Money Well Spent

Winner of the 2009 Skystone Ryan Prize for Research, Association of Fundraising Professionals Research Council “All outstanding philanthropic successes have one thing in common: They started with a smart strategic plan,” say authors Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Hal Harvey, president of ClimateWorks. Money Well Spent explains how to create and implement a strategy that ensures meaningful results. Components of a smart strategy include: Achieving great clarity about one’s philanthropic goals Specifying indicators of success before beginning a project Designing and implementing a plan commensurate with available resources Evidence-based understanding of the world in which the plan will operate Paying careful attention to milestones to determine if you are on the path to success or if midcourse corrections are necessary Drawing on examples from over 100 foundations and non-profits, Money Well Spent gives readers the framework they need to design a smart strategy, addressing such key issues as: Effective use of tools—education, science, direct services, advocacy—that can achieve your objectives. How to choose the forms of funding to achieve stated goals How to measure the impact of grants or programs When to be patient and stick with a winning strategy and when to abandon a strategy that isn’t working This is a book for everyone who wants to get the most from a philanthropic dollar: donors, foundations, and non-profits.

Money Matters for Eternity When you think about money, you probably think about what it can do for you here, now, in this life. But did you know how you invest your money has an eternal impact? Author Russ Crosson—executive vice president of Ronald Blue Trust and a highly respected financial advisor—offers a look at how to manage your money with eternity in view. You’ll learn the difference between prosperity—the accumulation of goods on this earth, and posterity—the heritage left to the generations who follow you. Discover a new way of thinking about money and how to get a higher return on life itself—as you learn how to add posterity time to your busy schedule best balance your career and family invest in your children and grandchildren include God in your financial planning model a biblical attitude toward money for your children You can make an eternal impact today when you learn to manage your money—and your life—well.

If you think money can’t buy happiness, you’re not spending it right. Two rising stars in behavioral science explain how money can buy happiness—if you follow five core principles of smarter spending. If you think money can’t buy happiness, you’re not spending it right. Two rising stars in behavioral science explain how money can buy happiness—if you follow five core principles of smarter spending. Happy Money offers a tour of new research on the science of spending. Most people recognize that they need professional advice on how to earn, save, and invest their money. When it comes to spending that money, most people just follow their intuitions. But scientific research shows that those intuitions are often wrong. Happy Money explains why you can get more happiness for your money by following five principles, from choosing experiences over stuff to spending money on others. And the five principles can be used not only by individuals but by companies seeking to create happier employees and provide “happier products” to their customers. Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton show how companies from Google to Pepsi to Crate & Barrel have put these ideas into action. Along the way, the authors describe new research that reveals that luxury cars often provide no more pleasure than economy models, that commercials can actually enhance the enjoyment of watching television, and that residents of many cities frequently miss out on inexpensive pleasures in their hometowns. By the end of this book, readers will ask themselves one simple question whenever they reach for their wallets: Am I getting the biggest happiness bang for my buck?

Drawing on the Fund’s analytical and capacity development work, including Public Investment Management Assessments (PIMAs) carried out in more than 60 countries, the new book Well Spent: How Strong Infrastructure Governance Can End Waste in Public Investment will address how countries can attain quality infrastructure outcomes through better infrastructure governance—an issue becoming increasingly important in the context of the Great Lockdown and its economic consequences. It covers critical issues such as infrastructure investment and Sustainable Development Goals, controlling corruption, managing fiscal risks, integrating planning and budgeting, and identifying best practices in project appraisal and selection. It also covers emerging areas in infrastructure governance, such as maintaining and managing public infrastructure assets and building resilience against climate change.

