A path appears : transforming lives, creating opportunity / Nicholas D. Kristof.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Giving opportunity wings. Introduction: A meaningful life ; A drop in the bucket ; Changing lives, bead by bead ; From anecdote to evidence ; Doughnuts with CARE ; The land of opportunity-- if you catch them early ; Save the children, in the USA ; A thirty-million-word gap ; A summer springboard for kids ; Who grabs the marshmallow? ; Mrs. Grady and the boy who made her cry ; Coaching troubled teens ; A milestone for Jessica ; The power of hope ; A Kenyan named Kennedy ; A doctor who treats violence ; Renaissance giver ; Attacking sex trafficking ; Shana's comeback -- Reforming the art of helping. Charity : in search of a revolution ; The biggest bang for the philanthropic buck ; Madison Avenue helps the needy ; Lessons from a master pastor ; Scaling social good ; Impossible, possible task: A happy, healthy meal ; Doing good while being big ; The perfect product: Cheap, clean water -- Give, get, live. The neuroscience of giving: A natural high ; The most boring aid in the world ; When social networks dig a well ; One girl, in memoriam ; Survival of the kind ; Philanthropy by the poor ; Healing through helping ; Encore careers ; A hundred flowers bloom ; A hundred million books ; A giving code ; Six steps you can take in the next six minutes -- A gift list.

In their earlier book, Half the Sky, husband-and-wife team Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn brought to light struggles faced by women and girls around the globe, and showcased individuals and institutions working to address oppression and expand opportunity. A Path Appears is even more ambitious in scale: a sweeping tapestry of people who are making the world a better place and a guide to the ways that we can do the same -- whether with a donation of $5 or $5 million, with our time, by capitalizing on our skills as individuals, or by using the resources of our businesses. With both research and on-the-ground reporting, the authors assay the art and science of giving, identify successful local and global initiatives, and share examples from the front lines of social progress. We meet people like Dr. Gary Slutkin, who developed his landmark Cure Violence program to combat inner-city conflicts in the United States by applying principles of epidemiology; Lester Strong, who left a career as a high-powered television anchor to run an organization bringing in older Americans to tutor students in public schools across the country; MIT development economist Esther Duflo, whose pioneering studies of aid effectiveness have revealed new truths about, among other things, the power of hope; and Jessica Posner and Kennedy Odede, who are transforming Kenya's most notorious slum by expanding educational opportunities for girls. A Path Appears offers practical, results-driven advice on how best each of us can give and reveals the lasting benefits we gain in return.