The best books for changing the way you change the world

I grew up believing that philanthropy was a positive thing that helped disenfranchised people, and that my role as a ‘good person’ was to engage in this work. As I evolved my philanthropic understanding, I began to see how the overlapping systems of economics and charity reinforced a status quo that I didn’t want to support. Heather McGhee’s book clearly lays out how the racist policies and practices in all of our systems (from education and housing to environmental practices and health care) are the roots of inequity that make philanthropy necessary. Reading her book will shift your approach from merely ‘doing good’ to being an authentically engaged, informed, and self-aware philanthropist.

This whole book is mindblowing, laying out the ways that the success of our current economic system of work is built on the unpaid labor of women and people of color. The section on nonprofits is essential reading for anyone working or volunteering in the sector. This is not a treatise for not working or quiet quitting; it is a case study of why we work and how we can work better, and surprise surprise, it also comes back to understanding the economics of power and privilege, who is benefiting, and who is being left behind. This book gave me the confidence in my convictions that my work in the nonprofit sector had been contributing to the problem rather than reimagining new ways of being.

This is an indispensable handbook for guiding change management, something everyone, but especially those doing philanthropic work, should be skilled in. Change is the only constant, and understanding how to guide that process intentionally, whether for yourself, your family, or your community, better equips you to map and influence sustainable actions. I have been deeply influenced by adrienne maree brown’s approach to the intersection of community building and self-care, and from her writing I was introduced to the work of Grace Lee Boggs and Octavia Butler, both feminist visionary guides of transformation and activism.

Framing the philanthropic sector within the larger cultural era we’re living through, the authors outline the history of wealth accumulation and then lay out the ‘ontological shift’ necessary for humans to create new ways of sharing resources in order to thrive on this planet. This book allowed me to step back, yet again, from the day-to-day work of reforming and redistributing, to think more broadly about what’s possible when we understand our collective history, humanity, and desire for the future. There are deep societal dynamics upholding the inequities we don’t want, but when we create context for our actions and policies, we can build new frameworks for visioning the possibilities of our shared future. This book will inspire you to be more intentional in how you engage in your philanthropy for the future you truly want.

Using plants as our oldest teachers, Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves beautiful stories of reciprocity. Her message about our first and truest philanthropic relationship of giving and receiving with the natural world points to the greatest gift, life itself. When this gift of life is centered within all of the superficial systems we humans create, more dynamic and joyful solutions emerge. Reading this book allowed me to reflect on my role in the philanthropic sector as an extension of my family’s role as some of the earliest colonizers on this land. Understanding my part in the story, historically and currently, makes me a more humble philanthropist who can engage in the world from a place of connection. This book is pure joy: personal, poetic, and political.