Read For Work

Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly

2011-03-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

I like reading "cozy mysteries" and Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly certainly fits the genre. It also echoes much of what I do as the director of the Bolduc House Museum in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. If you want to see a portrayal of the interaction that can happen among the board and staff members of a small but expensive to run nonprofit museum/archives, this is a fun glimpse of that reality. Not only does the protagonist, Nell Pratt, speak with an authentic voice, the story lasts long enough to be really satisfying - and it leaves the reader caring about the characters and hoping to meet them again.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

2011-02-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school I encountered two literary works that continue to play in my imagination. The first was a short story that I read in French, have forgotten both the title and author, but vividly remember the story. It was a murder mystery told in the second person: YOU are there. The second was Strindberg's one-act play, "The Stronger." This play was the focus, and my performance as the speaker in this 20 minute long monologue was the outcome, of a six week intensive independent study of realism in theater. I went on to showcase that performance in a high school Thespian conference workshop at the University of New York - Albert - probably in 1972. The play features two women, the mistress and the wife of the same man, who meet by accident on Christmas Eve at a cafe. By the end of the play, the previously unaware wife is privy to her husband's affair. However, she never says a word. The only clues you get are the non-verbal ones visible to an audience and the words spoken by the mistress. The hanging question that lingers at the end of the play is which woman is "the stronger" and the audience can debate the answer forever.

Either or both of these works could be the template for The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. In this book, which makes the reader uncomfortable by its use of the second person right from the start, you hear the conversation between a Princeton educated expert in finance and a member of some American special operations team or an assassin. The man from Princeton is a Pakistani and the conversation occurs at a market restaurant in Lahore. The Pakistani man's name is Changez. Understanding French as I do makes me wonder if the author on purpose named his protagonist the imperative form of the verb to change. It is a demand in French: You, CHANGE! (now).

By disclosing his haunting love affair with a gorgeous, intelligent, fellow Princeton alumna, who is reaching out to him, exposing herself, wasting away, provoking but then rejecting his advances, and self-destructing because she cannot get past the death of her first lover, Changez describes his opinion of America. His metaphor depicts a culture whose core values are stuck in the past and overlook relational qualities of respect and self-respect for the good of the "fundamentals:" the bottom line no matter how much that implies a rejection of aesthetics, mercy, and honor.

It looked, at first, as though Changez had been changed by his American experience. He was the first in his class and the most successful new hire at a financial firm that evaluated new and troubled corporations around the world. After the 911 attacks on the United States, he was forced to reconsider whether indeed he had become a New Yorker or whether, at heart, he was a Pakistani. It was not a militant Islamic mind-set that caused him to quit his lucrative position and return to Lahore to teach finance and promote student activism in the university there. It was the combination of the post-911 fear-based rejection of his person in New York and the realization that another, more respectful and relational way to approach life were his fundamentals, not finance.

Whatever the reader's opinion of radical Islam, this book forces the American who eats across the table from Changez, at Changez's expense, to confront fear and the future. It is impossible not to experience some empathy, as the listener American, for the reluctant fundamentalist. But, at the end of the book, you don't know whether the American has suffered through the whole meal and walk through the threateningly lonely Lahore street in Changez's company only to pull the pistol out from its hidden shoulder harness to assassinate his host. Or, perhaps, the brawny Pakistanis in the shadows have designs against the life of the American who is merely pausing to get his business card out of his pocket before thanking Changez for a stimulating evening.

I think this book is destined to be a classic.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

2010-12-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most courageous books I have read ever. It confronts the failure of many Christian evangelicals and congregations to truly mature with joy. Scazzero blames the failure on our refusal to allow God to deal with our emotions, saying that spiritual maturity is impossible without emotional maturity. He details how our theology can negate the validity of our emotions and how that theology has allowed many of us to perpetuate the flawed emotional habits that we learned from our families of origin. Not only that, he makes an eloquent case for Christians to incorporate reflection and other spiritual disciplines we tend to associate with monasticism into our personal walk to allow space in our lives for true integrated emotionally healthy spirituality to emerge in each of us. He emphasizes that we are the objects of God's lavish love, indeed that we have been adopted into His family. Then he provides the counterpoint quoting Richard Rohr: "Life is hard. You are not that important. Your life is not about you. You are not in control. You are going to die." This book has teeth and Christians who want to grow should consider reading it.

Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality 2006

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

2010-02-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

Combine themes from Orwell's 1984 and Madeline L'Engel's A Wrinkle in Time with the rules of FaceBook or some elaborate social video game world and you might find yourself in the contrived future of Fforde's book. There, a person's worth is determined by their ability to perceive colors. The world is enhanced for everyone by manipulating pigments to dye foods and flowers. The pigments are harvested from found metallic fragments left behind by a mysterious ancient civilization best described by Risk and Monopoly maps. This is a story for people who enjoy an extended metaphor or a complex logic puzzle. The most intriguing novelty from my point of view is the road made of organoplasma - a substance that grows and injests people and other items not made from bronze. Of course, there is the requisite love story, villains, and twists that predictably keep a reader engaged. A fun read.

Fforde, Jasper, Shades of Grey. 2009

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2010-01-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

A wise Hebrew king once decided to explore folly, madness, riches, and work in order to figure out the essence of wisdom, the best way to organize a mind, the most satisfying approach to life. His conclusion was to remember the Creator. Elizabeth Gilbert's quest was motivated by similar questions. It took her to Italy, India, and Indonesia and on the way she allowed herself to be confronted and to confront pain, anger, shame, and brokenness. In the end she is much healthier and happier and she has arrived at an approach to life that feels full. Her writing is courageous and intimately authentic - I resonate with many of the situations, emotional dilemmas, and, what's more, I understand how to enter the spiritual world and linger there. However, I have quite different spiritual boundaries and, remembering my Creator, I prefer not to empty my mind through meditation but rather to allow Him to transform it. Another author, George Otis, Jr., explored the similarities of spiritual experiences between the various religious traditions. He is a theologian and his book, apologetic -in the formal theological sense of the word. I lean towards Otis' bias, rejecting the notion that every tradition contributes desirable, positive spiritual value and careful not to issue spiritual invitations to serpents or other familiars no matter how they purport to transport one to another place or state. There is a spiritual hiding place that, while not at all "safe" to first access is filled with peace and there, in Him, I hide in plain sight. I would love to go to lunch with Elizabeth Gilbert. An honest person, a New Yorker, an authentic seeker after truth, she and I would have an interesting respectful conversation.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat Pray Love. 2006. Penguin Books.

The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin

2009-12-07T17:22:00.000-08:00

A fascinating metacognitive analysis of integrated thinking. I do it (integrated thinking) intuitively and recognized the process Martin described through his interview anecdotes and diagrams. For people looking to explore what creativity is and how to foster it in others, this is a must read. The quote at the start of chapter five was unfamiliar to me but one I won't forget now. "By three methods we may learn wisdom: first by reflection, which is the noblest; second by imitation, which is the easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." ~ Confucius

Martin, Roger. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integrative Thinking. 2007. Harvard Business School Press.

Micro Trends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes by Mark J. Penn

2009-10-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

This is a quick read - the chapters are short and formatted in a predictable pattern - but it is a big paradigm changer. Mark Penn is a sociologist/statistician/analyst whose ability to spot very small trends helped formulate campaign strategies for victorious candidates as in Bill Clinton in 1996. That was when he identified a group of under-recognized young mothers and labeled them "soccer moms" to recruit them to vote Democratic. The label served well enough for Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, to adopt the moniker for herself in the 2008 campaign. Politics aside, Penn's book explains how the inter-connectivity of the world wide web makes it possible and profitable to market to a niche group of individuals once 100,000 of them can be located. Then he explores a plethora of micro trends spanning all aspects of our culture: religion, education, life style, family, work, fashion, leisure, and technology to name a few biggies. When relevant he also comments on the same micro trends in their global contexts. So, I recommend reading this book to take the pulse of American culture and to discover a different way of thinking about what our fellow citizens are doing and deciding.

Penn, Mark J. with E. Kinney Zalesne. Micro Trends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes. 2007. Twelve. New York

Cherokee Dragon by Robert J. Conley

2009-10-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

Dragging Canoe, a Cherokee chief, grew up in the eighteenth century as more and more whites entered their ancestral lands forcing more and more concessions in return for less and less remuneration. His father, also a tribal elder, believed in negotiating with the white man- at least until he met Pontiac and learned of the animosity between the various American and European factions. Dragging Canoe watched as one agreement after another was violated and as more and more of his people were killed. He advocated an inter-tribal alliance and inspired Tecumseh. Neither approach ended up being successful and the Cherokee nation moved west in the Trail of Tears. Robert Conley has written an important piece of historical fiction that presents the native point of view well, adding the emotional dilemmas that come when traditional wisdom fails its people and when one generation's solutions clash with those preferred by the next.