Personal finance journalist, Michelle McGagh, takes on a challenge to not spend money for a whole year in an engaging narrative that combines personal experience with accessible advice on money so you can learn to spend less and live more. Michelle McGagh has been writing about money for over a decade but she was spending with abandon and ignoring bank statements. Just because she wasn't in serious debt, apart from her massive London mortgage, she thought she was in control. She wasn't. Michelle's took a radical approach and set herself a challenge to not spend anything for an entire year. She paid her bills and she has a minimal budget for her weekly groceries but otherwise Michelle spent no money at all. She found creative ways to live have a social life and to travel for free. She has saved money but more importantly she is happier. Her relationship with money, with things, with time, with others has changed for the better. The No Spend Year is Michelle's honestly written and personal account of her challenge. But it is more than that, it is also a tool for life. There are top tips for your own finances including easy to understand advice on interest, mortgages, savings , pensions and spending less to help you live a more financially secure life.

HOW DOES MONEY HELP IN CREATING A HAPPY LIFE? In The Geometry of Wealth, behavioral finance expert Brian Portnoy delivers an inspired answer based on the idea that wealth, truly defined, is funded contentment. It is the ability to underwrite a meaningful life. This stands in stark contrast to angling to become rich, which is usually an unsatisfying treadmill. At the heart of this groundbreaking perspective, Portnoy takes readers on a journey toward wealth, informed by disciplines ranging from ancient history to modern neuroscience. He contends that tackling the big questions about a joyful life and tending to financial decisions are complementary, not separate, tasks. These big questions include: • How is the human brain wired for two distinct experiences of happiness? And why can money “buy” one but not the other? • Why is being market savvy among the least important aspects of creating wealth but self-awareness among the most? • Can we strike a balance between pushing for more and being content with enough? This journey memorably contours along three basic shapes: A circle, triangle, and square help us visualize how we adapt to evolving circumstances, set clear priorities, and find empowerment in simplicity. In this accessible and entertaining book, Portnoy reveals that true wealth is achievable for many—including those who despair it is out of reach—but only in the context of a life in which purpose and practice are thoughtfully calibrated.

Leading psychologist and financial commentator Palaian offers a tested, step-by-step guide to help people break the spending obsession by looking within. Today, Americans are saving less, carrying larger debt loads, losing their homes to foreclosure, and filing bankruptcy in record numbers. Yet, people continue to spend more than they can afford.The advice of financial planners only treats the symptoms of overspending. In Spent, Sally Palaian offers proven plans for taking on a range of personal issues with money by examining those underlying emotional, familial, and societal factors that trigger spending behaviors.Spent teaches readers to control shopping, pay off debt, develop budgets, and become financially competent through:easy-to-use assessment tools designed to pinpoint the severity of a problemquestionnaires that facilitate the exploration of the root causes of unhealthy financial behaviorsuser-friendly exercise created to influence change from withinPalaian's system for financial recovery is also designed to help hoarders, financial codependents, and underachievers attain lasting, positive change and a healthy view of one's true value in life.Leading psychologist and financial commentator Sally Palaian offers a tested, step-by-step guide to help people break the spending obsession by looking within. She has spoken about financial disorders for various therapy associations and has served as an expert in the media on mental disorders and spending, most recently for MSN Money.

Time is limited. Attention is scarce. Are you engaging your customers? Apple Stores, Disney, LEGO, Starbucks. Do these names conjure up images of mere goods and services, or do they evoke something more--something visceral? Welcome to the Experience Economy, where businesses must form unique connections in order to secure their customers' affections--and ensure their own economic vitality. This seminal book on experience innovation by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore explores how savvy companies excel by offering compelling experiences for their customers, resulting not only in increased customer allegiance but also in a more profitable bottom line. Translated into thirteen languages, The Experience Economy has become a must-read for leaders of enterprises large and small, for-profit and nonprofit, global and local. Now with a brand-new preface, Pine and Gilmore make an even stronger case for experiences as the critical link between a company and its customers in an increasingly distractible and time-starved world. Filled with detailed examples and actionable advice, The Experience Economy helps companies create personal, dramatic, and even transformative experiences, offering the script from which managers can generate value in ways aligned with a strong customer-centric strategy.