In Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow?, social sector veteran Joel L. Fleishman, director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at Duke University, examines the two sides of the question, finding strengths — and weaknesses — in both approaches and ultimately concluding that the correct answer is not either/or but both/and.

While Fleishman spends a good chunk of the book outlining the various rationales for "giving while living" and highlighting the impressive work of such limited-life foundations as Atlantic Philanthropies (which he served as president from 1993 to 2001) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (which will sunset twenty years after the deaths of the Gateses), his affinity clearly is for foundations established in perpetuity and the "indispensable role" they have played in "collecting, testing, and refining the knowledge relevant to their respective missions, preserving and enhancing the utility of that knowledge, and passing it along to future generations."

Seasoned veteran that he is, Fleishman immerses his readers in case studies, expert perspectives, and an even-handed consideration of both sides of the argument, so that by the end of the book they are likely to conclude that giving is a very personal affair for which there is no one-size-fits-all model. Rather, donors need to base their decisions on an honest assessment of their financial resources, the nature of the problem(s) they would like to address, and their goals.

Read the full article about Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow by Nick Opinsky at Philanthropy News Digest.