Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World »

READ BY GRAMMY AWARD WINNER BILL CLINTON: Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. GIVING is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations and by individuals to solve problems and save lives both "down the street and around the world." Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, "regardless of income, available time, age, and skills," can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams. Bill Clinton shares his own experiences and those of other givers, representing a global flood tide of nongovernmental, nonprofit activity. These remarkable stories demonstrate that gifts of time, skills, things, and ideas are as important and effective as contributions of money.

From Bill and Melinda Gates to a six-year-old California girl named McKenzie Steiner, who organized and supervised drives to clean up the beach in her community, Clinton...

Kirkus Reviews

The former president provides dozens of effective and communicable examples of giving. "I wrote this book to encourage you to give whatever you can, because everyone can give something. And there's so much to be done, down the street and around the world," he writes. For Clinton (My Life, 2004), giving is the right thing to do; acts of unfettered goodwill promote harmony and trust. Writing in an unhurried style, the author doesn't chide or prod the reader, but simply provides numerous examples of giving of all kinds, whether it be a multimillion-dollar gift or the simple donation of an old, unused saxophone to a school music program. Bill Gates, Bono and Tiger Woods may grab the headlines, but Clinton is especially concerned with the giver of modest gifts or what little spare time they have. To that effect, Clinton quotes Warren Buffett, who recently gave $30 billion to the Gates Foundation: "My gift is nothing . . . .The people I really admire are the small donors who give up a movie or a restaurant meal to help needier people." Clinton inspires by pointing the way and introducing a company of givers. If you know how to tie a fishing fly, teach someone else. If you're appalled by the trash on the sidewalk or your local beach, pick it up-or, better, organize a sustaining drive to keep the area clean. If you own a business, consider hiring someone on welfare or with a disability. Also, says Clinton, think about injecting your giving with a dash of humor-down in his home state, there's an annual raccoon supper to equip the local football team; Clinton advises using plenty of barbecue sauce on the meat. He goes on to suggest participation in something as profound as Seeds of Peace, whichbrings together young people of different religious and ethnic groups long at odds with one another. An important message conveyed with a light touch. First printing of 750,000

Introduction     ix
The Explosion of Private Citizens Doing Public Good     3
Giving Money     13
Giving Time     32
Giving Things     56
Giving Skills     70
Gifts of Reconciliation and New Beginnings     88
Gifts That Keep on Giving     109
Model Gifts     116
Giving to Good Ideas     137
Organizing Markets for the Public Good     152
Nonprofit Markets Can Be Organized Too     178
What About Government?     185
How Much Should You Give and Why?     204
Acknowledgments     213
Resources     215
Index     227