Recent "Off the Shelf" Book Reviews

Here are quick highlights from Philanthropy News Digest's Off the Shelf book reviews. Click on the links below for the full reviews:


Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker. Fred Setterberg and Bill Somerville (Heyday Books, 2008)

"...something between a primer for new, unspoiled foundation staff and a challenge to old-hand practitioners of the status quo. Fred Setterberg has shaped Somerville's passion into an easy, cheerily provocative read..." More

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Paul Collier (Oxford University Press, 2007)

"...[Collier] and his team of international researchers examine the traps — lack of natural resources, corruption and bad governance, proximity to bad neighbors — that ensnare poor countries in destructive cycles of conflict and violence..." More

Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize, and Engage Youth (Jossey-Bass, 2008)

"...It doesn't matter whether your understanding of Web 2.0 technologies is beginner-level or advanced; Mobilizing Generation 2.0 is full of great information about how to recruit, organize, and engage not just Millennials but Gen-Xers and baby boomers who are curious about these new technologies or have already incorporated them into their daily work routines..." More

Click here for a full list of archived Off the Shelf reviews.

Tracy W. McGregor: Philanthropic Leadership in a Tumultuous Era

A new biography chronicles the life and charitable activities of Tracy W. McGregor (1869-1936), who established the McGregor Fund, one of Michigan's first major foundations. The volume chronicles McGregor's civic leadership in Detroit, describes his efforts to support the homeless, and explores his interest in books and libraries. McGregor's activities spanned periods of industrial growth in Detroit, as well as economic decline, as workers began to experience the effects of the Great Depression.

Professor of history Philip P. Mason examined the archives at Wayne State University and other institutions for this detailed biography. Click here for a brief profile of McGregor and a listing of the materials that can be found in the archives.

Humanitarian, Philanthropist, and Detroit Civic Leader and other biographical works in our collection can be found by searching the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature.

Online Communications: How does your nonprofit organization measure up?

Is your nonprofit’s online communications strategy meeting expectations? Perhaps you might want to compare your results with data from other groups by examining the 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study: An Analysis of Online Messaging, Fundraising and Advocacy Metrics for Nonprofit Organizations. Findings are based on an assessment of 21 national organizations by NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network and M+R Strategic Services. You will learn from the report that the average open rate for e-newsletter messages in 2007 was about 17.6% percent. The percentage of people who then clicked on a link within a newsletter was 3.6%. The average online gift amount was $87.

The full report is available at the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study web site.

The Nonprofit Sector in the U.S.: A Brief History

Some of you may know that the Internal Revenue Service provides aggregate tax data through it Statistics of Income (SOI) program. To celebrate SOI’s 90th anniversary, the program began to publish a series of retrospective articles on a number of tax-related subjects.

In particular, you might be interested in “A History of the Tax-Exempt Sector: An SOI Perspective.” As expected from SOI, you will find statistical data on public charities and foundations from tax years 1985 to 2004. What's surprising is the section of the article that covers the legislative history of tax-exemption in the United States. If you are giving a presentation this topic, Figure A or Appendix B can be used as handouts since they concisely describe major legislation from the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 to the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

The full article is available at the SOI web site.

The Fundraising Landscape for International NGOs

If you are interested in learning about the fundraising environment outside the U.S., ask our staff for the May 2008 issue of FundRaising Success magazine. The issue contains a special report, “Fundraising Around the World,” that describes some of the challenges faced by nongovernmental organizations and elaborates on the techniques they have developed. You will find several brief articles, including:


“The Dynamic Growth in Continental Europe” by Daryl Upsall
(Describes fundraising in Italy and Spain)

“Fundraising in Emerging Markets: Challenges and Opportunities” by Simon Collings
(Covers Latin America and Asia)

You can also read these articles by browsing the past issues at the Fundraising Success web site.

Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature to find additional readings on fundraising outside the U.S.

The Size and Scope of the Nonprofit Sector

Researchers who are studying the growth of the nonprofit sector in the United States will want to ask our staff for the Nonprofit Almanac 2008. Published by the Urban Institute Press, the highly anticipated volume provides statistical data and analysis on all types of organizations.

Here are examples of some of the facts you will find in the new edition:

In 2005, nonprofits employees accounted for nearly 10 percent of the nation’s non-farm workforce (p. 21).

While nonprofit revenues have been increasing, savings has been declining since the late 1990s (p. 125).

In 2005, among the 1.4 million nonprofit organizations registered in the United States, 876,164 were 501(c)(3) public charities. There were 323,530 reporting public charities with more than $25,000 in revenues that filed Form 990s (p. 212).

If you are searching for additional information, have a look at our FAQ, “Where can I find statistical data on U.S. charities?”