The Foundation: A Great American Secret - How Private Wealth is Changing the World - Hardcover

The US foundations are worth $32 billion per year. This groundbreaking book shows how they can provide a vital spur to the engine of America's - and the world's - economies if properly established and run. Foundations are a peculiarly American institution with an enormous effect on American society. For over a century they have been a dynamo of social change. Yet this vital sector of the economy is cloaked in secrecy - their decision-making and operations are inscrutable to the point of obscurity - leaving them substantially unaccountable to anyone. Author, Joel Fleishman has been in and around foundations for almost half a century...running them, sitting on their boards and seeking grants from them. In this groundbreaking book, he traces the history of the foundations (which have their roots in the era of the robber barons), tells the story of the most successful initiatives (including the Bill Gates Foundation which is the largest of these organisations today), and explains why it matters. The baby boomer generation is going to participate in the largest transfer of wealth in history when it passes on its assets to its successor generation. The third sector is about to become more powerful than ever.

Joel Fleishman is Professor of Law and Public Policy at Duke University, and sits on the boards of several foundations.