What Comes Next?: How private givers can rescue America in an era of political frustration
About this ebook
It’s quite likely that politics and public policy will be sources of frustration for many Americans for years to come.
But even if Washington, D.C., remains frozen tundra for people who want to improve the nation, powerful culture change is within reach. As you are about to read, we’ve been in this position before. And the clear lesson of history is that there are many paths to progress other than those that run along the Potomac. There are precedents and prior triumphs we can copy, and many places we can productively invest to make our country better.
This short book explains how citizens have repeatedly used voluntary action, private giving, and the processes of civil society to dramatically elevate our society. In eras when our national prospects were considerably bleaker than they are now, Americans found effective ways to solve their problems. It can happen again.
This book offers inspiration and a practical roadmap for the next generation of patriotic philanthropists willing to organize, spend, and act to refine the United States of America, even in an era of political frustration.
About the author
Karl Zinsmeister oversees all magazine, book, and website publishing at The Philanthropy Roundtable in Washington, D.C. He also founded and advises the Roundtable’s program on philanthropy for veterans and servicemembers. Karl has authored 12 books, including the monumental Almanac of American Philanthropy published in 2016, a book on donor funding for public-policy change, a book on philanthropic support of charter schools, two different works of embedded reporting on the Iraq war, a storytelling cookbook, even a graphic novel published by Marvel Comics. He is creator of the “Sweet Charity” podcast, available on iTunes or at SweetCharityPodcast.org. He has made a PBS feature film and written hundreds of articles for publications ranging from the Atlantic to the Wall Street Journal. Earlier in his career he was a Senate aide to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then the J. B. Fuqua Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and editor in chief for nearly 13 years of The American Enterprise magazine. From 2006 to 2009 Karl served in the West Wing as the President’s chief domestic policy adviser and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. He is a graduate of Yale University, and also studied at Trinity College Dublin.
