Uncharitable
How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential
Publication Year: 2009
These double-standards place the nonprofit sector at extreme disadvantage to the for profit sector on every level. While the for profit sector is permitted to use all the tools of capitalism to advance the sale of consumer goods, the nonprofit sector is prohibited from using any of them to fight hunger or disease. Capitalism is blamed for creating the inequities in our society, but charity is prohibited from using the tools of capitalism to rectify them.
Ironically, this is all done in the name of charity, but it is a charity whose principal benefit flows to the for-profit sector and one that denies the nonprofit sector the tools and incentives that have built virtually everything of value in society. The very ethic we have cherished as the hallmark of our compassion is in fact what undermines it.
This irrational system, Pallotta explains, has its roots in 400-year-old Puritan ethics that banished self-interest from the realm of charity. The ideology is policed today by watchdog agencies and the use of "efficiency" measures, which Pallotta argues are flawed, unjust, and should be abandoned. By declaring our independence from these obsolete ideas, Pallotta theorizes, we can dramatically accelerate progress on the most urgent social issues of our time. Pallotta has written an important, provocative, timely, and accessible book--a manifesto about equal economic rights for charity. Its greatest contribution may be to awaken society to the fact that they were so unequal in the first place.
Published by: Tufts University Press
Cover
Advance Praise, Title Page, Copyright
Contents
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pp. ix-x
Introduction
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pp. xi-xv
The fact that charity exists at all is a testament to the tenderness of the human soul. We feel for others. When someone else is suffering, we suffer ourselves, and we have a powerful and emotional need to help. The very fact that charity is an emotional subject...
Chapter 1: The Morality of Outcomes
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pp. 1-34
Six o’clock on the morning of April 8, 1630. After ten days of southwest winds and stormy seas, the weather has finally turned fair, with a slight wind from the east and the north. John Winthrop, “brave leader of Christian tribes” and future governor...
Chapter 2: The Foundations of Our Misconstruction
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pp. 35-127
Consider the following contradictions. Sony can make a profit from a Bruce Springsteen album that heightens awareness of the plight of migrant workers, but no one can earn a profit working for a charity trying to help the migrant...
Chapter 3: Stop Asking This Question
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pp. 128-176
The U.S. Supreme Court issued the following decision in May 2003 in support of an earlier decision made by the Illinois Supreme Court...
Chapter 4: Courage
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pp. 177-185
Buckminster Fuller said that “a problem well stated is a problem well on its way to being solved.” My objective here has been twofold: first, to identify the right problem and, second, to state it clearly. I have tried to undertake this within...
Acknowledgments
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pp. 187-
Case Study - Pallotta TeamWorks
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pp. 189-228
Notes
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pp. 229-268
Bibliography
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pp. 269-303
Index
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pp. 305-312
Back Cover
E-ISBN-13: 9781584658115
E-ISBN-10: 1584658118
Print-ISBN-13: 9781584657231
Page Count: 336
Publication Year: 2009
Series Title: Civil Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
