Fund-of-funds Books

Tirole has written an invaluable book that sheds light to a complex and extremley actual topic. By showing once again his seriousness as an economist (as opposed to others; i.e. Stiglitz), he goes back to first principles to understand the source of problems in international contracts. The application of modern corporate finance to international finance is extraordinary.
Even the first chapters should be obligatory reading to any student of international macro (even in the first macro course). The first one gives a concise history of modern currency crisis -the so called first twenty-first century crisis- while the second one masterfully summarizes the economists views on the subject.
Good economics, great topic, amazing timing.

While most economists are still puzzled by the most recent foreign exchange and banking crises - such as the ones that took place last year in Argentina and Uruguay - and some of them (like Stiglitz) are proposing reckless and innefective solutions, such as abolishing the IMF and most of the existing international agencies, Jean Tirole presents a more pensive and fruitful explanation of why these crises occur, and sheds new light towards a much more effective solution. His approach is based on a new field of agency theory called Corporate Finance, which deals with the set of institutions that make it credible for the suppliers of funds to recover their investments in an specific firm.

Tirole applies the basic principles of the prudential regulation of banks, that he worked before in collaboration with Mathias Dewatripont (MIT Press, 1994, ISBN: 0262041464), and which contains much of what we have learned through the twentieth century about financial crises. According to this approach, both the international financial and monetary systems would work much better if we had international risk classifying agencies on the one hand, providing information to investors about the liquidity and solvency of debtor countries, and a lender of last resort on the other. The trouble with the IMF is that it tries to perform both functions.

However, what makes external borrowing more complicated than a typical financial arrangement is the presence of a third player, that is the borrower's government which has both the incentives and the means to affect the foreing investor's return by manipulating the exchange rate or the capital mobility. Because the investors' return is affected by the behaviour of two agents, the borrower himself and its government, Tirole calls this a dual agency problem.

Tirole proposes an institutional reform in which the IMF should redefine its original mission, by concentrating in the role of facilitating the country's favourable access to foreign borrowing. This role underlies the (controversial) task of pre-qualification and conditionality. The IMF should also redefine its internal structure if it wants to perform well this new role. Its Board of Governors is too big and too heterogeneous to allow rapid and efficient decisions.

In summary, this book presents and original and groundbreaking approach to financial crises which, as we expected from the beginning, arises more questions than answers. However, we know that the only way to find the appropriate solution to a problem is by formulating the right questions, and this is exactly what Tirole does. I am convinced that if the international agencies follow this approach they will soon find the right way to prevent or to lessen international financial crises, in the same way as central banks and financial regulatory agencies did with domestic banking crises during the last century.

The book's focus is on angel investment. But it supplies guidance that applies to any new venture. The summary business plan in the back of the book is without a doubt the best I've seen--and I've read more than a dozen books about planning, venture capital, etc. I recently completed a business plan based on the guidance in this book. So far, I've got very good feedback. If the substance is as good as the plan, I should be seeing a check any day now...

An strikingly well-researched and elegantly written book that delivers insight and concrete information about finding and winning investors. Highly recommended. (I write business plans for a living!)

As a Feynman fan and layperson with a reasonable understanding of his work I found this book lost me before I was halfway into the first chapter. It looks good coursework material and from what I can tell is packed with amazing amounts of information. But without a strong fundamental grounding in basic physics this book will remain on your bookshelf.

This book is a kind of classic for what it is: a presentation of some "simple" ways of understanding certain phenomena in elementary particle physics. It's simple if you understand something of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), Feynman diagrams, and basic quantum field theory. You must be able to infer the computational implications of Feynman diagrams.

If you can do this, you may find the book to be useful and unique. If you can't, you're pretty much wasting your time with it.

I guess they would call it "Chutzpah", to publicly use the same big lie twice within the span of twenty or so years.

This book documents quite well how the magic number of "six million" was used in the period right after World War One in order to raise millions to help European Jews allegedly "on the brink of annihilation".

But just like today, instead of helping people who were having a rough time of it, (as many of every ethnic group were in post-war Europe), the big Jewish organizations funneled the money into their own pet projects and bank accounts to only help themselves.

Thus, we begin to see the story of the "six million", (and it is nothing more than a story!), as just another business opportunity to get money from the gullible.

As for the so-called "holocaust" of World War Two, that is the "new and improved" version of the old product, packaged for everyones tastes, with the ultimate prize being the eternal flow of money from the "Goyum", and the dispossession of the Palestinians.

