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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 361.7 EAN: 9780307266743 ISBN: 0307266745 Label: Knopf Manufacturer: Knopf Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: September 04, 2007 Publisher: Knopf Release Date: September 04, 2007 Studio: Knopf Editorial Review: Product Description: 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 introduces us to both well-known and unknown heroes of giving. Among them: Dr. Paul Farmer, who grew up living in the family bus in a trailer park, vowed to devote his life to giving high-quality medical care to the poor and has built innovative public health-care clinics first in Haiti and then in Rwanda; a New York couple, in Africa for a wedding, who visited several schools in Zimbabwe and were appalled by the absence of textbooks and school supplies. They founded their own organization to gather and ship materials to thirty-five schools. After three years, the percentage of seventh-graders who pass reading tests increased from 5 percent to 60 percent;' Oseola McCarty, who after seventy-five years of eking out a living by washing and ironing, gave $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to endow a scholarship fund for African-American students; Andre Agassi, who has created a college preparatory academy in the Las Vegas neighborhood with the city’s highest percentage of at-risk kids. “Tennis was a stepping-stone for me,” says Agassi. “Changing a child’s life is what I always wanted to do”; Heifer International, which gave twelve goats to a Ugandan village. Within a year, Beatrice Biira’s mother had earned enough money selling goat’s milk to pay Beatrice’s school fees and eventually to send all her children to school—and, as required, to pass on a baby goat to another family, thus multiplying the impact of the gift. Clinton writes about men and women who traded in their corporate careers, and the fulfillment they now experience through giving. He writes about energy-efficient practices, about progressive companies going green, about promoting fair wages and decent working conditions around the world. He shows us how one of the most important ways of giving can be an effort to change, improve, or protect a government policy. He outlines what we as individuals can do, the steps we can take, how much we should consider giving, and why our giving is so important. Bill Clinton’s own actions in his post-presidential years have had an enormous impact on the lives of millions. Through his foundation and his work in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, he has become an international spokesperson and model for the power of giving. “We all have the capacity to do great things,” President Clinton says. “My hope is that the people and stories in this book will lift spirits, touch hearts, and demonstrate that citizen activism and service can be a powerful agent of change in the world.” Average Rating:
 Rating: - Giving? - Yes. Changing the world? Not quite.Give! Give money. Give time. Give Stuff. This book is all about how to give more to charity. If you are inclined to give, I think this book might give you some new places to look. If you aren't inclined to give, neither will it convince you to start. The book is a laundry list of ways to give. I enjoyed the writing style. It's a pretty quick read, and I made a fair number of notes about things to go look up further. However there are not good citations for various provided statistics ... Read More Rating: - Giving it a ChanceGiving is a straight forward 211+ page reason why we should give our time, money, and energy to help make a difference in he world. Clinton, fills the pages with nothing short of inspirational stories of incredible people, and how they have made an impact on the lives of others. Clinton argues that its easy to find a way to give to our world through examples of these extraordinary people such as; Bill and Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Oseola McCaty, Muhammad Yunus, Andre Agassi, Nelson Mandela, Josephine ... Read More Rating:  - Boring book, Inspiring contentYou know that part called 'Acknowledgements' which is available in almost every book and covers three or so pages? Ever read one of those? I bet you skip those pages every time! The first two-thirds of this book gave me the exact same feeling. Every chapter covers too much names that are soon to be forgotten by the time you enter the next chapter. No matter how inspiring these people are, you cannot ask the average reader to remember the UNC, DDA, EXRE and whatever NGO is being mentioned. Read More Rating: - A Small Amount Can Go a Long WayCharitable giving is a regular part of life for many Americans and one man who wants to encourage Americans to integrate giving into their daily lives is former U.S. President Bill Clinton. The former U.S. Chief Executive has his own foundation dedicated to the cause of world health and other issues and he wrote this book to educate the reader on the different ways to give and the visible difference that a little effort can make. Writing a check or offering a credit card number to donate cash is the most common ... Read More Rating:  - An inventory of amazing peopleThis book was basically a very long list of amazing people giving time or money (or both) to very thoughtful and important causes. These people volunteer here. this guy had a great idea and created an NGO there. The spirit of it is very flat and reads like an extended laundry list. Giving, in itself, is of course, important. Giving as a book, I didn't find that inspirational. |
