Family Foundation

2008, 141 pages. Council on Foundations, 2121 Crystal Drive, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22202 (703) 879-0600, www.cof.org

This robust report features a series of essays on aspects of rural philanthropy from a diverse range of perspectives. The conclusion, by Sherece Y. West, alone is worth the price of admission. The report concludes with a summary of funding recommendations from the Council on Foundations Conference on Philanthropy and Rural America: A 21st Century Agenda, held in August 2007 in Montana.

Working at a busy foundation involves a lot of reading and listening to smart people who are working hard to improve the world we live in. One thing comes across loud and clear: how little value added is being contemporaneously realized from the definitional leaps of our unsustainably complex verbiage.

In other words, it's time for us nonprofit people to learn to MAKE IT PLAIN.

2007, 48 Pages. FSG Social Impact Advisors, 20 Park Plaza, Suite 320, Boston, MA 02116, (617) 357-4000, www.fsg-impact.org
PDF online: www.fsg-impact.org

When funders move into indigenous communities they tread a very fine line. On one side of the line they have a duty to undertake sufficient investigation to ensure that they properly understand a funding request and their own role in relation to it. On the other side, obtaining the information may conflict with the ability to acknowledge and give appropriate respect to the applicant's indigenous culture and its bounds.

My first horse was like New Mexico.

On summer grass under an arch of the cottonwoods, no creature could have been more beautiful, at least to my eye. He was a big rangy bay with a white blaze, and he animated the afternoons just by lazing into view. He was an ordinary country gelding, but his long-limbed grace and equine pride conjured a kind of magic. At a hundred yards, when he lifted his head, I could feel his kingly disdain. He was all horse, not an ounce of Flicka, and he could fly over the hills. Not to coin a phrase, but I was enchanted.

2006, 90 pages, Grantmakers for Education, 720 S.W. Washington St., Suite 605, Portland, OR 97205, 503-595-2100, www.edfunders.org

Download pdf: www.educationdonor.org

2006, 32 pages. GFEM, c/o National Video Resources, 73 Spring St. Suite 403, New York, NY 10012, 212-274-8080, www.gfem.org

Download pdf: www.gfem.org

2006, 336 pages. Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th St, New York, NY 10021, 212-750-6000, info@rsage.org

124 pages. Western States Arts Federation, 1743 Wazee Street, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80202, 303-629-1166, www.westaf.org

Proceedings from this Western States Arts Federation symposium that included artists and arts administrators from all over the west-ern states, feature topics related to the emergence of a new generation of arts leaders