Author:Bill Clinton Availability:
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Editorial Review:
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."
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Wonderful examples of average people getting involve in the society:
Giving is easy to read, and its formatted so that you don't have read each chapter in its given numerical order, you can skip around and still feel the message. This book breaks down philanthropy into six different categories; giving time, giving things, giving skills, gift of reconciliation and new beginnings, gifts that keep giving, and giving good ideas. Clinton provides inspirational stories of incredible people and information regarding how they have made an impact on the lives of others. However,... more info
Giving Might Be The Fulfillment You Are Waiting For:
If you haven't added the acronym NGO (Non-governmental organization) to your daily vocabulary, this book will park it there permanently. Giving is about just that. Listed is a wide collection of charity groups from food pantries to African AIDS organizations. Each has a specific mission designed, in some way, to better the world we live in. Heading these NGO's are dedicated, sometimes brilliant, sometimes rich and powerful people who found themselves delving into the higher purpose of aiding humanity. From... more info
The Gift of Giving:
Each holiday season, we often find ourselves giving to the Salvation Army, donating to a local homeless shelter or buying toys for impoverished children. But after the holiday season is finished, do you still continue to give? "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World" by Bill Clinton is an excellent guide for those who want to give more. And the book not only addresses all the means of giving but also WHY we should give with examples of many people who have changed and improved the lives of others... more info
Great ideas:
I ordered this book right when it came out after seeing Clinton interviewed on a show. Overall I would say that if you need to get inspired to find worthy non-profits to donate to or want to start something of your own then this book will inspire you and give you ideas
