| Frank Ellsworth and Joe Lumarda have written a book that, were I in the business of giving away money, I would want to own. Given what is covered in Foundation Management: Innovation and Responsibility at Home and Abroad, I have no hesitation recommending it to funders. But I have to confess that when I read it, I expected a different book and this review is colored by those expectations.
There are two essential words in the subtitle that might shape a reader's expectations, as they shaped mine: "innovation" and "responsibility". The book's deeply qualified contributors ensure that it thoroughly addresses key contemporary topics regarding philanthropic responsibility. But by my standards, they fail miserably to tell us much about innovation.
This book covers things that funders absolutely need to know, including: the legal and philanthropic landscapes in Europe, Asia, and the Americas; the changing roles of legal counsel; new directions at the IRS; and prudent practices for managing a foundation investment portfolio, given many new laws and emerging realities (those two chapters alone are worth the price of the book). If you're looking to give money more internationally, then this book will definitely help you be a very responsible funder.
But it's not going to help you be innovative. I thought maybe I might get to read about cutting edge experiments in countries with emerging philanthropic communities. Nope. Maybe the part about counsel would teach me something about creating legal frameworks for getting creative. But I didn't get that at all. Even the final chapter, which is meant to be an artist's take on the topic, is about the need for lawyers! I found myself wondering if the editors really meant "risk" when they picked the word "innovation". So, when I finished the book in a state of confusion and disappointment, I did one last test: I looked for the word "innovation" in the index of the book. It's not there. The book has the word in its title, but there is not one single indexed reference to the topic in the entire book.
Take a look at the table of contents and decide if your foundation needs some genuinely visionary thinking on how to protect yourself against the risks of the changes happening both in the U.S. and abroad. Chances are good that you do. But don't expect anything related to innovation. This is a fundamentally conservative book, in that regard. Perhaps, once the frameworks of safety proposed in this book are well established, it might be time for a companion volume with an equally visionary perspective on how to experiment, learn, and innovate.
Posted: 4/7/11; 12:07:18 PM # |
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