The Business of Giving / Cass Business Press (PDF)

PETER GRANT Senior Fellow in Philanthropy, Grantmaking and Social Investment at the Sir John Cass Business School, City University London, UK. Following first and postgraduate degrees at the University of Essex, UK, where he spent rather more of his time running the film society, he ran an arts cinema and worked for the British Film Institute before becoming Director of an inner city youth and sports charity for eight years. Peter joined Sport England at the inception of the UK National Lottery where he was respectively Deputy Director of Operations and then Head of Public Affairs and Development. From 1999 to 2005 he was Director of Operations of the largest grantmaker in Europe, the New Opportunities Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund). His other publications include titles on cricket, voluntary sector history and management and he has recently completed his PhD thesis on the voluntary sector during the First World War. He is the current Chair of the Voluntary Action History Society, a trustee of the DHL Foundation and President of Kennington Cricket Club in Kent, UK.

'Peter's analysis of the funding environment is one of the most comprehensive, and thoughtful, I have ever seen. He brings the expertise of the practitioner together with the thoughtfulness of an academic, to a subject that is too often unexamined. In doing so he provides us all with insights and understanding about the delicate, and vitally important, ecology of our funding environment.' - Julia Unwin CBE, Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

'With erudition, good humour and elegant prose Peter Grant has produced an indispensable handbook on effective philanthropy and social investment. His clarion call is that how we fund is at least as important as what we fund. This comprehensive volume provides a unique history and professional guide to the subject. It also serves as a practical step-by-step manual for all who seek to ensure that the process of giving becomes an informed, rigorous and impactful activity.' - Sam Daws, Senior Advisor, United Nations Foundation.

'Peter Grant has given us a wonderful gift: a thought-provoking, comprehensive and readable guide on philanthropy and social investment which distils some of the best practices of this field, and which deserves to become an instant classic. I wish I had had The Business of Giving to hand when I started out as a grant-maker.' - Clare Brooks, Director of Philanthropy at Community Foundation Network