Philanthropy, is becoming a huge enterprise, with wealthy businessmen setting aside fortunes for worthy cause. Their targets are ambitious: no less than the removal of disease, disparity and deprivation on a vast scale that even governments may not be able to tackle. Thus, Bill Gates is striving to eradicate AIDS and Azim Premji is donating billions towards improving primary school education. And the Tatas have been running a host of institutions that have made a positive difference in the lives of thousands over the decades.
In The Art of Effective Giving, R.M. Lala, director of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust for eighteen years, shows how the choice to give enriched the lives of leading businessmen who practised philanthropy with the same passion that they showed as entrepreneurs. These pacesetters can serve as examples for us to follow in our own small ways. For compassion is greater than wealth, and learning to care is all that is necessary to make a difference. The Art of Effective Giving is about spreading the circle of people willing to reach out to others for the sheer joy of giving.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR R.M. Lala
Editor, publisher and author, Russi M. Lala began his career as a journalist in 1948, at the age of nineteen. Shortly after this, he became an executive in a book publishing house. In 1959 he became the manager of the first Indian book publishing house in London and in 1964 he founded (with Rajmohan Gandhi) the newsweekly Himmat, which he edited for a decade. He published his first book, The Creation of Wealth: The Tata Story, to critical and commercial acclaim in 1981. This was followed by Encounters with the Eminent (1981); The Heartbeat of a Trust (1984); In Search of Leadership (1986); Beyond the Last Blue Mountain: A Life of J.R.D. Tata (1992); The Joy of Achievement: Conversations with J.R.D. Tata (1995) and Celebration of the Cells: Letters from a Cancer Survivor (1999). He has also edited, with S.A. Sabavala, a book of J.R.D. Tata’s speeches, Keynote (1986). R.M. Lala’s books have been translated into other languages including Japanese. He has been director of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust since 1985, and is the co-founder of the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy, and since 1993, its chairman.
There are no reviews yet.