Sweet Charity

Why private giving is so important to America (and must not be wrecked by politics)

By: Karl Zinsmeister

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

From both the right and the left today there is pressure to constrain, control, censor, and crimp private charitable giving. A decade where some philanthropy became politicized has convinced certain politicians that our donating habits need to be reshaped by government. Careful reforms could indeed be useful, and this book offers some suggestions. But there is a danger that voluntary giving in America—one of the deepest sources of our national success—could be badly damaged by political manipulators. From our founding right up to the present moment, our nation’s independent charitable sector has been a source of vital social improvement that neither mandates by government nor the commercial activities of business have been able to supply. The fascinating grassroots reporting, real-life history, and high-level analysis in Sweet Charity show why we must not allow the donors and charities that do so much for our nation to be choked off by political forces that resent the independence, inventiveness, and pluralism of private giving.