In the book "On Philanthropy in America," Fridrikh Furman explores how the universal phenomena of charity and philanthropy acquired in the New World uniquely American appearance and traits, how they have matured, and how they work in our times.
The author aims to show Russian readers the diverse and ever-changing world of American philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. A world that clearly presents a unique phenomenon of the United States civic society, and often gives America the title of the most philanthropic nation on the planet.
As the foundation for the book, the author used a large body of primarily American literary, informational, and statistical resources, his own experience as a volunteer for local philanthropic organizations, as well as first hand observations and research.
The author attempts to explore the complex world of American philanthropy using a comprehensive and multifaceted approach. On one hand, he portrays the development of philanthropy in America, from ideas and practices of colonial era, to the rapid expansion in scale and radical transformation in nature after World War II, and on through the recent years. On the other hand, he describes the contemporary diversity of ideological and legal concepts in philanthropy, its organizational and economic forms, donor behavior and incentives, and funding sources of contemporary non-profits.
The book analyzes different and often conflicting views of American researchers and observers on the nature and place of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations in American society. In this analysis, the author leans towards a more comprehensive representation of the views and approaches of American experts, rather than his own commentary, on the assumption that the former are more interesting to Russian readers than the latter.
To succeed in these complex tasks, the author has attempted to combine the format of a monograph with more accessible to a wider audience content and less formal style of narration. The book contains many illustrative examples from past and present, helping the readers see how philanthropy actually works in America.
All this presents an opportunity to use this work as a kind of a guidebook to the very varied and colorful, but not always well known to the Russian public, field of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in America.
This book may be interesting and useful to a diverse reader audience. First among them are Russian-speaking readers in the USA, particularly those who are involved in local philanthropic organizations. It may also be noteworthy to readers in Russia and other countries of post-Soviet era, especially to volunteers and employees of noncommercial organizations, college students studying management of the nonprofit sector, educators and researchers in the field, and media professionals. This book might attract an even broader circle of readers in Russia and other post-Soviet countries, as well as Russian-speaking readers worldwide who want to understand the complex and sometimes perplexing world of American philanthropy.
The book's summary and table of contents, translated in English, are provided in the last part of the book.
About the Author: Fridrikh Furman was born in 1931 in Ukraine, and lived most of his life in that country. He graduated from Odessa State University majoring in Political Economy, taught in colleges and business schools, and worked in different capacities in chemical industry research institutions. He earned a Candidate of Sciences degree in Management and Economics in 1971, and published two monographs (1977 and 1989) on economy of new enterprises in chemical industry.
After his arrival in the USA in 1998, he worked as a consultant to assist students from Russian universities studying economics of small business in America. During the last decade, he has been working as a volunteer for local charity organizations, and published articles on US philanthropy in Russian-language press. He spent most of these years researching the history of philanthropy and the development of non-profits in America - the theme of this book.
