An insider's view exposing the most urgent issue in US big giving—and how to address it
With Americans increasingly concerned about billionaires controlling our public funds and everyday lives, Glen Galaich—social impact expert, nonprofit leader, and Stupski Foundation CEO—delivers his personal conversion story from believing in strong, consolidated donor power to advocating for more community engagement in foundation funding decisions. In Control: Why Big Giving Falls Short, Galaich offers an incisive critique of the United States' approach to charitable Big Giving and its systems and culture that, he argues, encourage excessive donor control.
Most people don't realize (or don't want to talk about) why today $2 trillion in US charitable funds are essentially stockpiled by big donors and foundations too focused on growing endowments through for-profit investments rather than the timely, vital disbursement of these funds back to our communities and nonprofits. Galaich introduces us to the system-wide "Mindset of Control" that allows continued, outsized influence of major donors over charitable assets legally and ethically no longer their money. He discusses how financial and legal systems, combined with outdated traditions, have given big donors a false sense of ownership over effectively public assets, and kept private foundations and donor-advised funds from comprehensively engaging communities. It's a role in the system that Galaich questions if many big donors even want to play.
Inside the book:
- Revealing examples of how excessive donor control maintains an ineffective culture of Big Giving and limits community engagement
- Storytelling that holds a mirror up to the sector’s behaviors, myths, and "fake rules" that impede social progress for working-class and perennially under-resourced communities
- A rare peek into the inner workings of private foundations and how grantmaking decisions are made behind the closed doors of nontransparent institutions
Galaich says the good news is that we created this system, and we can change it. Control offers first steps toward a game-changing shift in this massive sector that affects everyone, showing new roles we can play and fairer mindsets. Challenging and principled, Control is essential reading for anyone interested in this country's socioeconomic trends or in changing our world.
Table of Contents:
The Mindset of Trust: A Foreword by Ibram X. Kendi xi
Foreword by Katherine Lorenz xv
The Author's Preface (and Disclaimer) xix
Introduction: A Repeatedly Missed Opportunity 1
Chapter 1: The Mindset of Control—"It's My Money, After All" 23
Chapter 2: Building the Mindset of Control—"So . . . What's Important to ME?" 41
Chapter 3: Reinforcing the Mindset—"As Loyal Friends and Family, Our Role in this Work Is to Protect the Family Legacy" 63
Chapter 4: Walled In—"The CEO as Gatekeeper (and Therapist) for the Donor" 83
Chapter 5: Questioning the Mindset—"Why Isn't This Working Better?" 101
Chapter 6: Cracks in the Mindset—"Let's Engage the Community in Our Process" 131
Chapter 7: More Cracks—"Let's Go All-In on Mission" 163
Chapter 8: The Wall Crumbles—"Let's Prioritize Humanity over Perpetuity" 179
Conclusion: Break Fake Rules—"Moving from Control to Engagement" 199
Research Appendix 215
Notes 217
Acknowledgments 223
About the Author 227
Index 229
