Philanthropic practice

2008, 141 pages. Council on Foundations, 2121 Crystal Drive, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22202 (703) 879-0600, www.cof.org

This robust report features a series of essays on aspects of rural philanthropy from a diverse range of perspectives. The conclusion, by Sherece Y. West, alone is worth the price of admission. The report concludes with a summary of funding recommendations from the Council on Foundations Conference on Philanthropy and Rural America: A 21st Century Agenda, held in August 2007 in Montana.

When funders move into indigenous communities they tread a very fine line. On one side of the line they have a duty to undertake sufficient investigation to ensure that they properly understand a funding request and their own role in relation to it. On the other side, obtaining the information may conflict with the ability to acknowledge and give appropriate respect to the applicant's indigenous culture and its bounds.

Nonprofit should be nonexistent—the term, not the type of organization. The time is right to insist on a term that focuses on the investment, risk-taking, and entrepreneurial imagination that have always been so essential to organizations that serve the social good. “Social-profit organizations” is a term that can better capture the contribution made by entities that have too long been known as charities or nonprofit groups…

My first horse was like New Mexico.

On summer grass under an arch of the cottonwoods, no creature could have been more beautiful, at least to my eye. He was a big rangy bay with a white blaze, and he animated the afternoons just by lazing into view. He was an ordinary country gelding, but his long-limbed grace and equine pride conjured a kind of magic. At a hundred yards, when he lifted his head, I could feel his kingly disdain. He was all horse, not an ounce of Flicka, and he could fly over the hills. Not to coin a phrase, but I was enchanted.

2006, 90 pages, Grantmakers for Education, 720 S.W. Washington St., Suite 605, Portland, OR 97205, 503-595-2100, www.edfunders.org

Download pdf: www.educationdonor.org

2006, 336 pages. Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th St, New York, NY 10021, 212-750-6000, info@rsage.org

2007, 15 pages. Americans for the Arts, 1000 Vermont Ave. NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, 202-371-2830, www.americansforthearts.org

Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305

2006, 254 pages. Indiana University Press, 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, IN 47404, iupress.indiana.edu

2006, 250 pages. Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, 617-252-5298, special.markets@perseusbooks.com