Giving

September 15, 2007
From his vantage as a former president and now head of a charitable foundation, Clinton presents a broad portrait of the myriad ways that individuals can make sincere efforts to change the world for the better. Along with high profile givers, such as Oprah Winfreys Angel Network and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Clinton highlights social consciousness funds that see their work as an investment in human capital by funding medicine and improved health care in impoverished nations. Clinton offers a fascinating array of givers encompassing both young and old, the famous and the obscure, the wealthy and those with modest means. Among the profiles: an 87-year-old black washerwoman who gave $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to fund scholarships for black students; the Kiva nongovernmental organization that allows donors to contributemicro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations; children collecting coins to provide aid to Hurricane Katrina victims; and a millionaire who funds chess programsin underprivileged public schools. Clinton also shares his own postpresidential experiences volunteering through his foundation in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. He concludes with a compelling argument for why people of all economic, philosophical, or religious backgrounds should give more. This is a challenge to everyone to find a way to give to some worthy cause.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)