Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
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Book Reviews of Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World
Book Review: A giving world = a problem-solving world
Summary: 5 Stars
This book adds volume (depth x breadth x height) to an important component of charitable work, and in fact human life - Giving. I am 100% sold about this book, not because its author is a brilliant politician, and a VIP among his peers, but because the book does address a real problem in a creative and implementable way. The problem is that we all know that there are people out there who are far worse off than we are for whatever reason(s) - real or imagined. We also know that we can, and often are willing to, help. However, some of us may not know how we can help, and most of us think we do not have the means to make a significant impact. This book dispels that self-depreciation - I like it! Even more I love the reason why Clinton wrote the book, as well as its potential impact on the non-profit sector worldwide. While it sounds reasonable, even trivial to understand, that those who were blessed with the gift of receiving should in turn spread the message of giving, only infrequently does one hear from the people who actually do give. Giving tells the collective story of those people.
Following the introductory chapter, the first four chapters provide an excellent guide to different kinds of giving: giving money, time, stuff, and skills. The four chapters describe what gifts can do and what some gifts have become. Gifts can facilitate peace and reconciliation, and investment in "social entrepreneurship". Some gifts become self-propagating, and still others become replicable. In these cases, the size of a gift truly does not matter. Qualitatively (relatively) the last dollar spent from the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation has the same marginal impacts on a starving orphan in Mozambique as a similar dollar from a six-year-old's lemonade stand. The last chapter summarizes how much we all can give, but elsewhere the book provides ample and actionable evidence in that regard. My family and I have been donating to Heifer International every Christmas time for many years. We are excited to learn about Kiva.org, eBayGivingWorks, GlobalGiving.com, and a few other charities we can contribute to with what we already have. Positively impressed.
The last three chapters deal with voluntary actions that have and can still more raise the efficiency and effectiveness of the not-for-profit sector. These include what individuals and organizations can do to make private markets more responsive to the production and delivery of public goods, what the nonprofit sector can do to foster for-profit activities for mutual benefits, and the role of government in this entire thing.
The message of this book is loud and clear. I recommend this book as a supplementary textbook for ANY high school and college course. The stories Clinton tells involve people of all races, genders, backgrounds, and professions.
Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465
Book Review: The Gift of Giving
Summary: 5 Stars
Each holiday season, we often find ourselves giving to the Salvation Army, donating to a local homeless shelter or buying toys for impoverished children. But after the holiday season is finished, do you still continue to give? "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World" by Bill Clinton is an excellent guide for those who want to give more. And the book not only addresses all the means of giving but also WHY we should give with examples of many people who have changed and improved the lives of others through their efforts.
"Giving" shows the reader the many facets of contribution. For example, you may not have a lot of money to donate but you have extra time on your hands. Donating your time to help at a homeless shelter is a perfect example of how you can give back to your community. Four chapters are dedicated to the following methods of giving: Money, Time, Things and Skills. By teaching children to read at your local school, donating to Goodwill or other nonprofit organizations or gifting money to a charity, you are helping your community as well as well feeding your spirit. Some of my favorite examples in the book are tennis great Andre Agassi's college preparatory school for at-risk students, which requires promises of good faith from teachers, students and parents; Kiva.org, an online charity (and a personal favorite of mine) that donates money to people in third world countries in order to start or maintain business or improve their personal lives; and Heifer International which gives animals that sustain a family with meat and milk as well as provides income and requires the person receiving the animal to then pass on one offspring in order to continue impacting others. Recycling is another gift to your community and the world. Taking time to organize a recycling center at your job or home is essentially giving back to EVERYONE!
This book is a great gift, full of inspiring stories that are bound to have you opening your wallet, clearing time in your schedule or rummaging through your closet or garage to find things that you no longer use for donation. From the richest person to the low income individual who wants to give back, there are plenty of ideas and resources in "Giving". The back of the book has a listing of charities, organtizations, books, websites and more, broken down into the categories of money, time, skills and things. Many charites, such as Kiva.org, make contribution easy and require little time.
So, regardless of your political affiliation, your income or age you can find a method of giving from this insightful book. You may give for a variety of reasons; your faith, because it makes you happy, the belief that it is a moral duty. Whatever your reason, giving will make a difference in the lives of others, as well as your own.
Book Review: For everyone who is or should be making a difference in the world
Summary: 5 Stars
Looks like some right wing nut hacked and deleted all the good reviews and ratings that came before Sep 11 (how ironic), so I'm reposting from Sep 6!
Everybody has something to give, everybody knows that. Everybody has something to give which can change the world, Bill Clinton knows that. In this book, he tells you how via means each of us has, even if we don't think we have those means through our own misconceptions and misperceptions of what we can contribute to the world, including the pretentious notion that changing the world happens all at once on some grand scale rather than one contribution for one cause and/or one person at a time. This is a book for everyone, whether you are already giving and making a difference in the world on any scale so you can do more, or whether you need to be convinced to join the giving movement gaining momentum recently but still falling short of what is really needed in the world to make it a better and more socially just place for all to live.