Conley, Robert J., Cherokee Dragon. 2000. St. Martin's Press. New York.

Queen by Alex Haley and David Stevens

2009-10-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

"A child of the plantation," Queen looked as white as her father but was "nigra." This piece of narrative historical not really fiction covers the period between around 1820 to the late nineteenth century while the fabric of Southern plantation society and its dependency on slavery unraveled. In the epic style of a Michener book, the authors assume various perspectives over the course of the book to demonstrate that at our core we need to be loved for who we are and not for what we might represent or possess or accomplish. Poignant in its ability to express the deepest emotions, the authors force us American readers to own our own prejudices. As the characters develop many of the white people lose touch with their original values becoming more entrenched by the drive to maintain and expand the land and the privileges they received by enslaving one population at the same time that they were expelling another. Like Pres. Obama, Queen was forced to struggle with her double heritage and found both groups unwilling to fully accept her. The book is a fascinating window on the socio-cultural history of race relations in our nation. It is difficult to read from an emotional point of view and compelling from beginning to end.

Haley, Alex, and David Stevens. Queen. 1993. William Morrow & Co. New York.

Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz

2009-09-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

A terribly objective albeit friendly record of mysticism and its relationship to American political history, this book is disturbing and enlightening. Mitch Horowitz does not differentiate between mysticism that has its source in Christianity from mysticism that derives from other spiritual bases but he does show the synergy of ideas such as hyper-nationalism, prosperity, and positive thinking across the boundaries between church and society at large. He returns again and again to the theme of the commercialization and the popularization of spiritual ideas both within the Christian and what would traditionally be considered Occult traditions. He also reveals how secret mystic traditions that came from Europe and Asia became commonly known practices here. The key figures involved are named, the places where their influence was centered and to which it spread are clearly identified, and dates, other affiliations, and the presidents and other strongmen who fell under their sway are listed. Horowitz's narrative starts in Colonial New England and, while it peeks a bit into the 1960s, it really covers the period up until that decade began. It is extremely well written and does no more than provide an alternative window through which to view our history which, to many should be investigated and addressed courageously in the spirit of truth.

Horowitz, Mitch. Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation. 2009. Bantam Books, New York.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster

2009-09-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

You have to like books to like this book but if you do, and if you've read fairly widely in the canon of English literature, this is a fabulous romp. Obviously the result of many lectures, this series of essays demystifies- should I venture to say deconstructs- the layers of symbols, cultural references, archetypes and other devices we authors utilize knowingly and unconsciously to hook and engage our reader audiences. He didn't include C. S. Lewis' opinion that descriptions of food in children's books are as erotic for those readers as graphic sex scenes might be for grown-ups but Foster's insights pack as much power.

Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor. c. 2003. HarperCollins

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

2009-08-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

This is a coming of age account by a man who grew up between cultures and racial groups wondering how to understand himself. He just happens to be our president now but I don't believe that achieving that office was in his five year plan when the book went to print even though I think he did intend to advance politically through various elected offices. I'm a few years older than the president and I grew up in a WASP family in New York City very aware of the Civil Rights Movement, racial discord, riots, assassinations and flower power juxtaposing with black power but not having to deal with it directly. Like Obama, I lived and even briefly (for my senior year of high school) went to school abroad - not in a madrasa but in a British boarding school that served the children of politicians from all over the Commonwealth. My room-mate, from Nigeria, plied me with questions that I was unable to answer about the African American experience. Later, a college student in St. Louis, I lived in a blighted African American neighborhood within walking distance from the university because the rents were low. Years later still I taught in the St. Louis inner city public school system where I discovered the lack of parity that is so often defined as the achievement gap between black and white students in America. That was when I became the most engaged with the heart of the issues that Obama describes in his book - fear, anger, inequality, and in general a lack of hope that often masquerades as bravado. The book is written as well as the man speaks - it exposes his own journey with its discomforts probably made worse by the fact that so much of the truth was unexplained and interpreted within the framework of a child's, adolescent's, newly emerged adult's shifting perspectives. It echoes the struggle for a sense of personal-cultural identity that I have heard many missionary kids whose first encounter with their home culture starts when they are sent to college but who grew up fluent and friends in a very different cultural context. I find the book an authentic, honest attempt to narrate his experiences against America's racial backdrop. Interestingly, the person who insisted I read it isn't even an American.

Obama, Barack. Dreams From My Father. c. 1995. Three Rivers Press. NY

Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson

2009-08-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I listened to all nine CDs as author, Rupert Isaacson, read his own account of the search for healing for his autistic son, Rohan. The quest took them on horseback through Outer Mongolia to expose Rohan to powerful shamans. Last of all they visited Ghost, the shaman of the Reindeer People in Siberia. Rupert is transparently, painfully honest about his own fears, embarrassments, cynicism, exhaustion, disappointment, and passionate love for his son. Hearing him read is a treat because of his British accent and the way he is able to capture the intonations and timbre of his son's voice. A travel writer by trade, he has a fabulous ability to paint with his words so that we hear, taste, smell, touch and see the textures and vastness of the beauty of the steppes and the squalor of the broken down Soviet-built cities. He knows horses and indigenous culture too from growing up partly among the bushmen of South Africa and learning to ride and hunt foxes in England.

I've read a lot of books about autism but this one may be the first one written from the father's perspective. The narrative oozes with Rupert's love for Rohan. The perspective, incorporating American experts including Temple Grandin, along with the ancient wisdom of past cultures challenges our usual one to enlarge, consider spiritual causes and effects, and explore the hidden giftedness within autists.

From a spiritual perspective I was alternately fascinated and grieved. I understand how to function in the spirit and I know the High God and King of the Universe by name, personally. Unfortunately, few people on spiritual quests expect to find Him more powerful, and able to trump the gods of this world. This book is an indictment against the Judeo-Christian religious community through the ages for failing to take our God's name and reputation seriously.

Isaacson, Rupert, Horse Boy

Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger

2009-07-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Rainer and Geiger value simplicity as a means towards achieving mission. Their book, Simple Church, was written for church leaders about managing churches. However, its advice can be extrapolated for any individual or organization. Four words summarize the message: "Clarity, Movement, Alignment, Focus." By clarity, they mean a simple design that implies a process. By movement, they mean a sequence of steps through which the members can progress towards more meaningful participation. Alignment speaks of programs or activities that must all serve the process. Because of the commitment to focus, anything that does not align with the process does not happen, on purpose. The book is a very fast read - if you've read a lot of leadership books it is skimmable, but it is challenging, makes the reader think, and for me, at least, may just cause a realignment of my patchwork of routine projects and activities.

Rainer, Thom S., Eric Geiger. Simple Church. c. 2006. B & H Publishing. Nashville, TN

Persona Non Grata, by Ruth Downie

2009-07-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a murder mystery set in the ancient Roman empire that brings Gaius home from his post as a physician with the army in Britain where he lives with the barbarian, Tilla. He bought Tilla as a slave but twice asks her to marry him. At first she refused. Then she accompanies him to his villa in Italy after he has been summoned home by an urgent letter purporting to come from his younger brother. All the difficulties of any cross-cultural romance come up in this story. His family doesn't know about Tilla until she arrives. The gift she worked so hard on for them is culturally repulsive. Fortunately, she figured that out before she gave it. The new Christian cult has everyone concerned and confused but Tilla begins to experiment with prayer to the new god you address as father and who does not expect sacrifices. I found her mixed up application of what she deduced from one Christian meeting amusing and totally believable. Downie does a great job layering multiple intersecting plot lines that resolve satisfactorily at the end. The story engaged me from beginning to end. I picked the book up for fun and found it touches many of the same themes I work with in my own writing. The research she did about medical practices, poisons, and the life behind the scenes of a gladiator is impressive. She wove it into the story so that the whole piece was both believable and fascinating.

Downie, Ruth. Persona Non Grata. c. 2009. Bloomsbury

Eye Contact, by Cammie McGovern

2009-07-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

I was given this book two Christmases ago but because the write up on the back cover made it sound terrifying, I did not read it until this past Sunday when I began reading in the morning and finished the book in the early evening. A young girl who is on the Autism spectrum gets murdered in the woods that connect to the school playground during recess. Two other special education students, both also on the Autism spectrum, witness the crime but are unable to communicate what they saw. At least, they can't answer the police investigators questions in typical ways. Eye Contact is a murder mystery that can only be solved when the adults penetrate the children's unusual logic. Carefully constructed from layers of plot and an assortment of back-story relationships between the adult characters, McGovern has created a sensitive story filled with good information about the Autism spectrum and the many therapeutic approaches that parents of children on the spectrum use. It is a compelling read but not scary which is why I really enjoyed it.

