With Charity for All: Why Charities Are Failing and a Better Way to Give
Stern, corporate executive and former CEO of NPR, tells the story of how the charitable sector in the U.S. has lost its way because of the absence of market mechanisms that reward good work and punish failure. His research uncovered organizational and service failures in charities that refused to evaluate their programs and ignored poor results. There are approximately 1.4 million charities in this country with a workforce of 13 million and volunteers numbering 61 million; revenues total more than $1.5 trillion annually. “Charitable activity accounts for 10 percent of the economic life of this country,” says the author, seeing hope in a small movement that is currently rethinking how charities operate, and he is optimistic that tools will be developed so that contributors to charities will become investors rather than donors. Stern emphasizes that social investing takes work and urges donors to look beyond clever marketing campaigns for organizations that are transparent and accountable to stakeholders. Important and thought-provoking analysis. --Mary Whaley