Executive Summary: The Act of Giving

--Book review of “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World” by Bill Clinton

“Life is not fair”[1], I regret to admit it, but this is the reality in the modern society. There are people who would spend thousands on clothes, while there are millions of people only getting two dollars per day; There are people who live in a over ten thousand feet square foot house, yet thousands of people do not have their own shelters. The book “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World” by Bill Clinton--the former president of United States is to address various global issues in the society, examine the charity and social involvement around the world, and to encourage people to contribute whatever they can to the help people who need it.

The title of the book has summarized the essential idea, which is the act of giving. It has categorized giving into different ways—money, time, things, skills, and good ideas. In each forms of giving, he has revealed the innovative efforts that made by nongovernmental nonprofits organizations (NGOs), the extraordinary contribution made by individuals and companies. All these examples have urged us to value our life, to think about what we can we give to the world, what how can we make a change to help other to be closer to their dreams.

Bill Clinton has demonstrated that the act of giving by listing various charity organization, global issue projects and individual contribution; he believes that everyone has the ability to give. Bill Gates is one of the examples he used throughout the book. Gates is a well-known figure in the software industry; he is the one of the wealthiest person in the world. Not only he is successful in his career, he has founded of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce the world’s inequalities in health, education and development. He is one of the models of giving money. Followed by Bill Gates, there are many more organizations formed, more wealthy individuals have traced his footprint to give money to help the undeveloped countries, to help them fight for poverty and diseases, such as Warren Buffet, Oprah, Sterling Stamos and many others.

Giving money is not the only way of giving, most people are only earning the moderate income, their salaries are just about to support their families, and however everyone has time or things or skills to contribute to society. Clinton has said in his book, the amount of good that so many individuals and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) have been able to do has proven to me that almost everyone — regardless of income, available time, age, and skills — can do something useful for others and, in the process, strengthen the fabric of our shared humanity."[2] He has highlighted Dr. Paul Farmer, who is a model of giving time, who graduated from Harvard medical school. He has a miserable childhood, where he lived in a bus with his family until he went to college. Even he grew up from this harsh condition, his parents were still helping those who were in the worse situation than they did. After all the economic insecurity he had, he didn’t choose to live in luxurious life for the rest of his life, instead he chose to work in developing countries to help the poor in health issues. He has a strong interest to in global health issues; he founded Partners in Health, where they give health care to the poor. Also, he opened up clinic in poor nation, provided them health service, and worked closely with patients in Rwandan who suffer from AIDS.

Clinton has also taken action to make a difference in the world. He is very actively involved in community, global health issues, promoting education, fighting for poverty. After he left White house, he wanted to contribute the rest of his life to the society. Through his foundation—Clinton Global Initiative, they helped developing nations to adapt better health systems to deal with AIDS/HIV and other diseases, the organization has provided them with medical equipments, medicines and vaccines with the lowest cost. In addition, he has worked with university of Arkansa in the United States, established a graduate school of public service to encourage more young people to devote their career into serve the others, and help the nation grow as a whole.

Often people would think celebrities, people with extreme wealth have a strong influence in fund raising, publicizing awareness of global issues and serving in the community. But they are not the only ones who can make a change, who can make an impact in the world. Each one of us can make a difference in the world as well. We are all capable to give something back to the society. Maybe we do not have a million dollar to donate, cannot devote our entire life living in a poor nation to help them grow, but there are many different ways we can give in, we can contribute to the world to make a difference. Volunteering in the local community, giving out the things we do not need helping youth by tutoring them, or even go to the developing countries to work on health-related projects, are all the possible ways we can make a positive change in the society. If everyone contributes a little, it mounts up just like butterfly effect, which will lead to drastic global change, it lead everyone to live in a peaceful life, leads everyone in this planet have an opportunities to reach their dreams.

Throughout the entire book, Clinton has highlighted the globalization of compassion. It is not people in the same nation help their own people anymore, but they are out-reaching the other nations; help them to cope their problems. This movement ties the entire nation together; making us a big family, also strengthen the international relationship among different cultures and nations.

Overall, it is a great book for promoting the action of giving. Bill Clinton has revealed many well-established charitable organizations, provided many options to give people ideas for effective giving. He said, “We all live in an interdependent world in which our survival depends upon an understanding that our common humanity is more important than our interesting and inevitable differences and that everyone matters.”[3] Giving does not only makes a beneficial impact on others, but also build up individuals’ morality, making ones’ feel good about themselves. This book is great for managers, it leads them not only think about how to maximize their profit, but how to promote their products or services to make a differences in the world.

[1] Sykes, Charles J. “Some Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School.” The San Diego Union-Tribune. 19 September 1996.
[2] Clinton, Bill, 2007, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
[3] Clinton, Bill, 2007, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.