Cammie McGovern, Eye Contact. 2006. Penguin Books

Ahab's Wife or The Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund

2009-07-12T00:37:00.000-07:00

The first sentence of this novel hooked me even though Ahab wasn't mentioned again for many pages, indeed: "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last." It is the story of Una, plopped into the cast of characters living in the middle of the nineteenth century in Nantucket, Kentucky, and aboard the Pequod among other whaling ships. The plot was entirely predictable but I think that both the plot and the protagonist were excuses in which Naslund hid a Dickensian social commentary on the period roles of women, African Americans, homosexuals, and other marginalized groups in pre-Civil War America like dwarves and mentally handicapped individuals. Sprinkled through the pages are tensions caused when the someone doesn't fit or actually acts contrary to the status quo. The book is full of unresolved moral, religious, and ethical dilemmas. Girl babies named Liberty die twice and a boy baby named Justice lives although fatherless and not quite legitimate. The writing is quite good- the book made the New York Times Best Seller List. However, it seems overly long but then, perhaps because of its length and the time it affords for reflection along the way, it is provocative. It is also filled with surprising historical details like the basket of ceramic dildos offered to Una when, newly "married" to Captain Ahab she was left alone at home when the Pequod sailed away for a three year long voyage. I'm not sure why Ahab's Wife was subtitled the Star Gazer, though. That role belonged to another melancholy woman in Nantucket....

Money Ball by Michael Lewis

2009-06-29T05:59:00.001-07:00

I wouldn't even know about Money Ball by Michael Lewis if my son, Colin, was not majoring in sports management at college. He is the person whose passion for baseball pushed me to learn how to watch and understand the game. Unfortunately, being a single mother is not the best set-up for even a very talented ball player because the schmoozing that goes on at the dug-out and over the beers afterward is a fathers' prerogative. So, when I started reading Lewis' description of how the traditional scouts thought and how that approach led to a disappointing major league career by Billy Beane, I found it fascinating. It was the back-story that cause his "Aha!" moment when he encountered the statistician's perspective on what measurable factors predict major league success. This triggered how he was able to make the Oakland A's become a winning team on a shoe-string budget - at least in comparison with other major league franchises. While I got bogged down a bit in the middle of the book, not knowing all the names and situations because I am not a consummate baseball fan like my son, I think this is an important book for anyone involved in organizational change to read. Personally, I do not think that paradigm shifts happen without the Billy Beane synergy in which some personal dynamic combines with a revolutionary approach.

The Art of Funding Your Film by Carole Lee Dean

2009-04-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

I read this book to check my intuition about how a grant proposal to fund a documentary film would be constructed since I have never written such a proposal and I have a prospective client who wants me to try. Mostly this type of proposal follows the same pattern as every other grant request according to Carole Lee Dean who is a grantmaker for documentary films. Her book is full of really good tips that could be applied, almost without any revisions, to any new, small, or transitioning nonprofit organization - the niche I target to serve as a consultant who helps with strategic planning, grantsmanship, development, and fund-raising. The most important idea that I will take away from Dean's book is the word "urgency." Not only does she encourage filmmakers who are seeking funding to demonstrate their passion and creativity as they approach prospective funders, she pushes for them to identify what makes their project urgently important. The question of "Why now?" will forever be added to my arsenal of must-identifies that will become a prerequisite before I write grants for a new client. In addition to just plain good fundraising advice, Dean presents really helpful information about how to approach corporations as well as links to specific resources online including film funders who have a proven track record. She also makes great points about the legal issues that result when an organization recruits investors which can be avoided by recruiting donors. Besides sharing her own generous tips, the book includes detailed interviews that add other perspectives. This should be a much more widely known and consulted resource for any nonprofit organization. I highly recommend it.

Dean, Carole Lee. The Art of Funding Your Film: Alternative Financing Concepts. c. 2003. Dean Publishing. Oxnard CA.

The Great Awakening by Jim Wallis

2009-04-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Jim Wallis wrote this book in 2007 to articulate a prophetic call to Christians in America to become more nuanced and intentional about issues that touch everyone alive today. He challenges the one-issue politics that characterize the religious right's typical stances. He talks about Kingdom values. Quoting Brian McLaren, Wallis defines kingdom values as community, fellowship, and mission. I like that. He reflects on the controversy that ensued after he wrote: "The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the genocide of another race and then the enslavement of yet another." Perhaps I noticed this poignant observation more because I'm getting ready to go to Haiti to teach at a pastor's conference there. The same statement applies to that nation, albeit with a twist due to the successful slave uprising there at the end of the 18th century. Wallis becomes provocative when he juxtaposes the phrases "authentic faith" (my heart's cry) against "aggressive religion" (what I eschew). He comments on scandals in the church and in politics - when I saw this morning's conversation between NBC's Matt Lauer and former New York governor, Eliot Spitzer it reminded me of Wallis' grieving comments about Ted Haggard's recent moral demise. In conclusion he encourages leaders this way: "Anyone who wants to be a leader in the twenty-first century needs to sustain values, nurture community, and clarify our common mission...In the end, leaders lead by behavior and not just by skill." Amen to that. Finally, his aim is to issue a strong prophetic imperative: "It is absolutely vital to make the connection between spirituality and social justice. In affluent societies, the quest for spirituality can easily lead to narcissism, with spiritual well-being just another commodity to consume...That's why I believe the path to genuine spirituality, especially in wealthy nations, must be disciplined by the struggle for justice." I like the verb, "disciplined" in that statement. I also know what he means by the word "narcissism". The point is that right now when the global economy is being shaken and even today, when 65 miles away from Rome towns have crumbled due to a massive earthquake, those of us who claim citizenship in God's Kingdom must be alert to the cultural, economic, and governmental transitions that must come before the whole earth can be filled with His Glory. Wallis could have posed the question in New Testament terms this way: "What is the Spirit of God speaking to the churches?" The key to hearing is to "open" our ears to what He is saying.

Wallis, Jim. The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change the World - Reviving Faith & Politics. Harper One. 2007

Street Gang by Michael Davis

2009-03-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

This tell-all retrospective about the individuals who were responsible to give us Sesame Street is a wonderful treat to read. From the perspective of nonprofit innovational entrepreneurship it is a window on the whole process from concept to planning and funding. Then it gives details about the execution of the plan all in the context of the individual temperaments, failures, and the racial, gender, and cultural upheavals of the 1960s. Besides reminding us of the path-less wilderness that was children's television in its infancy, this book stirs up all sorts of memories for those of us old enough to remember the Captain, and even Howdy Dowdy, - all of us good do-bees now grown up and trying to be do-gooders who may someday get recognized in some magic mirror. For the nonprofit fund-raiser, Street Gang reminds us of the power of relationship to open big doors for otherwise under-known people as well as the protocol that even the biggest philanthropic board members must follow. It also connects us with our heart, smitten with Mr. Hooper, crying from the couch while Big Bird tries to get his big beak around the meaning of his death while the little kids watch without giving too many clues about their reactions. So, inspiration, recollection, reflection, and hind-sight combine to give insightful readers much to consider as we move towards a new season, new breakthrough technologies and their new implications for the future of our culture.

Davis, Michael. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. c. 2008. Viking. NY

Winning At Retail by Willard Ander and Neil Stern

2009-02-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

The subtitle for this book is "Developing a Sustained Model for Retail Success". The ideas are straight forward. Don't try to be all things to all people. Be the best at one thing: price, fashion, selection, speed, or service. In fact, the authors challenge retailers to become "EST" at something and make that a core strategy and value around which all the decisions are made. The book has lots of annecdotes about major American retailers like WalMart and others. It is a simple goal with very far-reaching consequences for management and goal setting and it could be applied to any kind of organization. Nonprofits, for example, have a great deal of difficulty crystalizing their mission into a short statement but if they were to adopt an "est" i.e. "we are the best at doing ____________ (providing short-term housing, preventing high school students from dropping out of school, etc.) for __________ (these people), they would have a hook on which to hang their fundraising and program planning.

This is a fairly fast read and it challenges creative thinking throughout by posing the alternative to articulating the "est" strategy for your business as falling into the "black hole" of mediocrity- good is the enemy of the best, right? Or, as Simon Crowell is fond of saying, "It was a good enough performance, but frankly, you're forgettable..."

Ander, Willard N. and Stern, Neil Z. Winning At Retail. c. 2004. John Wiley & Sons Inc. New Jersey.

Won't Let You Go Unless You Bless Me by Andree Seu

2009-02-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

Wisdom packed into four page chunks viewed through the prism of a widow's everyday activities and melancholy reflections - this is what Andree Seu has created in her book of short essays. They pierce the veil of religiosity by juxtaposing a world-view based in a literal grasp of the Bible with the ups and downs of authentic honest emotional instincts that don't always fit in the prescribed theological boxes - in my experience, hardly anything authentically faith-based fits snuggly into any earthly container. The book was a gift from a dear friend which I started yesterday morning and finished in the afternoon, sated, somehow, with the knowledge that I am not alone in my struggles and paradoxes. The essays feel like prose poems as image leads to image in surprising - even startling - streams of consciousness transitions. I highly recommend reading them.

