Off the shelf

Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City
Emilia Charno, a former intern with the Global Partnerships team at Candid, writes that beyond the stories of the eight Baltimoreans recounted in the book, Five Days is a conversation about how American society treats its economically vulnerable....

The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future
Izzy Nesci, a former intern in the Insights department at Candid, writes that Wallace-Wells provides an utterly disturbing picture of the many ways in which global warming will transform every aspect of life on the planet — changes likely to lead to untold human suffering and quite possibly the extinction of our species — and urges readers to snap out of their uneasy complacency....

The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America
Amelia Becker, an intern with the Communications department at Candid, finds that, in providing a historical context for current debates about higher education and in considering all the many factors involved in making education policy, the three authors provide a well-rounded picture of our current system....

The Business of Changing the World: How Billionaires, Tech Disrupters, and Social Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Global Aid Industry
As Kumar, co-founder of Devex, sees it, the international development sector is undergoing three fundamental changes: an opening up to diverse participants, a shift from a wholesale to a retail model of aid, and a growing focus on results-oriented, evidence-based strategies....

Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count
Daniel Matz, manager and content developer for Candid's Glasspockets.org portal, reviews Phil Buchanan's new book, which lays out a framework that can help anyone engaged in philanthropy to be more thoughtful, open-minded, and willing to learn, adapt, and keep trying....

Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance
Villanueva argues that the "decolonizing" of wealth and facilitating healing from trauma requires acknowledging our history, deep grief over how the colonizer mindset has affected us all; taking steps to align foundations' investment strategies more intentionally as a means of generating greater social impact; and addressing the issue of reparations....

You Can't Be What You Can't See: The Power of Opportunity to Change Young Lives
You Can't Be What You Can't See is an in-depth look at the root causes of poverty in one urban community and an inspiring guide for anyone interested in starting or working for an out-of-school time program that really makes a difference....

Modern Media Relations for Nonprofits: Creating an Effective PR Strategy for Today's World
PND's Matt Sinclair reviews a guide by two former journalists that provides advice and a comprehensive set of media tools with which every nonprofit should be familiar....

Unicorns Unite: How Nonprofits & Foundations Can Build EPIC Partnerships
Written by Jessamyn Shams-Lau, executive director of the Peery Foundation, Jane Leu, founder and CEO of Smarter Good, and Vu Le, executive director of Rainier Valley Corps, Unicorns Unite is, according to reviewer Aleda Gagarin, "a highly creative attempt to deconstruct the classic dichotomy between grantmaker and grantseeker"....

How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't
While there is no simple recipe for social movement success, Leslie Crutchfield, executive director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, and her team have identified a number of patterns that distinguish successful social movements from those that failed....

Justice on Both Sides: Transforming Education Through Restorative Justice
Maisha T. Winn, a professor of education at the University of California, Davis, makes a compelling case for the use of restorative justice (RJ) practices in schools as a way to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline that has destroyed the lives of too many young people of color....

Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn
According to our reviewer, Nick Opinsky, what makes Fair Shot so inspiring isn't its bold and straightforward approach to the problem of poverty in America but Hughes' open, honest, and refreshingly human exploration of how his own background, upbringing, and experience led him to advocate for a guaranteed income for low-income and working people, paid for by people like himself....

Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference
What can nonprofits do to get over the "revenue hump" and achieve long-term, sustainable success? According to our reviewer, Mirielle Clifford, Kathleen Kelly Janus's new book offers strategies, tools, and a trove of insights guaranteed to help any nonprofit, large or small, new or established, thrive and create lasting impact....

Pragmatic Philanthropy: Asian Charity Explained
According to our reviewer, Supriya Kumar, Shapiro, Mirchandani, and Jang's book is a much-needed look at how Asian philanthropy works, how it differs from philanthropy in the West, and what we are likely to see in the way of trends and developments in the coming years....

The Gender Effect: Capitalism, Feminism, and the Corporate Politics of Development
Kathryn Moeller argues that the real effect of corporate investment in girls and women has been to mask the historical and structural conditions that perpetuate poverty in the Global South and to de-politicize the demands for fair-labor practices and a more equitable economic order by the very women and girls such investment purports to empower....