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How To Save The World: Evaluating Your Choices Kindle Edition

by Steven E. Mayer (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 19 ratings
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This book is for anyone who gets asked at least ten times a week to give money to a charitable organization—anything from your college or place of worship to your community’s food shelf or animal shelter, or any of the national or international nonprofit organizations working to keep the world from falling apart and others working to create solutions that might hold the world together. Your charitable giving budget goes only so far, and you’ve probably wondered how to choose among all these options. This book gives you guidelines and tips on how to consider a nonprofit’s strengths and weaknesses and helps you prioritize requests so you can separate the wheat from the chaff. It gives an inside look at how nonprofits work, their missions and intended beneficiaries, and their challenge to “make progress on their mission”—the bottom line of any nonprofit organization. Above all, it helps you choose a set of donations or investments that stand up to your own scrutiny so you can feel your choices are meaningful and consistent with your values.
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  1. Print length
    83 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    October 16, 2023
  5. File size
    3087 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

Review

I wish I had this during my twenty-five-year tenure as a Financial Advisor. It would have been valuable in educating my clients about evaluating and prioritizing their charitable giving. I hope other Financial Advisors take a look at this publication.

-Sara Mushlitz, Wells Fargo, Senior Financial Advisor, retired


How To Save The World spotlights how to help the millions of desperate people in the world. Two decades ago, I co-authored a book with the subtitle How the World Is Changed. The world is changed in part by people directing their resources where those in need can be helped. This book tells you how to do that strategically, effectively, and personally. If everyone followed the guidance here, the lives of millions could be improved.

-Michael Quinn Patton, Founder and Director, Utilization-Focused Evaluation


With easy humor and heartfelt insight, Steve has written a thoughtful book that has inspired me to think more broadly and deeply about the organizations I choose to support. He brings broad knowledge and deep experience to the exploration of the effective non-profit organization. A great resource!

-Tamra Nelson, Neighbor


It's high time that the public is given an understanding of how peoples' own lives can help change the world and tools to engage and support nonprofits whose missions fit with their own interests and values.

-Emil W. Angelica, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, retired; Community Consulting Group, Consultant


Finally, a recipe with realistic ingredients that will help non-profits such as mine acquire "for real" guidance. Based upon years of experience and understanding of philanthropic culture, Steven Mayer has unselfishly made it plain and simple for us to follow. Onward!

-Rose McGee, President and Founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie: a catalyst for caring and building community


Every CPA should read this if they want to be of more help to their charitably inclined clients.

-Barry Rubin, retired CPA


Congratulations for distilling the wisdom you've gained from a life of activism with a study of practices and strategies that make for effective nonprofits. You've created a compact, crisply written guidebook with tools and tips we donors can use-and nonprofits can look to as well-and reminded us of the values of honesty, trust, empathy, humility, respect, and dignity we must cultivate in our collective efforts to make the world a better place.

-Ron Kroese, Cofounder Land Stewardship Project, Program Officer; McKnight Foundation Environment Program, retired

About the Author

Steven E. Mayer has almost fifty years of experience working with a gamut of community, public and philanthropic organizations-grassroots groups, donors, foundations, nonprofits, associations, networks and systems-intending to help them achieve greater effectiveness consistent with their mission. With a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, the author and educator has evaluated programs for large and small foundations and nonprofits throughout the United States and beyond, taught at major universities, and recently turned to supporting individuals learning to delve into impactful community development and social justice.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CL7J6PNC
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 16, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3087 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 83 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 19 ratings

About the author

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Steven E. Mayer

Steven E. Mayer

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While in college, the future Dr. Steven E. Mayer was hired to organize the library of Human Sciences Research, Inc in Washington, D.C. The core there was to assess how well any kind of organized effort was working. Steve was intrigued by this question and decided to pursue graduate studies in Organizational/Industrial Psychology, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Steve soon broke free from academic life and founded Rainbow Research, Inc., a nonprofit with a mission “to assist socially concerned organizations respond more productively to social problems and opportunities.” Steve and his team created strategies for discovering findings that directly address the public, distributing reports to public libraries throughout the country. Steve left Rainbow Research for better work–life balance and launched the Effective Communities Project, leading several meaningful projects on hot–button issues, and creating websites to inform and encourage the next generations of activists, donors, and community leadership. He then taught in Johns Hopkins University’s MA Program in Nonprofit Organization Management, and more recently wrote a book, "How to Save the World: Evaluating Your Options / When to Say Yes to Requests to Donate Money."