Seu, Andree. Won't Let You Go Unless You Bless Me. 2006. Word & Life Books. Ashville NC.

Where Have All The Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca

2009-02-03T14:21:00.000-08:00

Age permits a wide-view so that what seems like Iacocca's eclectic who's who name-dropping rant is really permeated with a wisdom that reminds me of Ecclesiastes. He wrote this to call the nation to apply a leadership test to the candidates that would eventually feature in the 2008 presidential election. It measures a prospective leader according to nine words all beginning with "c": curiosity, creative, communicate, character, courage, conviction, charisma, competent, common sense. Then he adds a tenth, crisis. Each point is illustrated anecdotally like a contemporary version of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People. The book is autobiographical, reflective, provocative, and confrontational and well worth reading even (perhaps especially) after the election is past.

Iacocca, Lee. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? 2007. Scribner. New York.

The Time of The French in the Heart of North America, by Charles J. Balesi

2009-01-30T17:29:00.001-08:00

Here's a book that connects the dots of our French Colonial history between 1673-1818. I was amazed to see how key the doings in Illinois were to both the French Canadian scene and to that of Louisiana. In fact, I did not know that once Illinois was part of Louisiana when its capital was Mobile. Anyway, Charles Balesi has done a great job of assembling and connecting information based on primary sources about this people and this period which is of great interest to me, personally. It is even readable, for the most part, and gives rich detail about the various tribal interactions among the Native Americans of the time.

Balesi, Charles J. The Time of the French in the Heart of North America: 1673-1818. 1992. Alliance Francaise. Chicago. Illinois.

The Bishop At The Lake, by Andrew M. Greeley

2009-01-15T09:11:00.001-08:00

I've discovered a new author that I like a lot. His topics are the ones that make up my books - authentic faith, abusive clergy, real life stories complicated by the church. His books are fiction - murder mystery genre, almost- because people don't always actually die. The protagonist is an Irish-American Chicago bishop who goes by the nickname, Blackie. The author, Greeley, is a Roman Catholic priest whose website is pastoral as much as it is promotional. So far I've read two of his books: The Bishop at the Lake, and The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood. I'll read the rest soon.

The Bishop's Daughter, by Tiffany L. Warren

2009-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

When Darren decided to investigate a mega-church in Atlanta in an attempt to discredit its bishop, he finds himself having to re-evaluate everything he has come to believe. The characters in Tiffany Warren's book are vivid - the reader sees them, hears their intonation patterns, easily recognizes each one as a caricature of someone in real life. She confronts issues of race, sexuality, ethics, family, and money using believable situations. I love the blogger brotha. Despite her delightful characters and their authentic struggles and her very readable prose that moves fast, the characters' life-changing decisions: to get baptized, not to abort a pregnancy, and for a committed virgin to seduce a fast player happen too fast, too easily, and always resolve into a church-approved choice in too pat a manner for me. Darren and the bishop are the most consistent of all the characters and both of them struggle (for the most part) in an authentic internal debate to reconcile their identities and emotions. So, my conclusion is that The Bishop's Daughter has a lot done really well but it stands as a cozy church morality play that is enjoyable and very much the kind of novel grandmothers might give their teenage grand-daughters for Christmas.

Tiffany L. Warren. The Bishop's Daughter. 2009. Hachette Book Group. New York

The First Billion Is the Hardest by T. Boone Pickens

2009-01-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the reflective autobiography of the most recent years lived by T. Boone Pickens. He's the natural gas and alternative energy advocate/trader whose television commercials promote his passion to make the US energy independent. I have to admit that the title is what amused me enough to check the book out of the library and the endearing but usually verging on crude down-home Texan proverbs kept me reading. This man doesn't do anything on a small scale but he relies on "accurate analysis, the nerve to take risks, and the ability to act" along with a core team of trusted advisors to set his course. Even when he turned to philanthropy, he acted magnanimously but very strategically. Using creative non-traditional fundraising tactics, competition, Pickens takes charge. "We like results", he explained...We know where we want to make a difference. We find people that have the leadership skills and the capacity to make a differenece, and we fund them..." The 80+ year old still works out every day, runs a big business, and sets new bars for his colleagues, adversaries, and beneficiaries at a pace that doesn't stop. His tempered wisdom moves fast but it is carefully layered in the words of this very honest reflection so that every reader who takes his advice will gain ground.

T. Boone Pickens, The First Billion Is the Hardest, c. 2008, Crown Publishing, NY

Seeing Through New Eyes by Melvin Kaplan

2008-12-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

This book that promises to be able to "change the lives of children with autism, Asperger syndrome, and other developmental disabilities through vision therapy" intrigued me from a number of perspectives. I am an optometric vision therapist so I work with this patient population on a regular basis. I found Kaplan's clinical notes and case studies to be rich with insight as well as technique that I can adopt with some of my patients immediately. I am the aunt of 3 children whose symptoms fall along the autism spectrum so I was interested in whether Kaplan's material would be presented in layman's language. It is. Recently I wrote a series of three books about learning-related visual skills for home schooling families, the Eye Can Too! Read series and have been asked to consider writing a book in the same series to give the home schooling parents of special needs children a series of visually reliant academic activities that they can use. Kaplan's book would definitely be included on my resource list should I end up writing the fourth book. Kaplan's vision therapy evaluation tools for non-verbal patients are great and his explanation of the therapeutic use of yoked prism glasses (while sounding quite mysterious to the uninitiated) is well documented and easy to understand. My only negative comment is that the book takes a long time to read even knowing the terms and activities as I do. However, anyone who wants to understand why some children rock, flap the air, or utilize other stimming behaviors to make sense of their world will gain both empathy and hope that these socially challenging habits can be adjusted by reading Kaplan's book. Well done.

Kaplan, Melvin. Seeing Through New Eyes. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Philadelphia, London. 2006

Philanthropy Annual- 2007 Review by the Foundation Center

2008-12-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

The Philanthropy Annual 2007 Review is the premier edition of what is designed to be an annual overview of the nonprofit funders in America. There's a section of the top news stories, the key players, the media, and tables filled with statistics about which foundations gave how much money. However, the actual data in these tables is from 2005. Some of the most helpful information is in the appendix which includes current contact information for agencies and organizations that provide resources to grant-makers and grant-seekers alike. A big surprise is the crossword puzzle. The journal sells for $19.95 and is available from the Foundation Center (www.foundationcenter.org). Its publication was partially funded by a grant from the Wallace Foundation.

Philanthropy Annual: 2007 Review, by the Foundation Center c. 2008, New York.

Boards That Make A Difference by John Carver

2008-12-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Even though this book was written in 1990, it has a great deal of wisdom to impart about nonprofit governing boards. Carver begins by clarifying the motivation of the volunteer board members in contrast to that of other volunteers. Board members volunteer out of an "ownership" interest. Other volunteers work out of a "helpfulness" interest. It is like the difference between working on your own house or helping a neighbor with theirs. He goes on to give a 14 point model that an organization can use to set board standards and expectations. He even delineates issues that are not the board's but that can become distractions when a board is too intrusive in the organization's day to day procedures and routines.

Carver, John. Boards That Make A Difference. 1990. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

Boards That Deliver by Ram Charan

2008-12-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

Ram Charan's book gives very practical tools for boards of directors for both nonprofit organizations and businesses. His diagnostic survey helps a board evaluate itself in terms of group dynamics, how and what information is conveyed to the board, and the extent to which the board's focus is on substantive issues. This is just one of several detailed suggestions for how a board can be effective, progressive, and a truly meaningful experience. He sets an expectation for boards to evolve from the traditional "ceremonial" role to this progressive one. He also exposes some of the excesses that most boards go through during the transition process. His insight along with the tools he provides makes this book a must-read for everyone who is either on a board of directors or who must regularly relate with one.

Charan, Ram. Boards That Deliver. c. 2005. John Wiley & Sons.

Museum Administration: An Introduction by Genoways and Ireland

2008-11-18T14:47:00.001-08:00

Whether you are running a museum or another kind of nonprofit, this book lays out the issues you need to know if you are the director. From budgeting, staffing, board and donor relations, this is an overview of the concepts. Then, given a scenario taken from the museum context, you are challenged to predict a workable plan that will address the issues. Since the book limits itself to one kind of organization, it actually adapts to the needs of many organizations quite well serving as a good introduction for the untested director.

