Average customer rating:
- The interviews are descriptive and the pictures are intense.
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Voices from the Heart: In Celebration of America's Volunteers
Brian O'Connell
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Photojournalism
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Volunteer Work
| Job Hunting & Careers
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Nonprofit Organizations & Charities
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Work
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0811821250 |
Book Description
An unprecedented pro bono effort by Jossey-Bass Publishers and Chronicle Books.
Americans young and old, rich and poor, in cities and in rural areas, from all faiths and races, come together to volunteer.
Voices from the Heart is a tribute to this spirit of giving and the ideal of community. Author Brian O'Connell and editor Rebecca Buffam Taylor present a moving portrait of compassion at work. We meet volunteers from across the country and hear their passionate voices speak about what they do and why. Compelling images by leading photojournalists add to the story of each volunteer's work and its rich rewards.
A nonprofit joint Andeavor by Chronicle Books, Jossey-Bass Publishers, and major national foundations, profits from the sale of Voices from the Heart will go to INDEPENDENT SECTOR, a nonprofit group dedicated to America's volunteer organizations.
Everyone who gives time and effort to help other people or important causes will appreciate this homage to the manifold benefits of volunteering.
Customer Reviews:
The interviews are descriptive and the pictures are intense........1998-11-17
Brian O'Connell's Voices From The Heart, profiles 25 active volunteers from around the United States. The volunteers range in age and all are working on a variety of projects that help make the world a better place. The new book is perfect for a coffee table or holiday gift. I read many profiles on my way back from San Francisco and I couldn't put the book down.
Book Description
In Nonprofit Nation, the new edition of his classic work, O'Neill takes a fresh look at the nonprofit sector and the power it has to use its growing visibility and strength. Like the first edition, this new book is an up-to-date, comprehensive guide to understanding the nonprofit sector. Identifying and examining the major nonprofit subsectors-health care, arts, social service, and religious organizations, for example-and detailing their particular concerns and impact enable O'Neill to explore their influence on business, government and society. The new edition also features:
- Expanded sections on scope and impact
- Updated and enlarged statistical information
- New insights on the development of the nonprofit sector
- A new section on theories of the nonprofit sector
Customer Reviews:
Nonproft Nation Review.......2006-03-10
This is a fantastic book. It is filled with thought provoking statistics and charts, accompanied by an easy to read history of the multi-faceted nonprofit sector.
Good Resource for Strategic Thinkers and the Curious.......2005-04-26
This book does a great job of answering basic questions about nonprofits and the nonprofit sector. It also analyzes each segment of the nonprofit sector and brings out some key data and observations about each one. Finally, it seeks to look into the future of nonprofits. Anyone interested in the sector, and especially nonprofit executive directors, consultants, and others who should be involved in global nonprofit strategy will find this book to be a valuable resource.
The first striking lesson I learned from Dr. O'Neill's book is that, while the nonprofit sector has been growing significantly in the past 30 years, in many ways it has just kept pace with the rest of the economy. Personal, corporate, and foundation giving are remarkably stable, and the percentage of charity dollars given by donors to segments such as education, health care, the arts, and international causes have remained constant since the 1970s. Even the growth in the number of new nonprofits seeking IRS recognition has been relatively constant (in percentage terms) since at least the early 1980s.
The dollar totals change, but the percentages are constant. Knowing this prompts important questions about how charities plan, how and whether they solicit for funds, and where likely support is to be found for new initiatives.
Dr. O'Neill doesn't shrink from acknowledging the vast amount we don't know about the nonprofit sector. Anyone analyzing the data recognize that policymakers and researchers alike are making best guesses rather than reaching definite conclusions in many areas of analysis. We're a long way from having "census" data on the nonprofit sector.
There are almost 1 million charities recognized by the IRS, but we don't know for sure how many are active and how many are defunct. There are almost 2 million nonprofits of all types (charities plus churches, labor unions, chambers of commerce, private clubs, etc.) that the IRS lists. The Form 990 returns -- that only IRS-recognized charities with revenue greater than $25,000 are required to file -- are works of interpretation by filers as well as researchers.
In fact, much nonprofit activity occurs outside record-keeping capabilities. Giving a friend's child the money to attend college, organizing a softball team, or countless other activities never reach the level of IRS recognition, much less scrutiny. We can study what we know, and guess about the rest based on other data sources.
Dr. O'Neill has done an admirable job of interpreting these other sources, adding the IRS and other government data, and presenting a plausible picture of the nonprofit economy.
Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America.......2004-11-29
Don't waste your time! If you want to read a boring, poorly researched book of statistics at least four years old, then I suggest you buy it. But the statistics are even out of date. If you have lived on this planet for a few years, you already know about the examples he uses. Pathetic writing. If for some reason the examples are new to you don't trust them. He says Ralph Nader advocated for a safer Chevrolet Corvette. If the author doesn't know it was a Chevrolet Corvair, then he is clueless! Read Greater Good by Claire Gaudiani if you want to learn something.
Book Description
Like the arteries of a living organism, nonprofit organizations carry a life force that has long been a centerpiece of American culture-a faith in the capacity of individual action to improve the quality of human life. They embody two seemingly contradictory impulses at the heart of American character: a deep-seated commitment to freedom and individual initiative and an equally fundamental realization that people live in communities and consequently have responsibilities that extend beyond themselves. Uniquely among American institutions, those in the nonprofit sector blend these competing impulses, creating a special class of entities dedicated to mobilizing private initiative for the common good.
While they are celebrated as a fundamental part of the American heritage, nonprofit organizations have recently confronted an extraordinary range of challenges-significant demographic shifts, fundamental changes in public policy and public attitudes, new commercial impulses, massive technological developments, and changes in lifestyle. Although nonprofit America has responded with creativity to many of these challenges, the responses have pulled the sector in directions that are, at best, poorly understood and, at worst, corrosive of its special character and role. But little headway has been made in tracking these developments systematically, in assessing their impact, and in getting the results into the hands of nonprofit practitioners, policymakers, the press, and the public at large.
This book is intended to fill this gap, to offer an overview of the state of America's nonprofit sector, and to identify the changes that might be needed to promote its long-term health. To do so, it assembles a set of original essays prepared by leading authorities on key components of the American nonprofit scene and on the key trends affecting their evolution. The result is the first integrated account of a set of institutions that we have long taken for granted, but that Alexis de Tocqueville recognized more than 175 years ago to be "more deserving of our attention" than any other part of the American experiment.
Customer Reviews:
Great!.......2007-10-08
Great book! Since it is the textbook for the class I am taking, I find the information helpful and relevant to the subject matter. The text is well-written and resourceful.
Awesome book for anyone interested in entering the nonprofit field.......2006-02-25
Excellent book for anyone interested in working for a nonprofit organization and anyone who will someday want to start one of their own.
Book Description
Like the arteries of a living organism, nonprofit organizations carry a life force that has long been a centerpiece of American culture—a faith in the capacity of individual action to improve the quality of human life. They embody two seemingly contradictory impulses at the heart of American character: a deep-seated commitment to freedom and individual initiative and an equally fundamental realization that people live in communities and consequently have responsibilities that extend beyond themselves. Uniquely among American institutions, those in the nonprofit sector blend these competing impulses, creating a special class of entities that Alexis de Tocqueville recognized more than 175 years ago to be "more deserving of our attention" than any other part of the American experiment.
Until very recently, little headway had been made in tracking developments to the nonprofit sector systematically, in assessing the impact they are having, and in getting the results into the hands of the nonprofit practitioners, policymakers, the press, and the public at large. Lester Salamon helped close that information gap by compiling a comprehensive volume titled The State of Nonprofit America (Brookings). This book, which grew out of the larger project, provides an accessible overview of the sector to non-scholarly readers. It paints a broad and clear picture of the state of America's nonprofit sector while identifying the changes that might be needed to promote its long-term health. The result is a concise and convincing testament to the scope, significance, and determination of America's nonprofits.
Customer Reviews:
A seminal work of articulate scholarship.......2004-01-14
The Resilient Sector: The State Of Nonprofit America by Lester M. Salamon (Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies) is a critical and instructive analysis of America's nonprofit organizations as they operate in the country today. Tracing their resilience in response to turbulent challenges, and postulating that the private sector's very flexibility may yet prove its Achilles heel in that it undermines the nonprofit sector's ability to do what must be done, The Resilient Sector is well-researched, thought-provoking, a seminal work of articulate scholarship and very highly recommended reading for anyone involved with or donating to charitable, political, social issue, or religious non-profit organizations whether they are local, regional, or national.
Book Description
Chad Pregracke was a high school student when he first glimpsed the trash that littered the bottom of the Mississippi, a shocking sight that launched him on a quest to clean up the river. After four discouraging years seeking government help without success, he decided to take his fund-raising private—and a corporate sponsor decided to take a chance on this naive but unshakably determined young man.
Ten years later Chad's one-man project has grown into a $500,000 operation with more than 60 sponsors (including National Geographic). His work has been featured on national news and won numerous honors and accolades, but its grassroots, can-do spirit still thrives aboard the 135-foot barge that serves as home base for his organization, a floating environmental classroom, and an inspiration to people of all ages.
