I have to admit: when I first picked up Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation, I wasn't sure who would need such a book. The preface establishes the book's audience as "young people with wealth who want to help create a more just distribution of resources and power." Being young — and solidly middle class — I thought to myself, "Who are these people? Is there really a 'generation' of young, wealthy family foundation members with Robin Hood ideals?"

I stand corrected. In a society in which the young and wealthy usually are portrayed as derelict ne'er-do-wells, Alison Goldberg and Karen Pittelman, former staffers of Resource Generation, a New York City-based nonprofit, have created a guidebook for the young, wealthy, and progressively-minded who believe in social change and are ready to get involved.

Their book is divided into two sections. Section one functions as an introduction to the history of family foundations and how they work. Section two serves as a call to action — with short chapters devoted to assessment (the "crucial first step"), strategy, research, planning, communication, and so on. Goldberg and Pittelman's sympathies clearly lie with funding endeavors that benefit low-income and otherwise vulnerable populations (as opposed to more traditional recipients of family foundation philanthropy such as universities and arts organizations), and throughout the book they argue for change to the status quo — with the end goal of being more considerate toward grantseekers' needs.

Indeed, to hear Goldberg and Pittelman tell it, most family foundations are out of touch with the needs of smaller nonprofits — precisely the organizations most in need of funding. They also argue that "the default practice in most family foundations is to keep 'pay-out' — the percentage of assets spent at a minimum." While such an approach certainly benefits the family in family foundations, the authors note that it does little to benefit potential recipients of foundation largesse.

The chapters in Creating Change are short, with plenty of bullet points and sidebars to break up the text, and there's a nice bibliography and resources section at the end for those who want to do more research.

It's obvious that Goldberg and Pittelman are in touch with their audience in other ways as well. The authors, both of whom came of age in the PC era, encourage readers to "skip around" and "cut and paste." They also offer some excellent tips for communicating with older, more conservative family members and succeed in providing a lot of valuable information without condescending to their audience. The fact that they chose Soft Skull Press — an alternative publisher well-known to the college activist set — to publish their book and chose a quote from Kurt Vonnegut's satire of the privileged class, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, for their dedication page will not be lost on readers, either.

As advocates for change in family foundations' current funding practices, Goldberg and Pittelman argue that "family funds can legitimize — even define — what issues are important." In other words, young family philanthropists who believe in addressing social inequality are in a unique position to wield substantial power. The authors also argue that while many family foundations were not created out of altruism (instead, many were formed to avoid taxes), a new generation of socially conscious foundation leaders could transform family philanthropy into an important tool for effecting social change. It may take a while, but time is one thing the likely readers of Goldberg and Pittelman's book have on their side.