Hugh H. Genoways & Lynne M. Ireland, Museum Administration: An Introduction. 2003. Alta Mira Press.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Mark Hatfield

2008-11-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

The pages have yellowed and whole sections of the book have detached from the paperback binding since the first time I read it in 1976. Then, the former governor and senator from Oregon, Senator Mark Hatfield was attempting to reconcile his anti-Vietnam War convictions with the expectations that his fellow evangelical Christians imposed as a litmus test for his faith. I picked it up again in the days just prior to the election of Senator Barack Obama to become the 44th president of the United States. The issues and agony that Hatfield's faith provoked are eerily relevant today. His decision to serve the people of Oregon in the senate as an expression of his authentic commitment to Jesus Christ but without necessarily subscribing to the agenda of what we now call the religious right caused a lot of soul searching. He describes the research, counsel, prayer, reflection that grew to a rejection of a utilitarian civic religion. Here is an authentic wrestling to come up with a faith-filled political position with which I wish more believers would find the courage it takes to struggle.

Hatfield, Mark. Between A Rock And A Hard Place. Word Books. Waco, Texas. c. 1976.

Everything You've Heard Is Wrong by Tony Compolo

2008-11-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

Tony Compolo teaches about the power of biblical love when it is applied to business and sales. He rejects the idea that when sales people manipulate buyers with psychological techniques that don't respect the person's values and choices as unloving and ultimately unsuccessful and unfulfilling. This book is a compelling case for a process of reflection and meditation about who you are before determining what you do and then making your life mission match.

Tony Compolo, Everything You've Heard is Wrong. c. 1992. Word Publishing. Dallas, TX.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

2008-10-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the most surprising gifts I have ever received from my father, an avowed agnostic, was this book. Then I read it and discovered that AJ Jacobs treated his experiment to live according to as literal an interpretation of the Bible as possible with humility and respect albeit without faith or relationship with God. I recognize the struggle. It caused the author all kinds of trouble socially, with his wife, and internally. He counseled with clergy from a variety of Judeo-Christian flavors and seemed personally the most impacted by an ultra-orthodox Jewish man whose greatest pleasure was helping others obey the Biblical commandments and by a pastor of a snake-handling church in Appalachia. This book epitomizes the limitations of the law a la Paul's Epistle to the Romans- all it can do is reflect a man's true condition. Just like A.J. Jacobs, anyone can walk away from a biblical life lived out legalistically basically unchanged albeit somewhat more enlighted perhaps. This is a very sensitive approach to matters of religion in America. Faith is a very different question, if you ask me.

A.J. Jacobs. The Year of Living Biblically. 2007. New York: Simon & Schuster.

A Kid's Guide to Giving by Freddi Zeiler

2008-10-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

I learned of this book for kids by a kid about giving in Pres. Bill Clinton's book on philanthropy in America. It has a great package- a stiff cardboard fold-over cover- and then the pages are spiral bound with lots of yellow. The first part explains how foundations work to fund nonprofits. It gives great information about researching organizations before giving them money, time, or stuff. Then it encourages kids to get involved. The second part is an index of 100 nonprofits that are involved in missions that appeal to kids. It's a creative approach.

Freddi Zeiler. A Kid's Guide to Giving. 2006. Norwalk, CT: InnovativeKids

Made To Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

2008-09-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

This exceptional book grabs your attention not just because of its bright orange cover. Right in the middle of the title there is an old gray piece of duct tape. Nobody can dispute that duct tape is made to stick! The Heath brothers explore and illustrate what makes any message memorable. They give a formula for success. S- the core of the message must be Simple. U- the audience's attention is attracted when the message is Unexpected. C-the message must contain Concrete elements so that the audience can easily envision and remember it. C- the message must be Credible so that it will be believed by the audience. E-the message must stimulate an emotion that helps the audience to care about it. S- messages told through a Story will be the easiest to remember. The examples and case studies hook the ideas into the reader's psyche. This book is an essential for everyone whose business depends on persuasion. I will use this formula every day for the rest of my life.

Chip Heath & Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. 2007. New York: Random House.

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex

2008-09-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

Karen Essex juxtaposed the stories of two women who bucked the conventions of their day to explore what happens to a powerful woman when she is limitted by men who think they can dominate, intimidate, and control her. Stealing Athena is historical fiction. The women are Aspasia, the Greek courtesan of the philosopher, Pericles, and Mary Elgin, the wife of the man who stripped the "Elgin" marbles from the Parthenon. They ended up in the British Museum and are back in the news today since Greece wants them back. The story is told in a compelling voice that has an underlying pathos and sexual tension. The book is more erotic than I am comfortable with but I have to admit that none of the sexuality is gratuitous. Sex is and has always been, after all, a man's primary device to entrap women. Essex explores the themes I am working with in my novel, Pastor's Ex-Wife, which you can read serialized on my website, www.teamlesley.com. My book concerns the clergy abuse scandal from the Protestant side. I plan to read more books by Karen Essex. I highly recommend Stealing Athena - but not for everyone.

Karen Essex, Stealing Athena. 2008. New York: Doubleday.

Museum Strategy and Marketing by Neil Kotler and Philip Kotler

2008-09-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Kotlers have written a tremendously thorough book about the strategic planning process for up-grading and promoting a museum of any size. It is comprehensive and it is a primer filled with examples of strategies that work to develop programs, increase audiences, and build a donor base. Charts and tools pepper the text and they can be used in any nonprofit context. I whole heartedly recommend this book for everyone associated with a museum board of directors, staff or independent consultant.

Neil Kotler & Philip Kotler. Museum Strategy and Marketing: Designing Missions; Building Audiences; Generating Revenue and Resources. c. 1998. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Church Unique by Will Mancini

2008-09-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

The marketing of the local church has become big business in the last 20 years. It is author Will Mancini's business but he approaches it with a careful spiritual sensitivity that doesn't bastardize the evangelical mission to the growth=success mantra. He gives examples from across the spectrum of American Protestantism to demonstrate how really focusing on what makes each individual congregation have unique qualities and potential allows the church to promote itself to its own niche. This does produce church growth and satisfaction. The lessons transfer to any marketing project. Mancini's ethics and perspective are quite refreshing.

Mancini, Will. Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement. c. 2008. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass.

Which Big Giver Stole the Chopped Liver? by Sharon Kahn

2008-09-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sharon Kahn's series of cozy murder mysteries feature Ruby, the rabbi's wife. They all take place in a small town Texas synagogue and have a sub-theme that spoofs fundraising. These are delightful stories that make me laugh. Not only do I recognize the characters from my work with nonprofit client organizations, they are the stereotypes of any spiritual community. I wish there were more of these entertaining quick reads already.

Kahn, Sharon. Which Big Giver Stole the Chopped Liver? c. 2004. New York: Scribners.

The Manual of Strategic Planning For Museums by Gail Dexter Lord and Kate Markert

2008-09-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

Whether your client is a museum, a historical site, or another type of nonprofit organization, here is a book that informs the strategic planning process. All the case studies come from museums but the ideas and the challenges are common to any nonprofit group. The charts and graphs are particularly helpful to me as I work with a variety of nonprofit clients and, for museum strategic planners and consultants, the bibliography is a carefully constructed resource.

Gail Dexter Lord, Kate Markert. The Manual of Strategic Planning for Museums. c. 2007. Lanham MD: AltaMira Press.

Yes! by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini

2008-09-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Yes! is a must read must buy and must reread frequently book for anyone whose job involves persuading others to do, give, buy, or agree to something. Each chapter considers a specific question like "How can we show off what we know without being labeled a show-off?" and is only about three pages long. There are 50 chapters, all chock full of research-based psychology packed in a case study. Read it.

Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini. Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. c. 2008. New York: Free Press

The Price of A Dream by David Bornstein

2008-09-04T11:02:00.001-07:00

Bornstein tells the story of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. It is a window into the mind and heart of the innovative founder, Mohammad Yunnis. He did not take on social reformation by attacking things like women wearing the burkhah or domestic violence. Instead, he decided to upgrade women's positions and power by making them eligible to receive credit. The result was that after 7-10 years, women crossed the poverty thresh-hold, owning their own homes and businesses, aware of issues like family planning, safe water, and nutrition, and held accountable in a carefully structured borrowing group. The bank offered credit but never provided the business plans, committed to the premise that the individuals could best assess how to use their funds. The groups stressed that the best way to escape poverty is to "invest" but not "eat" the funds the credit made available. Eventually the bank became the providers of medical care and insurance but not as a hand out. Bank "members" received preferential pricing but everyone paid. While the bank is a nonprofit organization that receives funding from international donors, it also has grown to the point where it is able to compete for interbank loans to fund large programs. Yunnis is the genius behind the current micro-credit popularity as a development strategy for the poorest nations. This book stories the way he approached the journey before everyone knew him as a Noble Prize winner. It absolutely challenges the educated western ego that thinks it knows best how to improve the future for regular folks across the world.

