The best Nonprofit Organizations & Charities books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

I would strongly recommend the book called: "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond The Non-Profit Industrial Complex" It is a collection of essays about the history and function of non-profits in America. If you do read it, feel free to skip the first essay in the book. It is very difficult to read. That other essays are all much better and you will definitely learn a lot about how the wealthy have used non-profits to prevent meaningful social and economic change.

https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Will-Not-Funded-Non-Profit/dp/0822369001

Just for some context, the Citations Needed Podcast recently discussed Gates and his foundation and had someone on who wrote a book critical of his foundation.

Here is the podcast and Here is the book.

These UN councils and commissions are usually a forum for states to interact with various nonprofits and NGOs. These organizations purport to be philanthropic, but their true material function is to serve as liaisons between government control and private sector wealth. They funnel public money into private hands, and they also redirect the energies of threatening social-justice movements from below into activities and agendas that increase state (and capitalist) power, like for example using womens' liberation to justify imperialism, or using "anti-harrassment" to justify censorship and beef up the surveillance and police state.

Yes, but...

That's the entire history of philanthropy.

Check out https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Will-Not-Funded-Non-Profit/dp/0822369001

My grandmother used one called River Road Recipes. Here is the Amazon link.

The Cajun Ninja is a great Youtube cooking channel.

This. Humanity as a whole is immeasurably better now than at any point in our history. Like not even close. It’s just that we’re bombarded with negative news so frequently via entertainment news and social media. It overwhelms a lot of people.

Unplug and find hobbies and interests you enjoy, and make sure you’re surrounded by positive people. If there’s something you don’t like in your own life, change it.

Fantastic book too:

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think (Exponential Technology Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/145161683X/

No, he’s really not, but he’s paying a lot to make you think so.

Recommended reading: No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784786233/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_4D58SM17YMSWBR8JPM7H

I like this book. There’s obviously some differences/specifics to government employment that it doesn’t cover, but I think the basic principles are sound.

Read a book called Abundance.

Not only has global hunger and poverty reached a ridiculous low, we are making way more food than we know what to do with.

I would also recommend River broad Recipes for southern Louisiana/Cajun style cooking

River Road Recipes are great.

https://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Recipes-Textbook-Louisiana/dp/0961302682/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?adgrpid=59694724247&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9p_x_YS4-QIVwRfUAR1KIQR9EAAYASAAEgJQ1vD_BwE&hvadid=274677106284&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9027719&hvnetw=g&a...

Economics is non zero sum. https://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-Logic-Destiny-Robert-Wright/dp/0679758941?ref_=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=ef60b7d9-d157-4d9a-90d4-fcd43ebcede4

Instead of always attacking the billionaires we should all become billionaires. Then maybe we'd all have a little more empathy for them too

River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961302682/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_9FCHC3PWP1GV65NE714C

Talk About Good Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0935032029/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_KJHEXN1P7ATZXV1449HZ

For more basic/beginner, less pretentious/ambitious Louisiana recipes try

River Road Recipes or Talk About Good

These are tried and true recipes collected from the people who used them to feed their families, not from a professional chef. They were both originally published in the late 50s and are still in print today.

Yes. He’s incredible. He does a great job of incorporating the German influence in his cooking.

And there are so many more. LA has so many James beard award winners and hundreds of thousands of people come here every year just to eat and enjoy our culture. OP can google that and come up with a ton of chefs that have published recipes.

Also - river road recipes is an amazing cookbook for the region. Produced by the BR junior league - lots of good basic/classic dishes.

https://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Recipes-Textbook-Louisiana/dp/0961302682

So, you get your history from comics?

Here, go read this one ... https://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-Logic-Destiny-Robert-Wright/dp/0679758941

I promise you, it's not about capitalism or communism, it's about anthropology and group behavior, as polities get larger and larger.

Here's a book that's critical of the Foundation, though I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

One of the big problems I've noticed is that the Foundation tends to take credit for work that a lot of others do. For instance, a lot of people on Reddit will give Gates credit for eliminating Polio. But if you go look at the case numbers, 98-99% of the cases were eliminated by other efforts by the time The Gates Foundation got involved, and when they did get involved they were merely assisting the other groups that actually got successful. You have a lot of people now telling you that government efforts don't work, look at how Gates succeeded where the government failed. So their self-promotion is causing support to slip from efforts that actually did almost all of the work.

