Giving Compass' Take:

• Stanford Social Innovation Review offers a collection of its most popular book reviews and excerpts of social impact and philanthropy reads in 2018.

• From women's inequality to elitism in philanthropy, the list is varied. Which book inspired you most?

• Read the Giving Compass 2018 Recommended Reads from philanthropy experts. 

A collection of some of Stanford Social Innovation Review's most popular book reviews and excerpts published in 2018:

  • Are the Elite Hijacking Social Change?  In Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Anand Giridharadas condemns the mindset of philanthropists who seek to create social good while retaining their own power and privilege.
  •  Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference Given the choice, all organizations would favor dedicating resources to amplifying their impact over mere survival. Stanford lecturer Kathleen Kelly Janus asks more than 100 social entrepreneurs, academics, and philanthropists across the country about the key to nonprofits' triumphs, summarizing her observations in Social Startup Success
  • A New Framework for Sustainability In All In, David Grayson, Chris Coulter, and Mark Lee argue that social sector leaders should work closely with global companies to achieve the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In this excerpt, the authors explore the attributes of sustainable leadership that can make this happen.
  • Domesticity's Gross Product In Equality for Women = Prosperity for All, Augusto Lopez-Claros and Bahiyyih Nakhjavani explore the many economic and social implications of global gender inequality, arguing that it's not just a moral failing but also a waste of resources.
  • How “Charity” Became Philanthropy  In this excerpt from his book Braided Threads, Robert Penna, who has served as an outcomes and performance consultant to the United Nations, Charity Navigator, and the World Scout Bureau, traces how the historical shift from charity to philanthropy took place.
  • The Invisible Care of Women Conditional cash transfers are lauded by many as an effective tool for facilitating development. But through her ethnographic fieldwork, Tara Patricia Cookson demonstrates how these cash payments impose unfair burdens on women and often become “a coercive exercise of authority.”

Read the full article about philanthropy book list by Jasmine Liu at Stanford Social Innovation Review