This is the story of his personal triumph as an advocate for America's rivers. Chad measures success in tons of garbage removed and thousands of people with a new stake in—and a new understanding of—the river environment. But From the Bottom Up is much more as well: a first-person chronicle of Chad's own life along the Mississippi featuring colorful characters, a near-death experience, a haunted swamp, and other flourishes worthy of a modern Mark Twain; and a fascinating portrait of the river itself which explores everything from the natural history of mussels and catfish to Indian lore to the key role of the Mississippi in our country's history.
Customer Reviews:
We need more people like this! .......2007-08-23
It's a great book that details how one person saw a need for change no matter what it took. Chad perservered (and continues to) and has created this movement that draws in sponsors, staff and volunteers who are happy and willing to help with enthusiasim. It's very well written and makes for a good read. Thanks Chad and Jeff - keep up the good work!
Fantastic! .......2007-06-15
I could not be more engaged in the book than I am - it is so thrilling and to read about the experiences they have had it makes you wish that you could have been there! It is just excellent! I love it - and I'm so excited when I carry the book somewhere and people ask me what I'm reading because I can't wait to tell people some of the CRAZY things that have happened to Chad and his crew.
ANYONE could read this book and thoroughly enjoy it - I even share parts of the book with my 6 year old son who can't wait to get back out the XStream Clean up this year!
It's amazing how he can take something seemingly so mundane as picking up garbage - write a book about it - and it is just an amazing adventure!
Rising to the Top.......2007-05-29
"From the Bottom Up" is an enormously impressive account of the prodigious effort and success of Chad Pregracke and his clean-up team to take on a difficult and necessary problem in our environment.
Our world needs this motivation, talent, work, and hands-on planning to protect our planet. Jeff Barrow's excellent writing makes the information flow easily and captivates the reader's interest. The dedicated and hard-working team forces attention to rise to the top of our consciousness and educates the reader on the necessity of cleaning up our waterways, taking responsibility for our environment, and stimulates our will to do it.
Great, very entertaining story about one man's idea and his ability to get thousands to help........2007-05-01
It's hard to write an accurate description of this book, let alone Chad Pregracke's accomplishments. Do you measure it in the number (545) of refrigerators he's pulled from rivers? Do you measure it in the number (15,991) of tires his group has pulled up? Or possibly by the number (1) of horse's heads he's pulled from the river? Combine these stats with tons of press coverage alongside a trip to the White House to receive an award alongside Rudy Giuliani and Bill and Melinda Gates and you've got a very good story.
Over the past 10 years Chad has assembled a group of volunteers, sponsors, and genuinely interesting people to help him accomplish a daunting goal of cleaning up America's rivers. This has extended into an audacious goal of planting a million trees and educating thousands of students on his "floating classroom."
This book will give you an inspiring, very entertaining snapshot of how it was done and even gives you a quick blueprint of how to do something in your own area. Read it for an inspiring portrait of a true original who started with a small idea and turned it into a national movement.
It's a real CRUSADE - action - danger - adventure & comic relief!.......2007-04-27
This is an amazing story with never a dull moment. Chad has to be one of the most tenacious persons on the face of the earth! The obstacles he overcame were numerous and the spirit he faced them with was awe inspiring. They don't call it the Mighty Mississippi for no reason. Chad's fabulous sensce of humor comes shining through from this self appointed trash talking, picking, sorting, recycling dude.
Book Description
Do you want to become a volunteer but feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of organizations to choose from? Look no further than this revised edition of the bestselling book Make a Difference!
Complied and written by Arthur Blaustein, adjunct professor of social and urban policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and faculty advisor for its Americorps program, this guide offers valuable information for everyone inspired to give back to their communities. Make a Difference will help you find innumerable opportunities to put your expertise and talents to good use.
This revised and expanded guide includes more than 185 national, nonprofit organizations that use volunteers of all ages to make a difference where it counts. Make a Difference also lists 30 organizations that give up-to-date information on critical issues and policies. Whether you want to tutor a child or an adult, promote a cause you care about, or get hands-on experience at an organization's headquarters, Make a Difference will inspire you to get out there and make a difference in your community--and your life.
Customer Reviews:
Contribute Your Time & Expertise.......2005-12-22
Let's not wait for government or someone else to solve all the problems. Take action yourself.
There are so many ways one can improve their community. If your concern is crime, then join the neighborhood watch group. Perhaps you worry that the community's past is slipping away. Train as a docent for the local history museum.