A revisionist classic that questions the Holocaust facts in a scholarly and academic and non-hateful and very loving way. Yet the publisher, Germar Rudolf, is in jail in Germany for THOUGHT CRIMES for writing "Lectures on the Holocaust."

It has photographs, maps, etc. on at least every other page. It covers nearly all of the major archeological findings up to the end of the B.C. years. Written in a easily readable style by a person who cares more about the quality of the concrete evidence than making surmises or speculations from it. I would have liked more associations made with what's been found in Britain and the Continent, but it's still a five-star overview.

This book, by the archaeologist who excavated Newgrange, is an excellent resource for anyone interested in European prehistory. Though subtitled "An Introduction to Irish Prehistory," the book does not shy away from indepth scientific and archaeological evidence, either supporting or refuting conventional theories; thus, the book would be better classified as intermediate to advanced. One would be hard pressed to find a better resource of Irish prehistory.

Ms Zukowski provides key insights for the non-profit group or organization that is seeking to position itself with major donnors. Her practical and effective recommendations will save significant time and effort.

For Corporations already active in non-profit funding, or those corporations interested in creating foundations, etc., will find this book helpful in working with groups seeking assistance.

Linda Zukowski has done a real service for people who are seeking charitable funds from corporations. Her book, based on a survey of corporate grantmakers in California and the Pacific Northwest, is straightforward and absolutely packed with facts and excellent advice. She quotes actual responses grantmakers made to her questions about everything from trends in giving to the details of how to best approach them. She also provides graphs and charts, for us visually-oriented people, and an appendix that gives all the results of her survey. Her realistic and logical approach is great. I highly recommend this book, especially for anyone working with corporate donors based in the Western U.S - and anyone who needs to frame and/or justify their work with factual information about how corporate giving really works!

I'm using this book as a crutch in my volunteer activities with a local non-profit. It's excellently written and helps as a primer for both the strategic and tactical parts of our efforts. I highly recommended as a starting point and a reference for any individual or group that is looking for a good framework to help approach the highly-complex and difficult world of getting the fuel to make a non-profit successful.

The Jossey-Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series adds another excellent resource with the publication of Mal Warwick's book, The Five Strategies for Fundraising Success: A mission-based guide to achieving your goals.

The central thesis of this nearly 300-page volume is that the way you raise funds for your organization can help you achieve your mission. Warwick finds that too often organizations tie their fund raising to short-term, fiscal year goals that require fund raisers to "get the money in the door now" rather than taking the time to cultivate donors for larger, future gifts.

In The Five Strategies, Warwick introduces the reader to the GIVES System, a method for analyzing, planning and evaluating an organization's fundraising strategy. The strategies are: Growth, Involvement, Visibility, Efficiency and Stability, hence GIVES.

In discussing Growth as a fundraising strategy, Warwick is not focusing on raising more money per se, but rather on broadening the donor base, having more donors next year than this year, and still more the year after that. A Growth strategy, according to this book, is dynamic and is characterized by audacious goals, bold leadership and low entry-level gifts.

Involvement as a strategy takes organizations beyond seeking gifts from donors to building stronger relationships with them. When supporters are active and committed, organizations can raise far more money. Organizations for whom public opinion is crucial are encouraged to adopt a Visibility strategy. Characteristics of the strategy are broad public interest, many stakeholders and brand identification.

Raising money at the lowest possible cost per dollar raised is the key to an Efficiency strategy. Planned giving, major gift programs, foundation and corporate grant solicitation and monthly giving are among the tactics that can be employed in an efficiency strategy. Warwick warns, however, that efficiency isn't always the best approach. A careful analysis of the organization's strategic choices is required.

Endurance is the core attribute of the Stability strategy. Among the tactics that can be used in a stability strategy are to build an endowment fund; employ electronic funds transfer (EFT) for fulfillment of donor pledges and engage in diversified fundraising activities.

Selecting a strategy must take into account the life cycle of the development program, the age of the organization, or both. For each of the five strategies, Warwick provides several real-life examples, not all of them success stories. This is very helpful for understanding how it might work and in identifying potential pitfalls. Warwick points out that a single strategy is not likely to remain appropriate for all time for any given organization.

The book provides details on how to pick the right strategy for your organization, common obstacles to implementing the strategies, what fundraising tactics will work with each strategy and how to evaluate your strategies.

My only disagreement with Warwick is in his definitions of vision and mission. He defines vision as why your organization exists and mission as what it does. I see the mission as clarification of purpose and an indicator of why the organization is doing what it does, while vision is what the organization aspires to look like after it succeeds in implementing its strategies and achieving its potential. That difference of opinion aside, I think the book is a wonderful resource for everyone involved in the fundraising effort, from CEO's to development officers to board members to donors themselves.

