THE FOUNDATION A Great American Secret; How Private Wealth is Changing the World JOEL FLEISHMAN

"In his new book The Foundation, Fleishman urges philanthropists to fill in the knowledge gap. He says foundations must share more information with each other, with organizations seeking grants and with the American public, which supports a system that gives foundations special tax advantages."
—Bloomberg.com

"A good book on philanthropy is hard to find. Those who write about foundations tend either to extol or excoriate them. Academic studies lack the pragmatism of real-world experience, and the reminiscences of those who have run a foundation are often overlaid with an unnaturally rosy hue. Happily, Joel Fleishman's new book, The Foundation: A Great American Secret -- How Private Wealth Is Changing the World, departs from this genre, offering instead an honest and enthusiastic assessment of the role foundations play and the ways they play it best. Anchored by solid research from more than 100 interviews with foundation leaders, informed by deep personal experience, suffused with humility, and enlivened by Mr. Fleishman's passion for the subject that is his life's work, this book offers a balanced view of foundations' virtues and faults, along with clear guidance on how to manage a foundation effectively. His book is the most important addition to the literature on philanthropy in many years."
—The Chronicle of Philanthropy

"The Foundation is his critique of philanthropic practice and an agenda for reform. But it is not mere polemic…He is anything but a diehard foundation opponent. He says, rather, that he has been engaged in a lifelong ‘lover's quarrel' with foundations. His book is a form of tough love."
—The Wall Street Journal

"Fleishman provides a useful and judicious…introduction to the ‘third sector of the American economy.'…Passionately and persuasively, Fleishman makes the case for greater accountability."
—Baltimore Sun

"a timely study of the subject…This book has an important role to play by educating the public and encouraging foundations to become more accountable…The Foundation goes a long way toward making the fast-growing philanthropic sector less secretive and its internal workings far less mysterious."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"You've probably never heard of Mr. Fleishman, but it's hard to pick a better envoy of the philanthropic establishment…The sweep of reform proposed in response to such critiques is worrisome. Perhaps Mr. Fleishman is right that the concern is not whether foundations are anti-democratic, but how to keep our democracy from becoming anti-foundation."
—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"You have to give Joel Fleishman credit…he is one of the very few foundation executives, current or past, who has had the interest and courage to write even a moderately critical assessment of the foundation world. His recent book, The Foundation: A Great American Secret; How Private Wealth is Changing the World, is a warm, loving tribute to the large foundations, their donors, and their chief executives."
—The Nonprofit Quaterly

"Fleishman, who may be the world's greatest authority on foundations, studied 100 ‘significant foundation initiatives' in preparation for writing this book. ‘The Foundation' isn't beach-reading, but it is a thoughtful, scholarly, complete discussion of foundations and of the roles they play in ‘powering' the private sector… It is certainly a must-read for the staff and board members of non-profits and for anyone running for public office."
—Fayetteville Observer

"Joel L. Fleishman has spent a lifetime trying to better understand the role the country's more than 50,000 foundations play in America's economic life. He has distilled that knowledge into a new book that sets before the nonprofit sector both the good and bad habits of the foundation world."
-Washington Examiner

"Drawing on more than 100 case studies, Prof. Fleishman illustrates how some are very successful at what they do, and open about what their priorities are—like the Gates Foundation's focus on healthcare in Africa—but they still don't give assessments of their operations…He makes the case that it is perhaps time for newspapers to appoint philanthropy correspondents to dig a bit deeper into this unaccountable sector of civil life—for its own good and that of civil society."
-The Irish Times

"In his new book, The Foundation, Duke University's Joel Fleishman pulls aside the veil of mystery to educate general readers, potential donors, and the ‘philanthropoids' who run these institutions about what foundation's were, are, and should be. He has chosen a uniquely opportune time to do so."
-Democracy: A Journal of Ideas,

"[Fleishman] has written and published about philanthropy for decades. The Foundation, which began receiving publicity long before it was published, is something of a tour de force of examples of philanthropic achievement…With refreshing candor, he says that foundations have been indispensable elements of social progress in the 20th century."
- Stanford Social Innovation Review

"Anyone interested in the world of foundations and the dispersal of private wealth for common good will find this book enlightening and often surprising."
–SeniorWomen.com