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
19 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

LC
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent advice and guidance for donors and non-profit players
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2024
Verified Purchase
This short book explores all or most of the factors that determine the success of a non-profit organization and therefore determine how donors can best decide where and how to make their contributions, whether money or time. The author's many decades of experience are obvious in the way he explains things in clear, mostly jargon-free, accessible language; also in his compassion for those in the trenches, doing the hard work of saving the world.
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Chessie Green
5.0 out of 5 stars An accessible, wise and witty guide to giving
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
Dr. Steven Mayer’s 49-page book on how to evaluate donation appeals is well worth reading. He translates his knowledge of nonprofit management and philanthropy with all of its complexities into an easy-to-read guide for all of us. In my 30-plus years of leading, managing, advising and teaching about nonprofit organizations, I’ve benefitted from the growing field of research into what makes effective organizations, but Dr. Mayer’s new book stands out for the way it presents the essential lessons – it’s accessible, wise and often witty. - Chessie Green, Washington, DC
One person found this helpful
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Pam McCarthy-Kern
5.0 out of 5 stars A helpful blueprint for creating greater social good!
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2023
Verified Purchase
I’ve always been passionate about giving back, in my personal and professional lives, and I believe that we all can contribute to the greater good, with even the smallest gestures leading to great change! But knowing where to start and how to know what’s going to be most effective can sometimes feel daunting. Thank you, Dr. Mayer, for this informative and heartfelt guide that breaks it down into easy, actionable steps! -Pam McCarthy-Kern, Owner, Because Collective
One person found this helpful
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Susan Doherty
5.0 out of 5 stars Practical understanding about how to decide to support a nonprofit
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023
Verified Purchase
This very readable book explains how nonprofits differ from for profit businesses because of focus on mission, not bottom line profit, and how to look for progress toward mission to decide if a nonprofit is a good fit for your support. The book is brilliant, vintage Steve Mayer, full of wisdom based on many years of evaluation experience with the nonprofit sector learning about how to strengthen nonprofits and about how we can all help save the world. Highly recommended!
One person found this helpful
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Rebecca Banyas
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy and enjoyable guide to giving
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2024
Steven Mayer’s How to Save the World: Evaluating Your Choices is a concise lesson in how to take a deeper look into the non-profit organizations you might wish to support. Mayer takes a global viewpoint on structures and functions of organizations which exist to implement personal, community or societal change, and how these organizations both express and achieve their missions and intents. It’s a big and complicated topic, yet Mayer makes it easy to step back and consider whether your charity of choice is actually being effective. I enjoyed the author’s friendly, light tone, with some humor thrown in (there’s no bureaucratic language here!). Mayer has a gift for boiling his deep knowledge of the giving sector down to provide insight into how we can be more intentional about who we contribute to, and why.
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Thomas Dewar
5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of a book, very useful
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2023
In a lively and thoughtful way, Steve explores the many benefits from taking the time to more fully explore who and what to support with our philanthropic giving.

His ongoing pre-occupation with effectiveness is a welcome counterpoint to the drumbeat of requests to just give, often without much reflection.

Where does effectiveness come from? Well, it varies. From his own experience and those of others that he respects, Steve describes a range of things to look for and consider in making more informed choices.

The book rightly urges us to “up our game,” and be more purposeful and strategic in our giving. It reminded me that when non-profits most need support is often before they are well-known or well-off, but they are already showing signs of progress, or early signs of impact. Clarity, capacity, and competence - all obviously matter, as do patience and persistence. Over–promising and under–delivering are all too common, and so a potential donor must be curious and even a bit probing.

If all you are after is a tax deduction, this book is not for you. But if achieving real, identifiable impact is your goal, along with making better gifts, buy this book.

If the promise for more effectiveness is your focus, don’t follow the lines of least resistance by giving to the “regular” groups and causes; try searching about a bit, find your own way. Look for the smaller scale, newer and perhaps more promising in terms of eventual impact. That’s what I took from the book. It’s a great and timely message.

Tom Dewar

Former Senior Fellow, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota
Former Director of Evaluation, John D. and whatshername MacArthur Foundation
Long-time Faculty, now Emeritus, Asset Based Community Development Institute, Chicago
Former Co-Director, Roundtable on Community Change, Aspen Institute, NYC
Adjunct Professor of Community and International Development, Johns Hopkins, School for Advanced International Studies, Bologna, Italy
One person found this helpful
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Denise Mayotte
5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable to Whoever Wants to Support Charitable Causes
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2023
This book is the most thoughtful guide to personal charitable giving I have seen, and it is much needed given the vast amount of fundraising activity going on everywhere. To see through the fog, Dr. Steven Mayer lays out how to think more clearly and simply about the power we each have to support the important work being done by the non-profit sector, and how to best align one's charitable giving with one's personal values. It is an incredibly useful guide. We all have something meaningful to offer by way of our individual charitable support; and, combined, our collective personal contributions are a powerful force in making needed change, addressing injustice and disparities, and saving and chamging lives. I recommend reading this book, taking in its lessons, and sharing it with family and friends. It is both enlightening and exceedingly practical. And it is a fun read given the author's candor and humor, as shown on page one, in his sincere dedication of the book to his father who he quotes once told him: "The last thing I want for you is to become one of those save-the-world types". Wisdom and humor combined, we need this.
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