Bornstein, David. The Price of a Dream. c. 1996. Simon & Schuster: NY

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood

2008-08-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

My clients are mainly nonprofit organizations and many of them have an international mission statement but are based in the United States. Everyday I work with the founders and presidents of these organizations contributing strategic planning and helping with development, grants, donor relations, and publicity. When I picked up this book, I recognized the passion and promise with which John Wood began his organization, Room to Read. Because he had an executive business background with Microsoft in Asia, Wood knew how to incorporate a results-driven business model in his nonprofit organization and it worked. He wasn't immune to the panic, pressure, and penury that my clients routinely experience. However, he applied strategies that looked ahead, took big risks, and based the risk on measurable outcomes that the donors would easily understand. This is his story but it is one that tells how to do a nonprofit organzation right and should be required reading for every start-up nonprofit.

John Wood, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, c. 2006. Harper Collins

How to Change the World by David Bornstein

2008-08-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is a compelling book filled with the stories of individuals whose big ideas have impacted nations thanks to the boost of recognition and a financial award by the organization, Ashoka, which was founded by Bill Drayton. It is arranged in anecdotal stories that chronicle Drayton's search for true social entrepreneurs who were ready to take their ideas to scale. His paradigm confronts a disconnect between how business sees change as being driven by individuals and how social theorists tend to see change as being driven by ideas. Drayton says: "If ideas are to take root and spread, ... they need champions - obsessive people who have the skill, motivation, energy and bullheadedness to do whatever is necessary to move them forward: to persuade, inspire, seduce, cajole, enlighten, touch hearts, alleviate fears, shift perceptions, articulate meanings and artfully maneuver them through systems" (91). He goes on to describe four practices of innovative organizations and six qualities of successful social entrepreneurs. Innovative organizations listen, "pay attention to the exceptional", come up with realistic solutions that work with real people, display and value "empathy", "flexible thinking", and a "strong inner core". Successful social entrepreneurs are willing to "self-correct", "share credit", "break free of established structures", "cross disciplinary boundaries", work in "relative obscurity", and they are highly ethical individuals. Not only does this book show who and what is changing the world, it tells how they are doing it in a way that could become a blueprint for world changers to imitate.
Bornstein, David. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas. New York: Oxford Press. 2004

The Messiah by Marek Halter

2008-08-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

What a fascinating portrayal of European Jewish life during the Inquisition through the eyes of a Middle Eastern Jewish military leader who attempted to convince the pope to allow him to recruit a Jewish navy to recapture Jerusalem and cut off the Muslim advances towards the West. The same religious excesses that plague authentic practicioners of every faith are demonstrated by the various characters. The Messiah, David Reubeni, is serious and dedicated albeit lacking in empathy, probably diagnosably narcissistic, and possibly living with Asperger's Syndrome. His persona is compelling, pursuasive, magnetic and his arrogance and disinterest in the acclaim of the crowds makes for interesting reading- you get his reasons and you dislike him for them all the while excusing him as he does himself because of the greater good he aims for. His fans and his enemies all clothe themselves in religious fervor and he disdains them both equally. Every so often an altruistic act happens but usually it ends up being self-serving at best anyway. This is worth the time it takes to read. It's uncomfortable reading for people who are motivated from spiritual centers because it shows the incredible loneliness that accompanies a sense of vocation when the "call" is to the top of the pyramid- the kind of "call" which the masses
venerate and the Lord may eshew...
Halter, Marek. The Messiah. c. 2008. New Milford, CT: The Toby Press.

Momentum: Igniting Social Change by Allison H. Fine

2008-08-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

Directed at nonprofit organizations which Allison Fine terms Activist Organizations this book explores a shift in the way information is managed, owned, and shared in the age of social media online. It is well thought out, although already dated due to the rapidity with which this communication vehicle is developing. Everyone making recommendations to nonprofit leaders these days talks about how the new generation of donors wants to participate in a conversation with the organizations they decide to fund. Rarely do you find advice about the paradigm shift that must happen within organizations to make this work. Fine juxtaposes the paradigm that views information and networks as proprietary with one that views connectivity as an open network. She explains such things as blogs and wikkis, telling the uninitiated among us how they can benefit companies and organizations. The she poses five self-diagnostic questions for nonprofit boards to ask themselves, their staff and their volunteers:

"How are people inside and outside the organization participating in decision making?
Who are our network members and how are we interacting with them to achieve our mutual goals?
Are we making as much information as we can openly and freely available to our network members?
What conversations are we having, with whom, and for what purpose?
What are we learning and how can we apply these lessons to our work?" (p. 136)

She also introduces "95 Theses" posted at http://www.cluetrain.com/. Read through the petition at the bottom of the home page to expose yourself and your organization to the ideas that characterize the Connected Age thinkers.

Fine, Allison H., Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age. c. 2006. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Crossed by Nicole Galland

2008-07-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

This is the story of the Fourth Crusade told in fiction as the tale of a group of mis-matched tent-mates including a rescued Jewish widow, a German whore, a suicidal terrorist wannabe, two erstwhile knights and the Richardim, a grandfather/grandson who are relatively minor observers both named Richard. This whole crusade was a bungled attempt to get to Jerusalem in spite of the greed and ambitions of the leadership to control Venetian rival cities like Pera and Constantinople. Rife with sexual tension, political intrigue, and deceit, this book treats religiosity as a sham except for the clear dedication of the knight, Gregor. His faith is packaged in the adoration of relics (especially the skull of John the Baptist) and self mortification with prayer and fasting as well as a clear concern for his eternal soul vis a vis the fulfilment of his vows and the prospect of excommunication by the pope. For me, this book continues my exploration and commitment to provoke honest faith in myself first and then also in those with whom I connect. It deals with the issue of kingdom- is there an earthly Christendom which is won or lost through politics and war or is the Kingdom of God not consisting of meat and drink but, as the New Testament asserts, of "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost?" (That idea is lacking in the way Galland depicts the Fourth Crusade.) Two quotes remain what I will ponder from reading this book:
"The war was an overture to melancholic madness. Gregor believed he'd spend the rest of his days atoning for the sins he and the army had already committed, and the rest of eternity atoning for whatever the army might yet do. (Why he felt personally responsible for the sins of an entire military campaign is a spiritual tick of the faithful which I am completely unqualified to explain.)" p.480
and:
"Disillusion is to be embraced; it lightens the soul's load a great deal for illusions - especially the lofty ones that Gregor always clung to- can be such a heavy burden." p. 508

Nicole Galland, Crossed. c.2007. New York: Harper.

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton

2008-07-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick overview of the ways that American philanthropy works by activating the participation of ordinary citizens who donate their money, time, talent, and stuff to address serious social problems using innovation and hard work. Pres. Clinton is in his element profiling real stories of real people as a way to motivate the rest of us. He also interviewed some of the major donors who are the decision makers for foundation grants. It is arranged in a series of anecdotes - like a big list that becomes predictable, punctuated by glimpses at the author's heart and very believable passion for giving as a way of life. "When I left the White House, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life giving my time, money and skills to worthwhile endeavors where I could make a difference. I didn't know exactly what I would do, but I wanted to help save lives, solve important problems, and give more young people the chance to live their dreams. I felt obligated to do it because of the wonderful, improbable life I'd been given by the
American people..." The book includes a very thorough and useful list of resources. Well done, Pres. Clinton.

Bill Clinton, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. (c) 2007. Alfred A. Knopf. New York

The Shack by William P. Young

2008-07-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

For people who have been hurt by church or who have trouble discriminating between faith and religion, this novel about a man whose six year old daughter was kidnapped and brutally murdered hits the issues squarely on the head. However, nothing is predictable. Could God be embodied by a large African American woman? This book is well conceived, has a twist, and probably is an arrow shot into the next era to open up what will be the next season in the spirit. It is written in the same mood as my own novel (yet unpublished), Pastor's Ex-Wife. The way The Shack is being promoted is viral - go to www.theshackbook.com. This is one MUST READ for most people.

William P. Young, The Shack, Windblown Media

Fundraising for the Long Haul by Kim Klein

2008-07-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

From honest admissions of her own early serious mistakes in fundraising to nuanced anecdotes that illustrate how to think about fundraising, donor relations, case statements, and the relationships between the various parties, this book is the latest addition to my MUST HAVE collection. There is a great discussion about "Founder's Syndrome" that every small nonprofit board and staff should read. Klein juxtaposes the need for a nonprofit organization to be mission driven versus donor driven and asks to whom an organization wishes to have to answer. This is well written, honest, emotionally complex, and extremely helpful to me as an organizational consultant to mostly small and transitioning, often faith-based nonprofits.

