Book Reviews

Leaving Microsoft to Save the World
by John Wood

January 02, 2010 By Kevin Beerstecher

Increasing focus is being placed on the idea that nonprofits should be managed just like businesses. Never mind that the Enrons, WorldComs, or Societe Generals of the world don’t appear to have been so well run. Of particular concern is the focus on business principals over programmatic ones. There is an increasing groundswell for more MBA’s instead of people with specific experience. There is a louder drum beat for investment bankers and former McKinsey executives to manage nonprofits. Where is the voice calling for more people to study the issues that effect the populations who will most benefit from the largess of the philanthropic community? Where is the concern for hiring more people who will have a better understanding of how to successfully work with issues such as childhood literacy, abuse, and homelessness?

This issue can be examined in detail in the memoir of a corporate executive who decides to tackle childhood literacy in the developing world. In Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, former Microsoft executive John Wood tells his instructional and inspirational story. It is a tale of a corporate executive who leaves to do good work, establishing his own nonprofit: Room to Read. While backpacking in Nepal, Wood became aware of many of the problems facing children in the developing world, such as school libraries with no books. Wood, evoking Andrew Carnegie, began a grand adventure to help increase the number of books available to children through building libraries and schools in an ever expanding group of developing countries.

His story is the successful realization of many a corporate executive’s fantasy: to leave their job and make a difference in the world. It is apparent that Wood has succeeded on so many levels because of his skills sets obtained in the corporate world, building a large community of people who are willing to not just donate money, but time as well. Room to Read grew through establishing volunteer fundraising chapters throughout the world which raise money to donate books, build libraries and schools, and provide scholarships in the world’s poorest places.

Yet there is little, if any, mention of exactly how Room to Read is able to build schools in developing countries. There is little mention of how Room to Read schools work. How do they teach reading? Do they focus on other academic skills? Is there religious teaching? Emblematic in Wood’s story is the problem which faces so many nonprofit managers: how to raise money. This book is particularly valuable to those interested in fundraising because the majority of the book does focus on how the money is raised for Room to Read. Wood’s experience with foundations and face-to-face fundraising is insightful, especially given his marketing experience at Microsoft.

What emerges through the course of the book is a portrait of an individual committed to making the world better through his own unique talents. John Wood has been able to build libraries and schools and provide student with scholarships through effectively communicating to potential donors. Implicit in his book is the dilemma that faces much of the nonprofit community: More time is spent fundraising than on programmatic design. Changing the prospects of the individuals with the lowest incomes in the world will often depend on the sheer will, talent, and dedication of the John Woods of the world.

Kevin Beerstecher is a graduate student in the M.S. in Philanthropy program at N.Y.U. and is the editor of PhilanthropyNYU.