and Economic,Studies, 1993.

74

pp., $34.00, cloth.

LTHOUGH

Brian O’Connell (1987) called philanthropy the

“extra dimension,” it is surprising how little was written

A

about the subject prior to 1990. Nearly half of the

206

titles

currently listed on philanthropy in

Books in Print

(1995) were pub-

lished between 1990 and 1996. The recent attention paid to the topic

may have something to do with increasing wealth in America and the

establishment

of

small foundations by those who have reaped the

profits of capitalism.

The relative dearth of published material on philanthropy is

somewhat ironic since

so

many of the people who work in the world

of foundations have come from academia. Perhaps once employed in

philanthropy they consider themselves part of a closed society and are

reluctant to reveal its inner workings. Perhaps they are too busy inves-

tigating proposals and awarding grants to contribute to scholarly mus-

ings about their work. The three books reviewed here represent

refreshing exceptions not only because they are authored by founda-

tion “insiders” but also because the topics covered are specific to phil-

anthropy and evaluation, public policy, and African Americans.

9s

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Fall

1996

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