The Nonprofit FAQ
| Stereotypes of Philanthropy in Popular (?) Culture |
| Many of these suggestions came in response to a 1999 request on ARNOVA-L for help with preparations for a panel discussion on occupational stereotypes. They have been edited lightly for style and consistency. More suggestions would be very welcome. Giving New Hampshire has an online annotated list of "Books for Children on Philanthropy, Volunteerism, and Related Themes" at http://www.givingnh.org/care/2b1.html Hildy Gottlieb, Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes wrote to ARNOVA-L on June 16, 2005: In September of 2004, I asked a similar question to the Consultants list at Charity Channel. The outpouring was terrific. Once everyone had exhausted their brainstorming, one incredibly generous respondent, George Williams, compiled that list and posted it at his website. You can find it at http://www.plannedlegacy.com/newsletter/movies-with-feeling.html I still cannot look at that list without a) wanting to take a week off and hole up with my VCR, and b) wanting to thank George for providing this amazingly rich resource. Mordecai Lee. 2004. "What does Hollywood think nonprofit CEOs do all day? Screen depictions of NGO management." Public Organization Review 4(2), 157-176. Abstract: This article explores the cinematic image of chief executive officers (CEOs) of nonprofit organizations in the US. Movie CEOs head a broad range of the nongovernmental organizations, including hospitals, colleges, social service agencies, prep schools, labor unions, legal aid, faith-based and youth-serving. They are predominantly white males. Their professional backgrounds include medicine, teaching, union organizing, social activism, clergy, law and environmental activism. Movie audiences see nonprofit CEOs involved in the mundane and inspirational elements of day-to-day management. One of their primary responsibilities consists of overseeing 'line' functions, including fund raising, media relations, managing volunteers and board relations. But, nonprofit managers are also responsible for broader concerns, such as protecting the organization's values and equilibrium. Some movie nonprofit CEOs are shown multitasking and trying to balance competing demands from multiple stakeholders. Films discussed in detail (listed here in alphabetical order, but in a different order in the article):
Films briefly mentioned in the article but passed over for in-depth discussion for several different reasons that are explained in the article (listed here in alphabetical order):
Films encountered during the research process but not mentioned in the article (in alphabetical order):
Suggestions for future research:
(I have included links below for buying as many items as possible from Amazon.Com; purchases made in this way produce royalties which are used to maintain the Nonprofit FAQ. --Ed.)
"Big Lebowski" includes the plot element of stealing from a foundation. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007ELEL/internetnonprofi"> "Big Lebowski" through Amazon.Com.)
"Sister Act" is in part about church fundraising, a "spiritual" heir to the whole Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney "let's put on a show to raise money for....." films. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005KAQP/internetnonprofi"> "Sister Act" through Amazon.Com.)
"Citizen Ruth" is a comedy with a plot centered around the serious subject of abortion that sobered me. It's a comical case study in failure to recognize citizen agency. Ruth's character could be seen as an impossible glue sniffing failure... seen as a victim and an idealize object she becomes the icon for pro and anti abortion activists... Ruth in the midst of the opposing calls for right to life and right to abortion becomes torn between the two, first attracted to both for help, then attracted to the monetary benefits... then she begins to realize that she herself has agency in this political position... that she must look out for her own interests and not be tied to the interest groups... However dishonest, Ruth ultimately does what's best for herself... Good movie you should see it... hilarious... yet it covers some very serious, sensitive and rarely touched issues... http://indie.imdb.com/title/tt0115906/ (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007K028/internetnonprofi"> "Citizen Ruth" through Amazon.Com.)
Check out "The Bells of St. Mary's" when Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman get together to save their church parish from bankruptcy. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000EMYML/internetnonprofi"> "The Bells of St. Mary's" through Amazon.Com.)
There is the sort-of-classic "Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art" by Thomas Hoving, in which he "lets all the cats out of a very large bag" in a "deliciously entertaining" account, according to the Chicago Tribune. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671738542/internetnonprofi"> Mummies Dance through Amazon.Com.)