If you don't know where to start, consult this directory for dozens of opportunities to make a difference.
Don't Waste Your Money - Buy Another Book.......2004-07-29
This book touts itself on the cover as being America's Guide to Volunteering and Community Service, but it comes across instead as being a scathing political commentary, spending way too much time bashing President Bush before it even gets into the guide portion of the book, which is a scant resource, at best.
If it stuck to being a comprehensive guide about volunteering and community service it might have actually lived up to its title. If I had only browsed through it in a bookstore before buying it online. Oh well. Live and learn. Very offensive to any republican volunteers, in my opinion. Tossing it in the trash right now.
A handy-dandy guide to getting involved.......2004-05-04
"Make a Difference" is an easy-to-read guide about volunteering with hundreds of community-based organizations. Blaustein does a fabulous job organizing the organizations by subject matter so readers can easily find opportunities that suit their interests. This book makes a fabulous gift for high schoolers, college students, and adults looking to make a difference.
It does make a difference.......2004-04-21
Make a Difference is a unique and important book. It's especially for young people and those retired or thinking about it; as well as those of us in between who can always find a few hours a month to help better our communities and public institutions. The young, in particular, need to learn about the responsibility of citizenship and the workings of democracy. If I were President I'd scrap the Star Wars anti-missile system (that scientists say won't work anyhow) and use the money to give out this book to every high school and college student in the country. And use the left-over to increase the salary of teachers who teach American history and Civics. That would be far more patiotic than wearing a flag in my lapel.
one-stop shopping for the seeking volunteer.......2004-04-20
An excellent comprehensive listing of national organizations whose doors are wide open and welcoming to compassionate individuals looking to make a difference in their communities. The book is sliced and diced by issue area, making it easy to navigate, and the contact information for each organization listed makes it easy to get moving. Dispersed throughout the book are personal accounts of the positive impact community service has on the community as well as the individual. Makes a great gift - for yourself or someone you love!
Average customer rating:
- How to Destroy a Charity's Reputation
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The United Way Scandal: An Insider's Account of What Went Wrong and Why (Nonprofit Law, Finance, and Management Professional)
John S. Glaser
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Nonprofit Organizations & Charities
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Industrial
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| AIDS
| Abuse
| Adults
| Aging
| Children
| Class
| Communities
| Culture
| Death
| General
| History
| Leisure
| Marriage & Family
| Medicine
| Men
| Occupational
| Race Relations
| Religion
| Research & Measurement
| Rural
| Social Groups
| Social Situations
| Social Theory
| Suburban
| Urban
| Women
ASIN: 0471591149 |
Customer Reviews:
How to Destroy a Charity's Reputation.......2006-07-25
If you are looking for the kind of scandal reporting that titillates, this book will probably disappoint you. John Glaser has written a rather scholarly report on how Bill Aramony ruined the public image of the organization he devoted several decades to building. Although Glaser does mention Aramony's much-rumored womanizing, he focuses more on his achievements, his arrogance, and the failure of others to stop his mistakes.
The book tries to be both a narrative of one man's rise to infamy AND a textbook for nonprofit professionals. Those who are responsible for managing or overseeing charities should read this book for its valuable lessons. Other readers may want to skim over the scholarly research and concentrate on the story of how power can corrupt a brilliant man who originally sought to excel at public service but became too convinced of his own infallibility.
I purchased this book because I once worked for United Way of America, but left long before the 1992 scandal so was curious to read the inside story. I knew John Glaser and Bill Aramony. I liked and respected Glaser. He has written an honest and valuable book.
Average customer rating:
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Theatre Profiles 9: The Illustrated Reference Guide to America's Nonprofit Professional Theatres (Theatre Profiles)
Terence Nemeth
Manufacturer: Theatre Communications Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
| Humor
| Movies
| Music
| Performing Arts
| Pop Culture
| Puzzles & Games
| Radio
| Sheet Music & Scores
| Television
General
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Directories
| Catalogs & Directories
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1559360070 |
Book Description
Identifies and explores the major nonprofit subsectors and describes the unique concerns, trAnds, funding issues, policy questions, and historical development of each.
Books:
- Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
- We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, Sixth Shorter Edition
- What's Going on Down There?: Answers to Questions Boys Find Hard to Ask
- Wisdom of the Elders: Sacred Native Stories of Nature
- Without Smoking Gun: Was the Death of Lt. Cmdr. William Pitzer Part of the JFK Assassination Cover-up Conspiracy?
- YOU: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger
- America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
- America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power
- American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
- American Foundations: An Investigative History
Books Index
Books Home
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