The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America

By Shirley Sagawa

Jossey-Bass

Mom. Apple pie. Service. In The American Way to Change, Shirley Sagawa convincingly argues that volunteering is both deeply rooted in American history, as well as a creative solution to modern societal challenges. Sagawa argues that service can be used to impact many entrenched social ills, including an ineffective public education system, an aging population with fewer family support systems, environmental degradation, and poverty. Service—whether through a national program like AmeriCorps or through individuals working at volunteer-run organizations like Citizen Schools—is a critical component to a functioning civil society, according to Sagawa, and fill gaps between programs offered by the government, businesses, and nonprofits.

Over nine concise chapters, Sagawa outlines American volunteer service and its impact on the people serving, the communities being served, and the nation at large. This impact is not just due to the net social good that's being enacted through these programs, but also through the innovations that result from passionate people dealing with real challenges with limited resources. She also describes the people who serve, who are mostly people in transition: college graduates, retirees, and the recently jobless, among others.

Sagawa, who has been called "the mother of the modern service movement," is a very credible author, and The American Way to Change isn't pure conjecture about the impact volunteers and service organizations could have on the big issues facing America. She describes, at length, the impact of the volunteer-based programs that are presently working in prose both matter-of-fact and moving. For instance, one successful venture is the Prisoner Entrepreneurship Program, which combats recidivism through teaching basic business skills to the incarcerated. Founded by a former Wall Street investor, the program has a return-to-prison rate of less than ten percent, and an employment rate of eighty percent within thirty days of release. This is one of literally dozens of programs that Sagawa profiles that are both very successful and have concrete results that help solve some of America's biggest challenges.

In this fast-moving book, Sagawa makes a strong case for service no longer being considered something "nice" done to pad a resume or pass an afternoon, but an absolutely necessity in changing the United States for the better. Buy it if you're passionate about service, looking for organizations to volunteer with that are making a substantial difference, or simply in need of inspiration about the power of human potential.

Review by Catherine Nicotera

Change the World, Change Your Life: Discover Your Life Purpose Through Service

By Angela Perkey
Red Wheel/Weiser

Change the World, Change Your Life materialized as the author, Angela Perkey, reflected on how to help others find personal and community connections through donating one’s time. In her formative years, Perkey’s parents instilled in her the importance of volunteering and making a time commitment to help others. Thus, she spent time volunteering in various ways, and the most memorable volunteer experience to her was when she spent time painting the toenails of elderly women in a senior center. Although she knew that she was providing companionship, she wasn’t wholly invested in the experience. As she got older, she realized she wanted to find volunteer experiences that matched her passions and interests, as well as find an opportunity to volunteer where her talents could be most utilized. Perkey discovered in college that she wanted to form an organization where students could apply for grants to fund their own service projects, and from this, Students Serve, Perkey’s nonprofit, was formed.

In Change the World, Change Your Life, Perkey advocates on how to find a type of giving that matches with one’s goals in life. At one point in the book, Perkey points out that in reality, most organizations have failed because they have not succeeded in what they have aimed to do, such as eradicating hunger or providing an equal education for all students. Her brashness is a way to emphasize the fact that there are multiple problems which need solving and that maybe we are the ones to solve them. She also wants her readers to realize that we should be selective in choosing where we give our money and spend our time; in other words, we should think about what a volunteer opportunity is going to do for us as well as what we will be doing for the organization. Will we be happier as a result of the time we spend volunteering? Will we come home invigorated, so that our positive energy is felt by those around us? Perkey points out that only when we feel that we are making worthwhile contributions to our society will we be truly spurred on to continue our efforts, and only then will we be able to really help the causes to which we are dedicated. Furthermore, Perkey creates many guiding questions which are meant to help her readers find the volunteer opportunities that will be the most fulfilling and rewarding, and have the most impact on those we are serving.

If an individual is not already volunteering her/his time to an organization, there are probably a plethora of reasons why she/he will start this important work in the future and not today. I have wanted to volunteer for years, yet my work and home schedule always seemed so hectic, and I couldn’t imagine fitting volunteering into my schedule. Then I had kids, and I wasn’t sure what service opportunities were available for families to do with their children. After starting Perkey’s book, I made a call to a local Meals on Wheels organization. I asked them if I could volunteer with my children, and sure enough, the following week I started taking meals to senior citizens in my town with my four year old and seven month old in tow. That was a month ago, and now I am wholeheartedly enjoying spending a few hours each week volunteering due to Perkey’s straightforward guidance and gentle prodding to take action sooner rather than later. Any book that can motivate people to take action should be shared, and I’ll happily recommend this to anyone who is looking for a way to become involved in her or his community.

Review by Kirsha Frye-Matte

Nonprofit Finance for Hard Times: Leadership Strategies When Economies Falter

By Susan U. Raymond
Wiley

Did you know there are over twenty-five IRS codes for nonprofits? Or that nonprofits make up the third largest sector in the US economy? Or that more than three quarters of the existing nonprofits have emerged since 1980? Given that this is such a large sector to examine and there are imperfections in available data, Susan Raymond limits the scope of her new book, Nonprofit Finance for Hard Times, to discussion of organizations with 501(c)(3) status.

The 501(c)(3) category includes organizations focused on myriad areas, including religion, education, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and prevention of cruelty to children or animals. Some examples of 501(c)(3) organizations you are probably familiar with are The Boys & Girls Club, The United Way, and the publisher of Bitch magazine, Bitch Media. I personally appreciated this limitation in scope since I work for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and could think about the arguments and tips in terms of how they can be of use to my particular agency.

Nonprofit Finance for Hard Times provides recommendations of strategies for revamping or revitalizing existing programs while engaging and strengthening relationships with donors, foundations, and other financial stakeholders. The text extensively discusses not only the ways to make it through economic hardship but also how to best plan for the long term in ways that can buffer more difficult times. My personal favorite of these tips is the the importance of a strong and committed volunteer base. In times of economic hardship, people’s most valuable asset is their time, which can make or break an organization when money is tight.

I liked the layout of the book and appreciated the thematic summaries at the beginning of each chapter. These summaries helped me decide if the information in the chapter was going to be of any use or interest for my purposes. Raymond furthered supports her recommendations by providing many examples and testimonials, which help illustrate how theory is translated into practice and what some organizations found effective. One such testimony was from the CEO of (RED) on how cause-related marketing has helped raise funds to fight AIDS in Africa. You may have seen some of this cause-related marketing at Starbucks or The GAP.

Another point of interest for me was the tone of the discussion. Many of Raymond’s ideas are based off of what I consider to be corporate business models. Yes, nonprofits must raise funds to continue to provide their services, keep their doors open, and continue the work, but I believe grassroots organizing is a more effective approach. Strangely enough, this is not mentioned in Raymond’s book. I even checked the index in the back, thinking perhaps my brain had gone on autopilot and missed it, but ‘grassroots’ wasn't even listed.

I worry that not considering a ground-up approach to stabilize an organization’s operational model is forever going to be deeply tied to the booms and busts of our capitalist economy, and it is concerning that this book makes no mention of involving the people directly impacted by nonprofit nor does it consider the impact these people's needs, desires, and investment may have in supporting the organization. This crucial aspect was not explored by Raymond to its fullest potential.

Taken as just one perspective of many, this book could be quite useful to large nonprofits with a global vision. While I did not particularly enjoy the book, I do believe sharing of effective practices and strategies is necessary for the nonprofit sector of the economy, and that long term planning is the key to an agency’s survival during the hard times.

Review by Liz Martin