Gates is also one more example of incompetent leadership in the U.S. Read what he was saying about Covid at the end of February. He was completely ignorant of the way developed countries in the West were completely unprepared, and was instead simply writing about how poorer countries should be supported and vaccines should be worked on.

yeah you are correct and I am in agreement with you. if you want to check out a systematic critique of the recuperation of radical voices into harmless functionaries fine-tuning the status quo so it doesn't implode, check out https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Will-Not-Funded-Non-Profit/dp/0822369001

Ugh, these people.

I hear this a lot too, and how people are ruining the world and how this is the "actual" hell or how people are a scourge, or that there are too many people in the world, or whatever. These also are some of the most pessimistic people I know. :)

First, "good" and "bad" are up to the individual to decipher. Is it "good" we cut down trees? Maybe. They won't be part of a forest fire if we do. We can use that wood to build houses. Or paper for school. Or tools, or boats, or other supplies we might need.

Also, the world is in better shape than ever. We're at the forefront of science and technology, we have an abundance of food and natural resources. We have transportation, easy and instant communication, and advanced technology is affordable. Healthcare is at an all-time high, and getting better every day. We're curing new diseases. We have plenty of space in the world to accommodate our population and many more. We care for nature, for animals, and our surroundings. I'm so excited about the future and what it holds.

OH! I read a book about 7 years ago called Abundance. (Here's an Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/145161683X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=) It explains how well off we are using plenty of facts and details.

This is one that's popular back home in the New Orleans area. It was put out by the Junior League.They are available on amazon. River Road Recipes 1959 River Road Recipes II 1976

Some light reading to broaden your perspective

Glad it was helpful! Managing is tough and I've definitely made similar mistakes. I actually didn't have a specific post in mind, though I'm sure it's come up. The whole website is great, and she has lots of great advice about how to communicate well with employees. Her book is really good too, though targeted at nonprofits definitely applies well outside them.

https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Change-World-Nonprofit-Managers/dp/1118137612

His “charitable giving” to media companies helps build that kind of public sentiment. Look under the surface and it’s not so rosy.

> Rich people do not monetarily benefit from charitable donations unless they’re committing fraud.

Here is a whole book about it. And yes, they have very creative ways to get returns on their investments. Tax avoidance being a big one.

Look up the Baton Rouge Junior Leagues cookbook. This is it.

River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961302682/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ja5CAb6B1ZJRX

They also make a second one as well as a third healthy options one.

All the best seafood recipes in one place. All the best sauces and meat recipes and desserts as well.

Gumbo, étouffée, jambalaya, mornay sauce, hollandaise, oyster baking styles, custards, meat pies, the list goes on forever.

This is a bit off topic but hands down every cook in Louisiana has the Baton Rouge Junior League home cookbook around. I know you might not WANT to eat a squirrel or raccoon, but you COULD. And everything else is delicious from the corn bread to the gumbo to the salads to the étouffée to the remoulade to the desserts to the roasts and the seafood boils.

River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961302682/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_EJDjAb47BJJC5

https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Change-World-Nonprofit-Managers/dp/1118137612/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503537038&sr=8-1&keywords=managing+to+save+the+world

This book is amazing. While it is geared towards the non-profit sector, it is absolutely helpful for managers in all fields.

Hijacking to promote Corsi's book, "Partners in Crime: The Clintons' Scheme to Monetize the White House for Personal Profit"

https://www.amazon.com/Partners-Crime-Clintons-Monetize-Personal/dp/1944229337

I have a fairly big list but I think this one is good starting point:

http://smile.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/145161683X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460908639&sr=8-1&keywords=abudance

I'm sure some non-profit compensation packages are inappropriate, but you can't simply look at the salary and determine whether or not that's the case, as you did in your comment. And nothing is wrong with spending a large percentage of your budget fundraising as long as the end result is a bigger and better impact improving the world.

The simple truth is that there's a huge untapped pool of charitable donations that people would make if they were asked in the right way. Instead, people in the non-profit industry are cautious and shy about making an aggressive case for their own causes, for fear of looking selfish.

Of course, the real problem at the core of the non-profit industry is "how do you measure success?" In the for-profit world, cash is the bottom line, but non-profits too often gauge their success on misleading and unscientific surveys or on simple "dollars moved" stats. I heartily recommend givewell.org for the work they do encouraging donating based on good science, and the book Uncharitable if you want to read more about how the culture of non-profits is self-sabotaging.