Kim Klein, Fundraising for the Long Haul. (c) 2000. Chardon Press.

Calendar Girl by Tricia Stewart

2008-06-30T18:35:00.001-07:00

A couple of years ago I watched the movie, Calendar Girls, and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, a group of fellow teachers and I could have been them. So, when I saw the pink and yellow paper back at the library last week I picked it up. Here is the fundraising case study to beat all. A bunch of friends suffered the death of one of their own from leukemia but not before they had invented a fun gimmick - sell a calendar of older women doing traditional women's crafts etc. but in the nude and give the proceeds to the leukemia society in England. The joke became a project. The project grew beyond anyone's wildest imagination and they raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and gained media attention all over the world in the process. But, the project involved much more than any of the participants originally expected or intended. It cost relationships and produced new ones. Everyone was changed by the experience and the donors were more than delighted to get something of value - entertainment and emotional do-gooder-ness combined! The book reads like a very long personal letter from one of the calendar girls chronicling the experience like in a diary. If professional fund raisers like me could only activate this caliber of volunteers as the steering committee for the next events, the world would not lack funding for any humanitarian effort. This is a delightful read and honest about the work involved.

Stewart, Tricia, Calendar Girl, c. 2002, 2003. The Overlook Press.

Successful Grant Writing by Laura N. Gitlin and Kevin J. Lyons

2008-06-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

If you ever have to write a government grant this book gives a thorough, if tedious, explanation of the process. It is written for academics who need to find funding for research, training projects, or demonstration grants. The authors started by illustrating their information with a personal anecdote but dropped it midway through the book. This is a dry technical manual that really does demystify the process of preparing, drafting, and receiving a federal grant for the health and human services fields.

Gitlin, Laura N. & Lyons, Kevin J., Successful Grant Writing: Strategies for Health and Human Services Professionals 2nd Edition, c. 2004, Springer Publishing Co.

The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre

2008-06-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

Another novel that touches the real world in a way that confronts. John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener is a thriller of sorts - not terribly violent- really there were very few instances of gore but the violence indicated the level of greed and exploitation that the perpetrators were driven to keep hidden. This novel is set mostly in Africa where the political, commercial, and humanitarian agendas combine and sometimes conflict. Here the issue is whether a pharmaceutical company is falsifying and short circuiting the scientific review process for a new drug that is reputed to address a strain of tuburculosis that is resistant to standard antibiotics by making it available on a wide scale to the poor in Kenya. Is this a large scale medical experiment designed to work out any bugs in the product before making it available for sale in the West? Le Carre presents many faces of this dilemna while keeping the reader fascinated by the complicated relationships between the diverse characters who come from around the world. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, spent too many hours doing nothing but reading it, and also found some meat to chew on related to my work as a consultant to nonprofit organizations - some of whom work in just these kinds of communities.

One quote speaks of a consortium of representatives of donor nations in East Africa:
"It fosters efficacy, or effectiveness, in the aid field. In aid work, effectiveness is pretty much the gold standard. Compassion's a given,.....how much of each dollar from each donor nation actually reaches its target, and how much wasteful overlap and unhelpful competition exists between agencies on the ground. It grapples, as we all do, alas, with the aid world's three R's: reduplication, rivalry, rationalization. It balances overheads against productivity and...makes the odd tentative recommendation, given that...it has no executive powers and no powers of enforcement." (84)

For many them's fighting words because so many nonprofit organizations exist because of the passion, compassion, zeal, applied Christianity (or other faith based impulse) and altruism that motivates the founders. However, Le Carre has articulated a clarion call for humility, collaboration, and pragmatism that could bring real solutions to humanitarian crises wherever they exist.

So, here's a novel that is quite relevant to what I do although that's not what made me take it off the library shelf. I am grateful to have read it.

John Le Carre, The Constant Gardener, (c) 2001, Scribner. NY.

The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack

2008-06-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

This Springfield, Missouri, manufacturing company is run using "the power of open-book management." This means that every employee has access to information about, investment in the ownership of, and genuine invitation to work towards the fiscal success of the company. By using the balance sheet and the projected income statement as weekly scoring guides and involving every employee in the weekly conversations to check whether every department is on track for the goals, the company has a team spirit that is going for the championship trophy i.e. significant bonuses and profit for all. Stack's easy to read book is common sense psychology at its best and it works a lot because of the respect he has for regular people to make choices that are wise if they have a stake in their outcomes. Treating the financial documents as the main way to score the game of business takes some of the fear factor away, I think. The growth of his company validates the approach.

Jack Stack, The Great Game of Business, c. 1992, 1994, Doubleday

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

2008-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

This novel is a fascinating treatise about truth, tradition, faith, fraud, and failure set in a 14th century monastery in Italy. While the ideas are hidden in a Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery in which multiple corpses die in what seems to be an apocolyptic judgment (this is an elaborate red herring), the reader is forced to endure the pace, suspicions, fears, superstitions, and monotony of the life of a religious community as narrated by an adolescent Benedictine novice - the Watson to the Franciscan Sherlock. So, what benefit does a very long and sometimes tedious novel hold for business people in the 21st century? Hopefully this one engenders a humility of thought and a willingness to listen deeply to the people we encounter before attempting to superimpose on them our interpretations and conclusions. Perhaps one conclusion will be that our labyrinthan mental maps will be enhanced when the hidden things are shared with people whose opinions and ideas will likely challenge them. Or perhaps, otherwise, could our ideas be laced with a poison that we are prepared to serve the ones who probe more deeply out of their own intellectual or spiritual curiosity, passion, or desperate search? Or, are we so wedded to the idea of being right that we are prepared to sacrifice relationship with any who question us? Surely there is a truth that only can be revealed when it is vitally intertwined with love....

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, c. 1984 Harcourt Inc. (translated from the Italian)

Fundraising for Social Change 5th Edition by Kim Klein

2008-06-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

As a nonprofit consultant much of what I do is to advise new, smaller, and transitioning nonprofit organizations on how to do fundraising, grant-seeking, and donor relations. Whether this involves a telephone solicitation campaign, prospecting for major donors or grants, creating material to market the organization or developing an endowment campaign to raise several million dollars, Kim Klein's Fundraising For Social Change covers it all. This book is long but no space is wasted on fluff. The samples - like a sample letter of agreement for an organization's board members- are practical, reasoned, and carefully explained. This book is a MUST READ for every nonprofit fundraiser, board member, executive director or founder.

Fundraising for Social Change by Kim Klein, (c) 2007. Jossey-Bass.

God's Politics by JIm Wallis

2008-06-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It- A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America,by Jim Wallis, challenges American politics and the American church like nothing I have read since Mark Hatfield's Between A Rock and A Hard Place from 1973. Wallis defines the prophetic imperative of Biblical faith as follows: get a vision of where the wind needs to be blowing and then to change the direction of the wind so it blows there. He asserts that God is always "personal" but never "private" and calls for a public discourse of faith that follows the models of Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah and their ilk. He reminds us that their public prophetic subjects were almost always political: poverty, single women, children, the nations, fraud, debt, greed.... He calls for a fourth political philosophy- conservative on social issues and for social justice. For Wallis, a budget is a moral document. This book, written in 2005, is even more compelling in the light of our current global circumstances. Perhaps too long, perhaps it should have been written as several shorter, more focused treatises, this book needs to become part of America's public debate as we move towards a new presidential election, as the earth shakes, wars continue, and the world's markets lose stability.

God's Politics, by Jim Wallis, (c) 2005, Harper Collins

The Game-Changer by AG Lafley and Ram Charan

2008-06-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

Using the stories from Proctor and Gamble, Lego, DuPont and many other businesses whose corporate culture and bottom line have been reconfigured to embrace, reward, stimulate, and grow from innovation, this book describes the process of innovation. It is full of practical wisdom that anyone could implement to move towards a systematic culture of innovation. Read this to learn how to evaluate the comparable risk and reward of suggested innovations when looking short-term, mid-term, and long-term. The authors view failed innovations as stepping stones to successful ones especially when the written reflections explains why things failed. A lot of emphasis is given to how to "create a social process" that fosters innovation and to how to assign criteria, i.e. the metrics of innovation. Great insight is provided about the necessary attributes of the members and the leaders of innovation teams.

What grabbed my attention as a strategy that I can adapt to my role as a consultant to nonprofit organizations who contributes significantly to strategic planning to build organizational capacity is the description of Proctor and Gamble's "Innovation Gym". This is a dedicated space that teams (in my case nonprofit boards) can visit to achieve specific goals related to problems that will be solved through innovation. The facilitators that run the Innovation Gym provide unusual resources and activities that are designed to stimulate creative solutions and connect the expertise of participants from very different backgrounds. This approach is very relevant to the work of nonprofit organizations who are committed to creating solutions for serious social problems and for the funders who are dedicated to provide "venture" capital that allow these solutions to be tried.