The Blues Brothers is all about charity fundraising. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078322804X/internetnonprofi"> "Blues Brothers" through Amazon.Com.)
Steve Martin's film, "Mixed Nuts" (1994) about a social service agency that operates a crisis helpline. Not very funny unless you work for one. Several years ago I thought our work would make for a really great reality show called, "The Nonprofit" ... long before "The Apprentice." (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005QT9O/internetnonprofi"> "Mixed Nuts" through Amazon.Com.)
Heaven Can Wait--the environmentalist against the big business guy, probably lots of great scenes. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305495238/internetnonprofi"> "Heaven Can Wait" through Amazon.Com.) (Stars Warren Beatty and James Mason.) Keeping the Faith--rabbi and priest build a community center together. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003CXHG/internetnonprofi"> "Keeping the Faith" through Amazon.Com.)
Chicken Run is all about community organizing. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003CXJ4/internetnonprofi">"Chicken Run" through Amazon.Com.)
The Murder Room is the latest of P. D. James' mysteries with following the career of her poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh. It centers on a small London museum and a series of murders that starts with the death of a dissident trustee. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400041414/internetnonprofi">The Murder Room through Amazon.Com.)
On films, there is the current British film, out in US in December, "Calendar Girls," which tells the true story about a group of Women's Institute members who pose naked for a charity calendar. See further http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3200341.stm (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001I55M4/internetnonprofi">The "Calendar Girls through Amazon.Com.)
I have had extensive debates about this with friends and family and am still convinced that "About Schmidt" sends a strong message about the value of philanthropy and how it can add meaning to our lives. Granted, you have to get through the depressing fact that Jack Nicholson's character seems to have no other meaningful relationships in his life after his retirement, death of his wife, and marriage of his daughter and all that is left if a little boy in Africa that he has never met. But in the end, there is a glimmer of hope that he has found something to make his life worthwhile again, through the philanthropic (and therapeutic) relationship he is creating with Ndugu. (Order About Schmidt (VHS) from Amazon.Com.) Bruce Sievers, Stanford University: There is also an interesting flip side to "About Schmidt": the problematic ethics of the fundraising technique used by some international (and domestic as well) organizations that implies a personal relationship between donor and recipient which typically does not exist (and may or may not exist in Schmidt's case). Anyway, the film is a great case study.
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, an author whose works (unfortunately) often wind up on banned book lists for young adults. It focuses on teenager Jerry Renault's struggles to refuse selling chocolate bars as part of the traditional annual fundraising effort at a private all-boys Catholic school. Jerry, who comes from a family with an emotionally distanced father and recently deceased mother, must contend with the everyday menace of the school's vicious gang (the Vigils) that originally engineered the protest as part of its ongoing pranks against the school administration. Jerry also has to deal with the machinations of Brother Leon, the corrupt assistant head of the school , who leveraged unauthorized funds to buy more boxes of chocolate than normal in order to increase his chances for promotion, thereby forcing each student to sell more boxes at a higher price. It all escalates into a brutal contest of wills as Jerry attempts to take a stand against what he feels is a dehumanizing clique-focused institution, with the institution and its agents sucking the life out of the very notion of "voluntary philanthropy" . It's an unflinching, harrowing novel that takes a number of unexpected (and increasingly violent) twists, ending on an ambiguous (yet uncompromising) note, not unlike Cormier's other works. (Order The Chocolate War from Amazon.Com.)
