Making the Money Sing: Private Wealth and Public Power in the Search for Peace

Can well-placed funding make a difference in world affairs? In the early 1980s, a close-knit group of innovative philanthropists (including the author) dared to fund the burgeoning social movement to end the nuclear arms race. The nuclear freeze campaign and other organizations dedicated to disarmament thrived as a result of the timely investments of this group. Before long, larger foundations joined in, building a formidable opposition to Reagan's Cold War policies. The peace movement and arms control experts they funded built a public demand for detente and convinced decisionmakers to reduce the nuclear threat. At the end of the Cold War and throughout the 1990s, the funders' group fragmented into several different directions. Among those was support for a strong new movement toward civil society which meshes conflict resolution with a dedication to economic justice, democratic participation, and other universal values. The author's fund, the Winston Foundation for World Peace, was a leader in that effort. From the Winston Foundation to MacArthur, Soros, Ford, Rockefeller, and many others along the way, this is the story of the strategy sessions, the activist meetings, the funding battles, and the political fallout that ensued on an occasion when major funders chose to actively engage in world affairs. Part memoir, part social change analysis, Making the Money Sing is a provocative, insider's look at the cloistered world of philanthropy and the way that money can make a difference in changing the shape of history.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Private Wealth and Public Aspirations Chapter 2 The Early Peace Donors Chapter 3 Fueling the Momentum Chapter 4 How We Ended the Cold War Chapter 5 Did Philanthropy Make a Difference? Chapter 6 Leaving the Cold War Behind Chapter 7 The Big Crack-Up Chapter 8 The Civil Society Revolution Chapter 9 Building the House of Peace Chapter 10 Making the Money Sing

About the Author :
John Tirman is program director for Global Security and Operation at the Social Sciences Research Council.

Review :
Making the Money Sing should be required reading for any philanthropist, new or experienced. John Tirman shows that imaginative and creative donors can influence public policy and successfully engage issues with all the momentum of the Cold War. Tirman also points out the need for every donor to consider what might happen if the goal is achieved. Donors did not bring as intense a focus to building peace after the Cold War as they did to ending the Cold War. This case study of philanthropy, the peace movement, and public policy should encourage anyone to believe that it is possible to make a difference, however complex and seemingly intractable the problem. A lucid gem of a book, John Tirman's Making the Money Sing is the untold story of how a handful of good-hearted foundation officers leveraged private wealth to help bring an end to the Cold War. Tirman opens our eyes to the critical role played by foundations in the rough and tumble jousting of foreign policy making. This fine book should be an inspiration to anyone working in the philanthropic world. But it is also a reminder to all scholars that 'following the money' is essential to writing good history. John Tirman's thoughtful book provides a fresh and provocative analysis of how and why the Cold War ended. And his views of civil society in the post-Cold War era will set off a new debate amongst internationalists, philanthropists, and social activists. Very few historians have paid attention to how American foundations and private donors have helped shape U.S. foreign policy and public opinion on international issues. But they will have to do so after reading John Tirman's book. Tirman's examination of the role philanthropy played in the arms control and intervention debates of the 1980s and 90s is subtle and fascinating-all the more because he was an insider in the process himself. And he has added some new, previously unsung visionaries to the cast of characters who deserve credit for helping to end the madness of the Cold War.