A Game-Changer is an innovation that opens a new "frontier"- and brings new options that totally change the way everyone does something. A cell phone and the invention of plastic, for instance, are two examples of game-changing innovations. Making the hunt for either "disruptive" or "incremental" innovations part of the daily work at a company causes an organic growth potential to ensure its future.

I highly recommend this book as an idea stimulator for anyone.

Lafley, A.G. and Charan, Ram, The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation. (c) 2008. Crown Business. New York.

The Six Secrets of Change by Michael Fullan

2008-05-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

Michael Fullan is an academician from Ontario whose specialty is education. This book does not limit itself to school districts; instead it describes his theoretical framework for organizational change. It's a quick read- six 15 page chapters- one chapter for each "secret". But it is not a quick fix. Fullan enjoys nuance and paradox and reasons that leaders who manage positive systemic organizational change must be able to hold opposing ideas in tandem and allow the tensions between them to clash until a creative innovative compromise emerges. My favorite line from the book is: "Paradoxes must be finessed." My second favorite line is: "Riddle: When is a revealed secret still a secret? Answer: When it is heavily nuanced." His recipe for large scale organizational change involves caring for all the constituents well; motivating peer driven mentoring and friendly competition; building capacity; tracking, sharing and systematizing the learning that occurs on the job; a culture of transparency; and what he calls the "metasecret": the system "learns" or incorporates the best results. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. It probably is one to buy and revisit as the ideas percolate past the little grey matter into the place where true understanding happens.

Michael Fullan, The Six Secrets of Change, c. 2008, Jossey-Bass

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

2008-05-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

If you don't understand the bloggisphere this book will introduce you to its history and how it works. This is a practical introduction, somewhat repetitious but helpful.

Debbie Weil, The Corporate Blogging Book, c. 2006 Portfolio Books

Managing the Dragon by Jack Perkowski

2008-05-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

After a decade of building a globally competitive company in China, Jack Perkowski shares his journey in the exceptionally readable book, Managing the Dragon (c) 2008 and published by Crown Business. His honest reflections are well illustrated with stories that don't even try to disguise his misconceptions and mistakes and so the reader is informed about the real challenges and rewards of working in China. While Perkowski has not learned to speak the language, he has paid careful attention to the culture and the way business relationships work in China. This is a must read for anyone who is involved in cross-cultural work.

The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan

2008-05-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is fascinated by how smart people continue to grow their creative analytical skills, this book is a treasure. Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, for much of his career details how his mind developed from an intuition for details to the ability to generalize, adjust economics on a global scale, and make reliable predictions for how economic conditions would unfold. It happened because he was willing to engage and have his pre-suppositions challenged by people from other perspectives and persuasions. Not only does his memoir, The Age of Turbulence, package the world since I have been alive, (He started in business in 1948 and I was born fewer than ten years later) it gives the economics' ingenue a way to start thinking and understanding the current news. His keys to economic growth assume a legal system that protects the rights of individuals to own property, a culture of trust where people honor their words and contracts, and a process of on-going "creative destruction". "Creative destruction" presupposes that when products become obsolete, they are replaced by new ones instead of being maintained in perpetuity. I highly recommend reading this book for a picture of the past 50 years of American economics and political decision makers on the world stage.

Beyond the Bake Sale- The Ultimate School Fund-raising Book by Jean C. Joachim

2008-04-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

Jean Joachim has lived and breathed fund-raising on behalf of P.S. 87 in New York City. She gives very believable stories about how this school community pulls together every year to raise thousands of dollars for the school. The events and strategies they use have been collected by the time of year so that Fall fundraisers are in one section and Spring ones in another. Not only are the ideas easily transferable to other schools, Joachim has given great tips about what works and what doesn't. The energy, enthusiasm and commitment that this school embodies should motivate anyone who is involved with a struggling school. Every PTA, every principal, and every classroom teacher should have and read a copy of this book. My role as a professional grant-writer and a classroom teacher's Grant Mapper touches on fund-raising every day. This book is a tremendous resource. I highly recommend it.

Beyond the Bake Sale: The Ultimate School Fund-raising book by Jean C. Joachim (c) 2003, St. Martin's Press

How to Get Money for your Classroom & School by Frances A. Karnes and Kristen R. Stephens

2008-04-17T07:01:00.001-07:00

Everything about this book is technically correct but lacks a sense of hands-on intimate familiarity with the subject. It's more of a rule book for grant writing, fund raising and money making to benefit classrooms and schools. If you want to know how these processes work this is a good introduction and also has a great list of websites and information about vendors.

How to Get Money for Your Classroom & School by Frances A. Karnes, Ph.D., & Kristen R. Stephens, Ph.D, (c) 2005, Prufrock Press, Inc.

Crime School: Money Laundering by Chris Mathers

2008-04-17T06:53:00.001-07:00

This book is a Canadian Mounty's discussion of how and why criminals launder money. Mathers peppers the text with witty quotations about ethics and crime which give the reader pause and amusement like this one. "If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve" according to G. C. Lichtensberg who lived from 1742-99. The book is a real heads-up about how criminals and terrorists have insinuated themselves throughout the culture. What an eye-opener! This book is a quick read told well and filled with stories of a law enforcement officer whose job was to penetrate the world and minds of money launders by posing as one under cover.

Crime School: Money Laudering by Chris Mathers (c) 2004 Firefly Books

Salem Witch Judge by Eve Laplante

2008-04-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

Samuel Sewall's descendant, Eve Laplante, is the author of this biography. She relies on the many pages of journals and published text that Samuel Sewall produced during his life as well as on family oral history. She attempts to interpret the worldview of this Puritan graduate of Harvard and judge whose thought life hinged on a daily interaction with Biblical text, prayer, and the association of regular events with prophetic import. This approach leads the reader to understand how Sewall first participated as a judge during the Salem witch trials and later repented for his role. Laplante assumes that Sewall's internal compass and way of understanding the world through a Biblical lens was a historic phase of American culture. However, those of us who are privy to conservative evangelical contemporary Americans may recognize ourselves or our friends in Sewall's agonizing reflections and fearful awareness of the watchful eyes of God. What has changed about how American conservative evangelicals may be that we are not touched by death as constantly nor do we live daily with the prospect of our own mortality in center focus. Of Sewall's 14 children, only 11 outlived him. This book is an often uncomfortable description of the thinking that informed the foundations of our American realpolitik and culture.

Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall, by Eve Laplante, (c) 2007, Harper Collins Publishers, New York

Renovate Before You Innovate by Sergio Zyman & Armin A. Brott

2008-03-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is a must read for anyone who is trying to market an organization or a brand. Case studies from major American corporations show strategies that work as well as some that don't. If you are interested in motivating people to do any specific thing like give a donation or become a regular volunteer, you can use the information in this book. It will help you identify what you want someone to feel, how you want them to act, and what you want to achieve as a result. The concepts are well illustrated with charts and graphs that help the reader grasp each point along with a sense of the processes needed to meet the same goals. A lot of time is spent helping to identify and establish a brand that reflects your emotional benefits, your functional benefits, and your attributes that will also be accepted and adopted by your market. Zyman stresses that your growth is a direct function of "your core competencies, your core essence and your assets and infrastructure."
Renovate Before You Innovate by Sergio Zyman and Armin A. Brott is Published by Portfolio (c) 2004.

The Invisible Touch by Harry Beckwith

2008-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

This book challenges traditionally accepted marketing ideas in little bites that connect concepts from seemingly unrelated subject areas to make profound points. It is about marketing services - what you can't see until you buy it - you pay for what will be experienced or created after you commit to pay for it. That is what the word "invisible" refers to in the title. Beckwith offers four keys to modern marketing:

Price
Brand
Packaging
Relationships

He opposes the idea that research produces good data for marketing. He is convinced that all business is personal. Every mini-topic takes only one or two pages and there is usually a motto in bold italics at the end of the section. Here are a few samples: "Make your clients believe they will be satisfied, and they will be, especially if you do it with passion," "Build a brand- Services are sold on faith and brands create faith," and "To win devoted clients, sacrifice." This is a book of marketing wisdom - not a how to manual. Instead, reading it makes you scratch your head and revisit your paradigms. It is a much read by a truly nuanced creative genius.

Harry Beckwith, The Invisible Touch, c. 2000, Warner Books, Inc.

Instant Marketing For Almost Free by Susan F. Benjamin

2008-03-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

This is a quick read for people who are already familiar with marketing concepts. It gives great general advice for how to come up with target customers, branding, creating materials for brochures, direct mailings, email marketing, and websites. Anyone can use the suggestions to help create formats that will work.

(c)2007 by Susan F. Benjamin, published by Sourcebooks, Inc., Naperville, IL.