Book Review–How We Give Now: A Philanthropic Guide for the Rest of Us, by Lucy Bernholz

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the ways that we care for one another. The crisis has likewise demanded and inspired new and intensified giving practices, including mutual aid and crowdfunding. How We Give Now is therefore a timely exploration of old and new ways of giving in the USA. Bernholz, who is a senior research scholar at the Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, reminds readers that tax-deductible charitable donations reflect only a fraction of the everyday giving practices of Americans. Cultivating a more expansive definition of “giving,” the author hopes to empower readers to contribute their money, time, and personal data to generate social change.

As the subtitle suggests, this book is a guide to help readers navigate the plethora of giving products and tools that are available—what Bernholz calls the “givingscape.” It highlights acts of giving that go beyond the commodified options with which Americans are regularly bombarded: rounding up grocery bills or buying branded items that promise to benefit a designated charity. In contrast to these market-driven products, Bernholz presents short case studies of voluntary initiatives that are mostly created by and for specific (often racialized) communities, ranging from a children’s safe walk program to a giving circle where members collectively decide where their donations will go. One of the author’s main arguments—well served by her chosen examples—is that if readers want to effect social change, they must be able to differentiate between giving options that commodify relationships and monopolize power for the wealthy versus those that build community and democratize power.

By the author’s own description, the book is aimed specifically at a white audience: “I hope…to help everyday White givers–and the White majority that dominates professional philanthropy–to see that our current laws and practices are narrow and exclusionary, built on racist structures and stolen wealth, and in need of change” (p.18). Despite a commendable effort to highlight BIPOC voices in the case studies, there is room for a stronger and more consistent analysis of race and racialized inequalities throughout the book. The use of the term “the Rest of Us” in the title should also likely be reconsidered given the intended audience.

One of the author’s more distinctive arguments is that non-wealthy Americans underestimate the value of donating personal data. An oft-cited example is the app iNaturalist, through which nature enthusiasts upload and tag photographs of organisms that are then shared with scientists. As delightful and valuable as this project is, I do wonder why the author defines this primarily as a donation of data instead of as a donation of time and knowledge to collect and identify data. Put differently, if volunteers took and mailed photographs to a scientific data repository, would Bernholz conceive of this action as “data donation”? If so, what are the benefits (and shortcomings) of this framing?

Furthermore, the book fails to acknowledge that data donation is likely better suited to some causes than others. This is apparent in the more convincing examples of data donation that Bernholz provides: most of the opportunities—such as granting researchers access to one’s health and fitness data through a Fitbit or blood pressure monitor—relate to medical and health research. Meanwhile, it is difficult to imagine how one could meaningfully donate data to support a local food bank or to improve access to vaccines in poor countries. At a time of mounting global inequalities, we should not overlook this potential limitation of data donations. It is also worth asking—particularly in the case of many social justice issues—whether the problem is a lack of data or, rather, that the privileged and powerful are willing to ignore the data that shows that systemic inequalities exist.

Overall, the strength of this book lies in Bernholz’s sustained critique of the increasingly commodified “givingscape.” The sections on data donation, however, might leave readers with more questions than answers.