The Half-Mile Bridge : Lessons of Truth on America's Nonprofit Landscape

The Half-Mile Bridge is the story of Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America.

In 1957 an optometrist in Fall River, Massachusetts came up with the notion that if every citizen gave just $1 in support of a city-wide scholarship program, then the young people living in this declining industrial environment would have renewed hope and opportunity through affordable higher education.

His simple 'Fall River Plan' emerged in 1961 as Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America (CSFA) and its more commonly recognized 'Dollars for Scholars' program.

Today CSFA is the largest private source of scholarships in America.

More than a simple chronology (1957-1995), the book is an amalgam of vignettes and short biographies wherein humor and pathos, caring and concern, innovation and determination, are the essential elements.

Extraordinary 'ordinary' people found a way through the cynical '70s to nurture a delicate child and in so doing, brought a fragile phenomenon into the mainstream of this nation's philanthropy.

It is a case study of honesty, industry, selflessness, and value orientation, all central to the growth and strength of a respected organization.