BOOK REVIEWS

What’s Good and Good for You? A Personal Review of

Selected Nonprofit Periodicals Sheila Leaky

We depart from the standard book review style here to in- clude a more informal critique. A busy, top-level nonprofit manager shares her perspective on five journals.

T’S 5:05 P.M., and I’m at the Northwestern train station wait- ing for the commuter train to pull out and take me home. As I usual, it has been a hectic day, and I’ve flopped onto my seat

with stacks of reading materials, taking up more than my fair share of space on the train.

My train ride takes about fifty minutes, fifty minutes that serve me well. I use the time to read all the stuff that helps me manage a $1.2 million nonprofit policy organization.

Given the press of time and sheer information overload, I carefully select my reading material from state and national news- papers, policy journals, and publications that deal with nonprofit management and fund-raising. This final category is given my lowest priority these days because I am a public policy jockey by choice and a fund-raiser by necessity. Yet, I also know that keep- ing well informed about the nonprofit world is important and necessary. As a result, I search for publications about nonprofits that are both “good and good for me.”

In recent months, 1 have had the opportunity to review several nonprofit periodicals, and offer the following comments.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy The Chronicle of Philanthropy is good and good for me. It is a real, hefty, biweekly newspaper. Like the Sunday New York Times, this

219 NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT 67 LEADERSHIP, vol. 3, no. 2, Winter 1992 Q Jossey-Bass Publishers

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is one publication I cannot always read in one sitting. I read it over the course of a week and, as a result, I find my biweekly copies backing up a bit.

Let’s be honest: In reading this newspaper, I tend to pass quickly over the main articles, which are typically of little interest to me. I find myself spending a great deal of time combing the news blurbs that are scattered throughout the Chronicle; they often contain gems of information regarding funding priorities or new funding sources. My favorite section, About Foundations, lists recent grants by foundations and corporations and has sum- maries of their annual reports.

This is a well-written newspaper, and its coverage is both thorough and readable. It is well worth the $57.50 for an annual subscrip tion.

Contributions Contributions may be a good periodical to read, but it is shy on current news about the nonprofit field and foundations. My guess is that Contributions has purposely decided not to cover the cur- rent news, which is handled by both the Chronicle and the NonProfit Times. Its masthead reads “Where Nonprofit Professionals Turn for a Different Slant,” which suggests that Contributions seeks to carve out a unique role among nonprofit periodicals.

Contributions covers some offbeat news, including some strange fund-raising events such as donkey basketball and night golf with balls that glow. These events are fun to read about, but reports on them are definitely not critical information.

I should point out two of the regular sections in Contributions. The first, Interview, offers a discussion in question-and-answer format with contributions by interesting and thoughtful people. The other, Core Curriculum, provides very helpful, i f rudimen- tary, fund-raising information.

As for a personal judgment, the main articles in Contributions are well written, but too few of them cover issues of direct interest to me. As a result, I would not subscribe. This periodical is published bi-monthly and costs $18.00 for a year’s subscription.

Corporate Philanthropy Report Corporate Philanthropy Report (CPR) also qualifies as good and good for me. As its title suggests, this periodical focuses exclu- sively on the world of corporate grantmaking.

CPR’s focus is a real plus in my judgment for two main rea- sons. First and foremost, I want a publication to provide me with basic information on grantmaking sources. CPR does this. One of my favorite sections, Spotlight, highlights corporate grantmakers in a particular field, like telecommunications, and describes their giving patterns and priorities.

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Second, the corporate grantmaking community is very com- plex, and I need all the help I can get in interpreting this important source of support. CPR provides an intelligent and very thoughtful review of corporate philanthropy. Furthermore, this periodical has a very helpful habit of including addresses and telephone numbers whenever referencing sources.

Corporate Philanthropy Report is published monthly, and has a rather steep annual subscription rate of $165. Despite its cost, I would recommend this publication.

The Nonprofit Times The Nonprofit Times is, frankly, not so good to read, but it is indeed good for me. Nonprofit Times is simply jam-packed with news and

space, making this publication somewhat difficult to read. More- over, while clear and direct, much of the writing is a bit dry.

information. I emphasize jammed because there is very little white

Nonprofit Times has a section called Management and Finance that I find particularly interesting and useful. This section often

and pointers. grantma king

I want a publication to

provide me with basic

information on

sources

has a short article on planning and communicating your nonprofit’s mission to various audiences. I often pick up some helpful hints

I also find myself reading various editorials, which surprises me, but the editorials often contain personal reflections of expe- rienced nonprofit managers, which I find a nice change of pace.

The assault of ads is staggering in this publication. I counted almost fifty ads in one forty-page edition, many of them quite large. The Chronicle ofPhilanthropy also has a large number of ads, but somehow they do not overwhelm the reader. Still, advertisers do help pay the bills, and Nonprofit Times is sent without charge (free!) to nonprofit subscribers (a year of monthly issues costs others $45). I plan to subscribe.

Philanthropy Monthly Philanthropy Monthly is a very scholarly periodical and a little rich for me. This periodical is published ten times a year, and the subscription rate for nonprofits is $65. This is a journal that features three or more lengthy articles on interesting if rather lofty issues. At the end of each issue, there is a catch-all section that has short articles covering such issues as nonprofit accounting, the media, and Internal Revenue Service actions relevant to nonprofit organizations.

It strikes me that this publication would be of most interest to the real hard-core nonprofit aficionados who like to debate the deeper side of the field. For the stressed-out nonprofit executive without any time on her hands, she needs periodicals with more practical information.

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SHEILA LEAHY is deputy director of the Council of Great Lakes Gov- ernors.