Surely he very best children's book on philanthropy is the late Robert (Make Way for Ducklings) McCloskey's Lentil. Set in a small Ohio town at the turn of the century, the hero, a harmonica playing boy named Lentil, saves the day when the town's effort to celebrate its Great Benefactor, The Great Colonel Carter, is frustrated by a villain named Old Sneap. (Carter had given the town its library, its park, its Soldiers & Sailors Monument -- and at the end of the story promises the town a new hospital). (Order Lentil from Amazon.Com.) As to adult fare, I second the motion on Dickens. Oliver Twist (1838) gives a grim portrait both of faith-based social services (the almshouse where Oliver was born and brought up was part of the "parochial" system of social welfare controlled by the Anglican Church) and contracting (Mr Bumble, the Almshouse superintendent who beat and starved Oliver, operated the facility under contract). (Order Oliver Twist from Amazon.Com.) Bleak House (1853) not only offers a dark view of British equity jurisprudence, but a savage satire of contemporary philanthropy and philanthropists in its portrayal of Mrs. Jellyby, who uses all her time in charity for the people of a devasted rural industrial village while her own household goes to rack and ruin. (Order Bleak House from Amazon.Com.) The Christmas Carol (1843) offers not only its wonderful vignette of charitable fund-raisers being turned away by the hard-hearted Scrooge, but the spectacle of Scrooge's redemption. Interestingly, Dickens seems to question the value of institutional philanthropy, favoring instead individual acts of charity. This was not an uncommon attitude in the early 19th century. (Order The Christmas Carol from Amazon.Com.) On the American side of the ocean, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1867) is full of charitable scenes, beginning with the girls' decision to give their Christmas breakfast and presents to the poor. (Order Little Women from Amazon.Com.) If you're interested in poetry relating to charity and philanthropy in the period, I heartily recommend the work of Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of the famous jurist. Holmes's famous 1830 poem, "Old Ironsides," a protest against the government's plans to scrap the Navy's most celebrated ship of war, led to a national fundraising campaign that saved the vessel. His 1857 verse, "Parson Turrell's Legacy, or the President's Old Arm Chair -- A Mathematical Story," relates in vestly amusing fashion, the tale of legacy left to Harvard College. The poem concludes: God bless you, Gentlemen! Learn to give Money to colleges wile you live. Don't be silly and think you'll try To bother the colleges, when you die, With codicil this, and codicil that, That Knowledge may starve while law grows fat. For there never was a pticher that wouldn't spill, And there's always a flaw in a donkey's will. Holmes's ouevre includes dozens of poems written for charitable events and organizations, including such jewels as "Song for a Temperance Dinner to which Ladies were invited (NY Mercantile Library Association, Nov. 1842), "A Poem for the Meeting of the American Medical Association at NY, May 5, 1853," "Meeting of the Alumni of Harvard College (1857), and 1878 effort to save an historic bulding ("An Appeal for the 'Old South'"), and many other items. Another prolific mid-19th century poet who extensively addressed charitable issues was Lydia Sigourney. Her verses include such items as "On the Union of Ladies of Great Britain with Those of America, in Plans of Benevolence for Africa" (1835), "On Seeing a Lady's Gold Chain, among the Offerings at a Temperance Society" (1835), "Hymn for a Charitable Association" (1835), and "Prayers for the Deaf and Dumb" (about Hartford, Ct's pioneering Asylum for the Deaf & Dumb -- now the American School for the Deaf). For late 19th century fare, I recommend Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899). Written in the midst of an international crusade against the atrocities being committed against Africans in the Congo by Belgian Kind Leopold -- who owned the area as his personal property. It is the tale of philanthropy gone wrong -- and is particularly resonant with today's events in and illusions about America's Iraq adventure. (Order Heart of Darkness from Amazon.Com.) For early twentieth century American material, the work of Sinclair Lewis gives a wonderful panorama of associational life in mid-America. Main Street (1920) tells the women's side, Babbitt (1922), the men's. The section in Babbitt describing the real estate deal-protagonist's application of business methods to congregational growth is priceless. Elmer Gantry (1927) takes on evangelical religion and its methods. Arrowsmith (1925) deals with the dilemmas of science, funding, and professional ethics. (Order Main Street, Babbitt, Elmer Gantry or Arrowsmith from Amazon.Com.) While John P. Marquand's famous satire on Boston Brahmins, The Late George Apley (1936), does not deal directly with philathropy, it contains alot of rich material on elite attitudes and involvements in the city's charitable institutions. (Order The Late George Apley from Amazon.Com.) Mid-century gems include: Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man (1952), which provides a rare glipse of philanthropy from the standpoint of its recipients -- and from the standpoint of southern Blacks. An early section of the book portrays a young black man's encounter with one of the white northern wealthy benefactors of his all-black southern college. (Order Invisible Man from Amazon.Com.) (Also recommended by Robyn Gibboney, below. -- Ed.) Sloan Wilson's superb The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955) features a foundation executive and gives interesting insights into the early culture of postwar philanthropoids. (Order The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit from Amazon.Com.) (The film is recommended by Dr. Stefan Toepler, below. -- Ed.) Louis Auchincloss wrote a good deal on charitable institutions -- and his views are particularly valuable, since he had wide experience as an institutional trustee and attorney to NYC's charitable elite. He's especially good on the social context of elite philanthropy, where estate planning, tax avoidance, vanity, and the politics of families and law firms join. His goodies include: "The Wagnerians" a wonderful short story about the political machinations of an elite arts (opera) board. Set in elite NYC of the 1890s. In Auchincloss's 1964 collection of short stories, Tales of Manhattan. (Tales of Manhattan is out of print. -- Ed.) "The Power of Bequest" in his 1963 collection, Powers of Attorney, deals with a faltering partner in an elite NYC law firm who gets taken in by a bogus millionaire who wants him to set up a foundation. In "The Power of Appointment," also in Powers of Attorney, a legal error by an aging partner leads to a large estate "falling into the lap of old Mrs. Baxter's unsupecting but grateful pet charity, the Institute for the Relief of Indigent Descendants of American Revolutionary Officers." A wonderful tale of wills, trusts, and the men who make (and unmake) them. (Powers of Attorney is out of print. -- Ed.) In "The Prison Window," in his Collected Stories (1995), explores the tensions between a museum curator who sees in her collections of the artifacts of NYC's colonial elite as a sanctuary of enlightenment and a "modish" professional museum administrator who dismisses them as "the interior decoration of the rich." As long-time president of the Museum of the City of NY, Auchincloss was evidently writing from experience. (Order Collected Stories from Amazon.Com.) There is curiously little in the realm of science or horror fiction dealing with philanthropy that I know of -- though Robert Heinlein's 1973 novel, Time Enough for Love is the story of a genetically superior human strain which uses a variety of nonprofits to advance its interests (including a family foundation established in 1873). (Order Time Enough for Love from Amazon.Com.)
The is a collection of short stories (first published in 1920) by Anzia Yezierska, called Hungry Hearts. My favorite is one called "My Own People" about a young writer who discovers the difference between the 'philanthropy' of the 'friendly visitors' and the generousity of the poor. (Order Hungry Hearts from Amazon.Com.) A classic novel with philanthropy woven through it as a theme is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. (Order Invisible Man from Amazon.Com.)
For a humorous, and incisive view of the hazards of using celebrities in fundraising, Helen Fielding's novel, settings in London and a refugee camp in Central Africa, it was described by a reviewer in the Boston Globe as "Bridget Jones joins a MASH unit stationed in the Heart of Darkness." (Order Cause Celeb from Amazon.Com.)
My all time favorite is Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.....a very sensible approach to foundation work. (Order God Bless You Mr. Rosewater from Amazon.Com.)
While it's not exactly a "traditional" fundraising idea, in John Grisham's The Street Lawyer, the opening 50 pages or so are well worth reading. A down and out street activist -- now a suicide bomber -- corrals 20 lawyers into a locked board room and threatens to blow himself and them up unless each lawyer tells him how much he gave to charity in the last year-- and justifies why so little. (Order The Street Lawyer from Amazon.Com.)
Jane Smiley's "Moo" takes place on a midwest university campus, has a director of development as a character, and also characters with research grants and endowed chairs. Although there's only a bit about fundraising in the book, it's a must-read for anybody in academia. It's very funny, and you are bound to recognize "someone" in the book (Smiley wrote from first-hand experience). The omnipotent Dean's secretary has always been my favorite.... (Order Moo from Amazon.Com.)
