AHP October Literature Review
" Pallotta is a thoughtful businessperson who makes a strong case for why charities are limited in what 'can be.' His thinking is outside the norms in what holds the nonprofit industry back from becoming a stronger and true open market arena. Mr. Pallotta shares that tradition, often a positive in our business, may be the cause of a ceiling on potential outcomes. One question that the world is trained to ask, instead of multiple questions that showcase a more accurate picture about charity outcomes, may be the reason the nonprofit sector is virtually maxed out. Agree or disagree with his attitude and findings, you will no doubt be thinking about how his points affect your profession. And they do."
―Robert May, FAHP, Director, Mission Hospital Foundation
"Uncharitable is one of a spate of books published in the years before the recent global recession that have portrayed untrammeled capitalism as the answer to societal woes. Most of these books have sought to preserve the nonprofit system but sharpen it a bit with a few capitalist tools (e.g., entrepreneurialism, venture philanthropy, etc). Pallotta’s book takes this approach to another level. He wants to redefine the entire nonprofit sector by removing the “restraints” to raising money imposed on it by a morality of “self sacrifice” and freeing charity to operate using practices now only available to business. To quote Pallotta in his original italics: 'We don’t need a separate construction to correct for capitalism. We need capitalism to correct for our irrational construction of charity. Put another way, capitalism isn’t the problem. The lack of it is' (p. 47).
Pallotta’s proposal for 'marrying charity and capitalism”'(p. 178) leads him into controversial territory. Read in the context of today’s headlines, Pallotta’s prescription for change reads like a prescription for failure. Public opinion and political wrath are now aimed at highly compensated business executives, speculative risk taking, unsecured investments and other business practices that contributed to the current recession. These maligned free-market practices are the very same ones that the author wants nonprofits to emulate. Pallotta does not consider in his book that a nonprofit sector that has the same freedoms given to business is also free to suffer its fate.
For all of Pallotta’s disapproval of what he sees as the Puritan roots of American philanthropy, he is writing very much in the same vein as the Puritan preachers he condemns. Pallotta’s book is a jeremiad against a system that wronged him. (The rise and fall of his for-profit fundraising firm “Pallotta TeamWorks” is chronicled in a “case study” at the end of the book). The current system, he laments, is wrong and wronging; if we follow his way out of the wilderness, a new day will dawn: 'In a world,' Pallotta writes, “where we free the nonprofit sector to use the tools of capitalism, we won’t get more materialism, we’ll get more giving. We won’t get a colder world. We’ll get a warmer one. And a smarter world to boot” (p. 180). If you believe in this vision and his prescriptions for achieving it, you’ll love this book.
No matter one’s views on the value of the book’s analysis or proposals for change, none of this will help current healthcare fundraisers find their way through the present economic predicament. But it will make for excellent fodder for academics and their eager graduate students."
―Gary Jaworski, Executive Director, American Hospital of Paris Foundation
"What a difference a year (or two) makes. After some four years of research and writing, the authors published this book to much acclaim. It won awards and accolades in 2007 and 2008 from a number of prominent names in philanthropy, including AOL founder Steve Case and The Economist, which chose it as a 'Top Ten Book of the Year, 2007.'
The book’s case studies of twelve 'great nonprofits' – without a hospital or university or small nonprofit among them – sought to identify not only “what makes a great nonprofit great.” They also sought to define for philanthropists where they should commit their dollars. 'We believe,' the authors write, 'that financial resources in [the philanthropic sector] should be channeled to the highest-impact organizations...' (p. 219). By 'high-impact' they mean nonprofits that have been successful, or have the potential to be successful, at influencing “systemic social change.”
Some funders agreed. Edward Skloot, who was then president of The Surdna Foundation (which helped to underwrite the book’s research, as did the Fannie Mae Foundation, among many others), admonished his fellow grant-makers, 'The six practices [identified in this book] should be your six principles of grantmaking.' Then the recession hit, the system crumbled and the federal government tried to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Funders responded to the crisis appropriately by directing resources to the many smaller nonprofits ignored in this report – the ones focused on serving a local community need rather than those who are also and, perhaps, primarily trying to change the world.
There is nothing like history to humble a thesis. Larger systemic change will have to wait until the current financial and human mess is cleaned up. You may read this book now to help you and your organization get ready for that time."
―Gary Jaworski, Executive Director, American Hospital of Paris Foundation
" 'Mayo' is a well written and worthwhile read if you are looking to gain perspective on how a world-class healthcare system aligns its mission, service and outcomes from top to bottom and across multiple sites. The authors – a former visiting scientist and Mayo’s past chair of marketing – methodically guide the reader through Mayo’s '100 year brand,' organizational history and culture, and the decision-making process during its continuous growth. The book offers particularly good wisdom on leadership, hiring and how to fully tap human potential. Each chapter ends with 3-4 'Lessons for Managers,' all of which are excellent. This book is extremely current for organizations looking to integrate systems and strengthen their team approach to serving patients. By reading 'Mayo' you find out how and why it has become a powerhouse brand."
―Ruth Benedict, Executive Director, Foundation, Finger Lakes Health