Warwick's previous books have been related to direct response fundraising and most are "How-To" books. If you are looking for a book that provides a formula or set of instructions, The Five Strategies is not it. What you will find in this book, however, is a way to think strategically about your fundraising efforts. Mal Warwick's hope with The Five Strategies is that he can help those who work for and on behalf of not-for-profit organizations understand the consequences of the resource allocation choices they face and do a better job raising money for a sector that never has enough.

This book is gorgeous - well organized, beautifully colored, and written by the world's most authoritative experts in cancer. A very handy volume to have.

In November of 2007 the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund published a Landmark Report confirming that excess body fat causes cancer. The report is the most comprehensive ever published. It involved teams of scientists from around the world, hundreds of peer reviewers, and 21 international experts. They reviewed over 7,000 large-scale studies on diet, physical activity, and weight, and analyzed their effect on the risk for 17 different types of cancer. The report revealed that excess body fat increases risk for numerous cancers. The report also found that consuming red meat and processed meat causes cancer.

According to the report, carrying excess body fat is convincingly linked to six cancers and suggestive in others. Here is a summary of their conclusions:
Colon and Rectum Cancer - Body fatness is a cause of this cancer. Red meat (beef, pork and lamb) and processed meat (bacon, ham, sausage and lunchmeat) are also listed as causes of colorectal cancer. In fact, every 1.7 ounces of processed meat consumed per day increases risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent!
Kidney Cancer - Body fatness and smoking are causes of this kidney cancer.
Pancreas Cancer - Body fatness is a cause of this cancer.
Endometrium Cancer - Body fatness and abdominal fatness are causes of this cancer. Physical activity may protect against this cancer.
Post-menopausal breast cancer - Body fatness is a cause and abdominal fatness is probably also a cause of this cancer. Physical activity probably protects against postmenopausal breast cancer.
Adenocarcinoma of the Esophagus - Body fatness is a cause of this cancer.
Cancer of the Gallbladder - Body fatness is probably a cause of cancer of the gallbladder.

The Report's Recommendations for Cancer Prevention are:
1. Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight.
2. Be physically active as part of everyday life.
3. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods. Avoid sugary drinks.
4. Eat mostly foods of plant origin. (5 servings or more of vegetables and fruit daily)
5. Limit intake of red meat and avoid processed meat.
6. Limit alcoholic drinks.
7. Limit consumption of salt. Avoid moldy cereals (grains) or pulses (legumes).
8. Aim to meet nutritional needs through diet alone.
9. Breastfeed.
10. Cancer survivors should follow these recommendations.

This is a must read for everyone! Check out their web site. If you want help following their recommendations, I also recommend [[ASIN:097974590X THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams]]

Newly revised and updated in a 2001 edition, The Foundation Center's Guide To Grantseeking On The Web is a massive, authoritative, all-encompassing reference, sporting 700+ pages densely packed with valuable information. Half of the volume is dedicated to teaching readers about how to take advantage of corporate giving information on the Web, and the second half lists countless foundations and charities on the Web that accept applications for grants and donations. Black-and-white illustrations of web sites and the like round out this unique and exceptional reference, which is a "must" for any grant-seeker in today's modern, technology-driven world.

Compiled and edited by Kief Schladweiler, The Foundation Center's Guide To Grantseeking On The Web 2003 Edition is a massively extensive, 852-page resource of 3,00 grantmaker websites, and offers up a wealth of information concerning corporate grantmaking, searchable databases, government funding sources, online journals and newsletters, guidance for seeking individual donors online, and so much more. A thoroughly accessible guidebook enhanced with screenshots, illustrations, and explicit instructions, The Foundation Center's Guide To Grantseeking On The Web 2003 Edition is justifiably a very highly recommended reference for both amateur and professional grant-seekers.

This book is thorough and comprehensive in scope. It tells you exactly what you need to know to apply for a grant from the many organizations it lists. A good measure of its worth is that it's in its 11th update.

Both the graduate school office and the office of career counseling at my college have this book, and the staff guard it jealously--with good reason. It clearly describes each foundation and their guidelines for the type(s) of grants they make. In perusing this book, I didn't find a guide to writing a grant (probably because I was seeking foundation information), though other excellent books on how to do so exist elsewhere. If you want to cut to the chase, and save time and energy in targeting the right foundation(s) to meet your need, the hefty pricetag is worth your investment.