Paul Brest

In this book Brest and Harvey provide a guide to large scale strategic giving. The book defines strategic philanthropy and discusses various approaches to strategic giving. It covers the gamut from setting goals to evaluating grant proposals to techniques beyond grant making.

The key point of this book is that strategic giving focuses on investing for impact and social return on investment with a strong focus on evaluation. Although the authors make clear that not all initiatives can be show more evaluated quantitatively and social impact can rarely be perfectly predicted, doing the best you can to define the expected impact and evaluate the result will help grant makers to spend their dollars more effectively.

As former a member of a grant committee, I found the most useful chapters to be those on goal setting and grant application evaluation. Other chapters were interesting but less relevant to me. Some chapters, such as the chapter on using advocacy to meet philanthropic goals, were not at all relevant to my grant making work. And, perhaps not surprisingly, if you are not doing large scale grant making, you will likely find the book uninteresting.

One concept discussed which has applicability beyond philanthropy is the idea of a sound theory of change. A strategy for change should be backed by a well supported theory of change. A theory of change connects what you are doing with what you want to accomplish. Without a well established theory of change, your actions are likely to be ineffective or even harmful.

Defining a theory of change also provides a departure point when examining failure: if a program did not have an intended effect, it could be because the program was not implemented properly or it could be because the theory of change which connected the two was faulty.

Since I learned about this concept, I have been trying to apply it in my evaluation of proposals for things like fixing the economy. Instead of evaluating the idea directly, I first try to assess what the theory of change behind it is. Although I have not had many chances to use this approach, it seems promising for increasing my understanding and encouraging more fruitful discussion. show less

With a lead quote from Bill Gates that assures one that the book is an invaluable resource how you can go wrong. But, A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy does not seem to have much to say to a person whose checks to the Red Cross are a lot on the small side.
However, the book proved to be instructive and even quite interesting. I had sort of had this mental image that if a person had a good sum of money finding good places to put it would not be a problem. Wrong, the book gives some real show more life horror stories of how people with the best intentions did some very real harm.
The Text, for it comes complete with endnotes, is divided into three parts. The first and longest being the overall framework of Philanthropy as seen from a Strategic viewpoint. This is followed by two shorter sections on what might be called the tactics. The first on the Tools of the Trade and the last on Organizing Your Resources.
I was a little surprised to find much in the work that was of good use. The explanation of cost benefit calculations is quite understandable and would be of value to anyone who was looking at doing an expected return calculation. This leads into the concept of social return on investment which is probably the key concept of the work.
In the nuts and bolts section there is good advice for the average person like me. Methods of getting the most out of your own small checks are well explained and useful. I found the book to be far more interesting and a much more entertaining read than I had expected. Overall – a good book. show less

Overall the book is excellent reading. The strength of the Brest and Harvey book lies in its application to a wide range of philanthropic entities and various levels of experience from an individual writing checks to a large foundation. The basic message from the authors is that all philanthropy has the possibility to be strategic, and all those philanthropic funds have the potential to be “money well spent.”
One criticism I could be make from someone who has written grants is that the show more book is written entirely from a grantmaker’s perspective. A crucial part of successful philanthropy-and Brest and Harvey would no doubt agree-is effective collaboration with grantees.Some discussion of how this can be done effectively, with particular attention to the viewpoints and needs of nonprofit institutions would help . show less

I expected this book to be more about how, for non-profit people, to make money, but it was instead about how to spend it, and to spend it well....

While I don't really have much money to spend, well, none, after paying back student loans, I found this book an interesting and helpful read, and more actually found it quite helpful to learn how to improve my non-profit so philanthropists can be more drawn to it.