Bill organizes ways he proposes we consider giving by means of money, time, things, skills, recognition & new beginnings, self-sustenance, examples, ideas, organization and more. Anecdotal stories proliferate the book, not as merely stories for inspiration but also serving as successful real life examples of the diversity of each theme on giving. The interesting thing I found about most of them was that many started out very small and humble, truly like things we could each do, and either grew into something large by continuous effort or equivalent efforts by others each chipping in the same small contribution. In fact, I would think most readers reading these small contribution stories would say to themselves, "I could do more than that" and follow up on it.
There were also many conversational clippings Bill had with some more prominent givers, whether by amount or efforts Herculean relative to their lives. What was inspiring about these were their philosophies about giving and how simple and practical they could be to anybody, but yet, probably few think about it in those ways which was among the reasons Bill wrote the book. It really opens up the possibilities for all of us wanting to give in ways that can change the world.
Overall, for the value of what this book can inspire everybody to do, no exceptions, I would not only highly recommend this book, but also give it that prestigious but generalist distinction of the one book from this year I would choose to give every person in the world if I could.
Book Review: For everyone who is or should be making a difference in the world
Summary: 5 Stars
Everybody has something to give, everybody knows that. Everybody has something to give which can change the world, Bill Clinton knows that. In this book, he tells you how via means each of us has, even if we don't think we have those means through our own misconceptions and misperceptions of what we can contribute to the world, including the pretentious notion that changing the world happens all at once on some grand scale rather than one contribution for one cause and/or one person at a time. This is a book for everyone, whether you are already giving and making a difference in the world on any scale so you can do more, or whether you need to be convinced to join the giving movement gaining momentum recently but still falling short of what is really needed in the world to make it a better and more socially just place for all to live.
Bill organizes ways he proposes we consider giving by means of money, time, things, skills, recognition & new beginnings, self-sustenance, examples, ideas, organization and more. Anecdotal stories proliferate the book, not as merely stories for inspiration but also serving as successful real life examples of the diversity of each theme on giving. The interesting thing I found about most of them was that many started out very small and humble, truly like things we could each do, and either grew into something large by continuous effort or equivalent efforts by others each chipping in the same small contribution. In fact, I would think most readers reading these small contribution stories would say to themselves, "I could do more than that" and follow up on it.
There were also many conversational clippings Bill had with some more prominent givers, whether by amount or efforts Herculean relative to their lives. What was inspiring about these were their philosophies about giving and how simple and practical they could be to anybody, but yet, probably few think about it in those ways which was among the reasons Bill wrote the book. It really opens up the possibilities for all of us wanting to give in ways that can change the world.
Overall, for the value of what this book can inspire everybody to do, no exceptions, I would not only highly recommend this book, but also give it that prestigious but generalist distinction of the one book from this year I would choose to give every person in the world if I could.
Book Review: Bill Clinton at his best
Summary: 5 Stars
Even conservatives will like this book. It's interesting, inspiring, clearly written, not at all political and, believe it or not, only a tad self-centered. Filled with dozens, maybe hundreds, of specific examples of charitable individuals and successful grassroots programs, it argues -- in fact, proves -- that you don't have to be a big shot to make the world a better place. Clinton clearly believes in what he writes; the book is passionate and powerful on topics that, in other hands, would be detached and dull.
Besides the subject matter, what I liked best about the book is its organization. Written so you don't have to read it all at once, it breaks down philanthropy into six different categories, and gives each its own chapter. Those are:
* Giving time
* Giving things
* Giving skills
* Giving "gifts of reconciliation and new beginnings" (citing everything from the efforts of Nelson Mandela to PeacePlayers International, a group that sets up basketball leagues in the Middle East)
* Giving gifts that keep on giving (such as the work of Heifer International, which gives millions of poor farmers free cows -- as long as they agree to donate one its first offspring to someone else)
* Giving to good ideas
Clinton also includes descriptions of some successful charitable programs that are easy to use as model strategies for your own ideas, illustrates how businesses can make money out of acting in the public interest, and explains his views on what roles governments (not just Washington, but cities and states) can play.
In the last chapter, titled "How Much Should You Give and Why," he argues that if the rich would donate five percent of their incomes to humanitarian causes, the rest of society would give even more, and that one reason to be generous and public spirited is simply that it makes you feel good. "Who's happier?" he writes. "The uniters or the dividers? The builders or the breakers? The givers or the takers? I think you know the answer."
Regardless of your political views, if you're a charitable person and seriously want to make a difference in the world, this is a must-read. You'll come away from it not only inspired, but with plenty of ideas on how to accomplish your goals.