Be the Change

October 27, 2008
With a light dose of narrative background and a heavy emphasis on an interview format, Endlich (Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success
) allows philanthropists to voice their passion for large-scale charitable organizing and giving. The author’s subjects are an illustrious bunch, including Melinda Gates and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, and they champion such diverse causes as autism, poverty in Ethiopia, job training for the inner-city poor and need-based educational scholarships for college. Endlich keeps her treatment balanced by focusing on initial project failures and challenges as well as successes and brilliantly pulls together the common threads and motivations of these profiled philanthropists. The financiers, entrepreneurs and even one Olympian all agree that their extraordinary luck in life and ability to empathize factored heavily into their desire to give back in a big way to those in need; it is giving that adds a “narrative” to their lives. Given the excesses in corporate America and on Wall Street lately, this heartening book proves that even the most successful individuals in business can also devote themselves to something that “touched them so profoundly that they could not turn away.”

November 15, 2008
Endlich ("Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success") here profiles 11 contemporary philanthropists whose efforts are especially noteworthy. According to Endlich, "Everyone profiled in this book can point to a moment when their compassion turned into giving; when their giving, into full-blown philanthropy where something touched them so profoundly they could not turn away." Those profiled include commodity trader Paul Tudor Jones, Melinda Gates (wife of Microsoft's Bill Gates), former CEO of NBC Universal Bob Wright and his wife, Peter Bloom (managing director of a global investment firm), and former Olympic speed skater Johann Olav Koss. Each profile presents a short biography of the philanthropist and the reasons he or she got involved with a specific cause, followed by a transcript of an interview conducted by Endlich. The profiles are all compelling and inspirational, and they effectively capture the passion each has for his or her cause. Endlich provides citations and a bibliography of books and web sites of the featured philanthropic organizations. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.Lucy T. Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., NY

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2008
Endlich, author and philanthropist, presents 11 interviews of notable philanthropists who have created something new through their efforts in enlightened giving. The author sets out to distill the characteristics shared by these successful and generous donors, including Paul Tudor Jones, Melinda Gates, and Connie Duckworth. Many of these donors created their own wealth rather than inherited it and, with their spouses, share their abundance because they view it as luck or a blessing. They start out giving to causes nearest to them and then move on to peoples lives far removed, knowing that most profound changes may be decades away and elude easy measurement. An anonymous Wall Street executive who with his wife is heavily involved in AIDS research explained, In the last years of our lives, in the middle of this century, I dont want to look back and feel like I sat there during the greatest health care crisis of my lifetime . . . and did little or nothing. I want to be in the game.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)