Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy

Philanthropy is a booming business, with hundreds of billions of dollars committed to the social sector each year. Money Well Spent, an award-winning guide on how to structure philanthropy so that it really makes a difference, offers a comprehensive and crucial resource for individual donors, foundations, non-profits, and scholars who focus on and teach others about this realm.

Behind every successful grant is a smart strategy. Paul Brest and Hal Harvey draw on the experiences of hundreds of foundations and non-profits to explain how to deliver on every dollar. They present the essential tools to help readers create and test effective plans for achieving demonstrable results. Brest and Harvey tackle thorny issues, such as how to choose among different forms of funding, how to measure progress, and when to abandon a project that isn’t working.

The second edition accounts for a decade of progress: a rise in impact investing, the advent of pay-for-success programs, the maturation of impact evaluation, and the emergence of a new generation of mega-donors. Today, the notion of results-driven philanthropy is more important than ever. With this book, the social sector has the techniques it needs to deliver on that idea with impact.