Der Besuch der alten Dame by Friedrich Duerrenmatt is a delicious tale of how a revengeful woman wreaks havoc on her former town by offering a very large gift with certain strings attached... There's an English translation (called The Visit: a Tragi-Comedy) by Patrick Bowles, 1962. (Order The Visit from Amazon.Com.)
Burr, Bettz. Blue Ladies. Seaview Books, New York, 1980. (Apparently out of print entirely; Amazon.Com has no entries for this title and author.) Here's a quote from the book: "She wasn't a very good fund-raiser, probably not even a half-decent one, but she did know that people never gave away something for nothing. The golden glow of good feeling being the reward for philanthropic activity was a complete myth. People gave in order to get. It was very simple. What was the carrot for their particular nose? What made their saliva spurt and their palms itch? Their name in the paper? A place on the board of trustees? A brass plaque? Having dinner seated beside a Mayflower decendant? Dancing with a WASP? All you had to do was figure out what it was they wanted. Most of the time they didn't even know themselves. There were as many carrots as there were people." (pg 27) This is one of my all time favorite quotes. I recently rediscovered the book and am reading it again. It is a novel about a fundraiser in a low end New York art Museum who is given a massive and important art collection. All of a sudden, she is in the midst of the Jr. Leaguers and society blue ladies. A fun read though trashy and out of date. (More from Jeff Hale on 10/21/03. --Ed.) You all might enjoy "Christmas Means Giving" in Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. It is a perfect example of a modern potlatch. (Order Holidays on Ice from Amazon.Com.) Some of you might be interested in "Within Our Gates," a silent film and the first full length film made by a Black director. It tells the story of an African-American woman going north to raise funds for a poor southern black school. (A video of "Within Our Gates" is available from Hollywood's Attic at http://www.hollywoodsattic.com/shopping/pricelist.asp?prid=1942.) Of course there are always The Millionaire TV show, Mr. Deeds, Trading Places, Oliver Twist, and Pay it Forward. My favorites are the final scene in Smoke. (Order Mr Deeds (VHS), Trading Places (VHS), Oliver Twist (VHS), or Pay It Forward (VHS)from Amazon.Com.) Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster is a must see or read. (Out of print. --Ed.) Twilight Zone Episode 114 "I Dream of Genie" has one of the greatest philanthropy scenes of all time. A university president asks a wealthy donor to make a significant lead gift as part of a capital campaign. The donor writes a check on the spot for the amount of the ENTIRE campaign. The college president rejects the gift saying "J.D. you have to let other people be generous too" as he returns the check. Yea, like that happens in real! life. The Twilight Zone Episode "To Serve Man" is a wonderful spin on Johnathan Smith's a Modest Proposal. (That episode is based on the short story "To Serve Man" by Damon Knight. The story was first published in Galaxy (November, 1950). --Ed.)
War with the Newts by Karel Capek (Czech writer) is a wonderful book, set as science fiction about a new breed of newts that are highly skilled and trainable and are then exploited to work for humans. Within the story there is a charity for the protection of newts, which captures the paternalism of charity very well. There is also an interesting angle on academics, debating newt definitions and typologies as the world is slowly being destroyed. (Order War of the Newts from Amazon.Com.) The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel. Which is about political action and the desire to create a better society. (Order The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists from Amazon.Com.)
My all-time TV favorite is the campaign "Condos for Christ" on the old Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman show. Then there's the wonderful Jenny Cain mystery series (Jenny runs a community foundation) by Nancy Pickard. (Unfortunately, all the Jenny Cain books are reported by http://www.amazon.com">Amazon.Com to be out of print; use the advanced search feature with Jenny Cain as a 'subject' to find the used copies on offer.)
