Introduction

Charity is a big business and as such it should be run with business efficiency.1 Richard Reuter, 1953 In 1990 Harold Gauer, former regional director of CARE in the American Midwest, published his professional memoirs entitled Selling Big Charity: The Story of C.A.R.E. In this book Gauer recalls his first CARE conference in the agency’s New York headquarters in 1950. Having gained the impression that “out-of-towners” like him “would do well to just keep quiet and listen,” Gauer silently observed how during the meeting “a parade of home office folk took turns telling the story of their jobs and how they did them. Which according to them was very capably indeed.” After the CARE delegates from other US cities had responded “with tales of their own special local situations and with copious advice on how to run the home office,” a group of “young intense” managers from the Lever Brothers Company showed up:...