![](\"http:\/\/www.rusoffagency.com\/covers\/nonfiction\/GiveALittle_300_450.jpg\")
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Give a Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World<\/strong><\/a> At first glance, Give a Little,<\/em><\/strong> which has a theme of\u00a0the\u00a0transformative social\u00a0effects of cumulative small charitable donations,\u00a0is not the usual type of book that I review here. And in fact, I came across Give a Little<\/em><\/strong> in an unconventional way. Full Disclosure<\/em>: I know the author slightly and met her a few times previously and for social reasons, received an invitation to the book release party, which required that I pick up the book and read it even though it was not my usual genre.<\/p>\n I was struck\u00a0by several aspects.<\/p>\n First, the\u00a0quality level is high ( it reminded me most of a narrowly focused\u00a0Malcolm Gladwell<\/strong> book). Give a Little<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0was refashioned from a more academic study with plenty of statistical data\u00a0into a very readable\u00a0book for a popular audience. The sense of depth carries through.<\/p>\n Secondly, though I’m certain that the author, Wendy Smith<\/strong>,\u00a0who spent twenty years in the public\/NGO sector wasn’t thinking in these terms, the principles behind the humanitarian programs she examines also have the potential to revolutionize foreign aid and economic development policies and breathe life into the “civilian side” of COIN.<\/p>\n Smith’s chapters delve into a variety of the most successful , and at times least well known, programs that have two things in common: first, they are directed at permanently\u00a0improving the “human capital” or “social capital” of the recipients rather than sustaining a subsistence existence. Secondly, the programs\u00a0all manage an enormous ROI for every donation due to generating powerful, downstream, “ripple effect” benefits. Cents given today translate into tens or hundreds of dollars of positive outcomes gained and negative costs avoided tomorrow<\/p>\n There are many worthy organizations profiled ( ex. Ounce of Prevention<\/a><\/strong>, Bridges to Prosperity<\/strong> <\/a>etc.) and Smith offers the readers anecdotes that are deeply positive and uplifting narratives of individuals, families and communities transformed by the power of small donations designed to empower the people of the “bottom billion”. Mircolending and philanthropy issues are discussed, as is social investment policies but these subjects are not generally the focus of the readers of this blog.<\/p>\n Of this section of the blogosphere, who should read Give a Little<\/em><\/strong> and garner some “Aha!” moments?:<\/p>\n Those<\/a> interested in<\/a> COIN<\/a> and “connecting the Gap<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Those interested in building<\/a> “resilient communities<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Human<\/a> Terrain<\/a> experts.<\/p>\n Those who\u00a0write about\u00a0foreign aid, development<\/a>\u00a0and humanitarian NGO’s<\/a><\/p>\n Advocates of public<\/a> diplomacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Supporters of “decentralized<\/a>” or “localist<\/a>” strategies<\/p>\n Reformers who talk of Gov 2.0<\/a> and<\/a> national security<\/a><\/p>\n The Social<\/a> capitalists<\/a> and<\/a> unevenly distributed futurists<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Give a Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World\u00a0by Wendy Smith At first glance, Give a Little, which has a theme of\u00a0the\u00a0transformative social\u00a0effects of cumulative small charitable donations,\u00a0is not the usual type of book that I review here. And in fact, I came across Give a Little in an unconventional way. Full Disclosure: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[361,420,133,580,346,344,78,372,380,381,474],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-authors","category-book","category-collaboration","category-connectivity","category-gap","category-ideas","category-non-state-actors","category-organizations","category-society","category-soft-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=zenpundit-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1401323405\")