Amy Kass, The Perfect Gift (Indiana University Press, 2003), offers many short selections from fiction appropriate to discussions of philanthropy and charity. (As co-editor of the IU Press series on Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector, I should declare my interest -- but I can add that I understand, from the press, that this book is selling quite well). (Order The Perfect Gift from Amazon.Com.) Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, set in a mythical English cathedral town in the middle nineteenth century, captures many of the essential qualities of nonprofit organizations; it is realistic, comic, tough, humane, and readable. (Order Barchester Towers from Amazon.Com.)
Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield thriller Blood Money involves an elaborate and well-articulated scheme to distribute several billion (!) in ill-gotten gains throughout the American nonprofit sector. (Order Blood Money from Amazon.Com.)
For one interesting literary perspective, let us please not forget Kurt Vonnegut's, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. (Order God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater from Amazon.Com.)
Movie: "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (1956) Gregory Peck plays a WWII veteran who was working for a foundation after the war before being hired by a high-powered Madison Avenue firm to work on the philanthropic pet project of the president. After being lured from his quiet, but low paid foundation job by Madison Avenue status and pay schemes, he struggles to reconcile family life (among other things) with corporate politics and participation in the rat race. (Order the video of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit from Amazon.Com.) Literature (if you will): There is a science fiction trilogy by Isaac Asimov (The Foundation Trilogy), which I never read. I've been told though that it is among the very few popular culture treatments of foundations. I suppose it is about some scientist in the far future who uses a foundation to collect (wo)mankinds knowledge in a galactical encyclopedia before the final extinction of our race; or something like that. (Note: I'm not sure that Isaac Asimov's use of the word "foundation" in these books has much to do with the sense of the term in the context of twenty-first century American nonprofits. For an introduction to the various titles in Asimov's "Foundation" series, see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/55/002-4639488-9320032 -- PB)
'Foundations'...huge secretive organizations who use their money somehow to 'rule the world'... And I'll add that virtually every 'front organization' of all of James Bond's 'enemies' were such organizations!
Robertson Davies' Cornish Trilogy has some good stuff about a foundation in it. Mordecai Richler's wonderful Barney's Version has an hilarious conversation between Barney and Duddy Kravitz (those who remember DK as a young hustler played by Richard Dreyfuss will realise that he's a now a wealthy old hustler...). Dickens is full of wonderful charitable stereotypes - see the book 'Dickens on Charity', and especially Bleak House. Order these suggestions from Amazon.Com:
I was just discussing "The Millionaire" television series at a business meeting today. (Unfortunately, everyone else at the meeting was too young to remember the show, and I had to describe it for them!) The philanthropist was John Beresford Tipton, and we never saw his face -- just the back of his head peeping up over the top of his leather wing chair. His "ambassador/assistant" was Michael Anthony, who each week took the packet with the million dollar check to the lucky recipient. (Unfortunately, most of their lives seemed to deteriorate as a result of receiving the gift?!?!?!?) The recipients were sworn to secrecy and could never mention the gift except to their husband or wife, if they married.
While this isn't a novel, there is a wonderful British TV series (Friday nights at 8 pm ET, repeated overnight) now being run on BBC America called "At Home with The Braithwaites" that quite amusingly but realistically shows the trials and tribulations of a suburban housewife who wins $38 million pounds in the lottery and decides to give it away. While trying to keep it a secret from her rambunctious family, she is learning a lot of lessons about the business of philanthropy as she has had to set up a charitable trust and organization. In novels, there's certainly a lot in Dickens - from fundraising from Scrooge ("Are there no poor houses?") on to Miss Havisham's misguided philanthropy etc. etc.
There's a British charitable trust set up in a small vicarage in Trollope's The Warden, which is short, easy to read, and a scathing examination of trusts set up in perpetuity. (Order The Warden from Amazon.Com.) Sinclair Lewis' Pulitzer Prize winning Arrowsmith tells the "story of a doctor who is forced to give up his trade for reasons ranging from public ignorance to the publicity-mindedness of a great foundation, and becomes an isolated seeker of scientific truth." (The description comes from Amazon.) (Order Arrowsmith from Amazon.Com.) NOTE: More suggestions are definitely welcome! Posted 1/19/99; additions 10/03; 1/05 -- PB |