After discussing some positive trends in philanthropy, the nonprofit-sector leader talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about several of its problems and areas for potential reform—including making a few specific suggestions.
Full ArticleThe nonprofit-sector leader talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about the politics of policy reform in philanthropy, the pressures brought to bear on those either proposing or receptive to reform, and the importance of the nonprofit sector.
Full ArticleThe editor, author, and former nonprofit leader talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the nature of the nonprofit crisis, the fairness of some (cross-ideological) critiques of the nonprofit sector, the effects of political polarization on responding to the crisis, and the need for some introspection in and reform of the sector.
Full ArticleThe editor, author, and former nonprofit leader talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether his critiques of the nonprofit sector apply more to grantmakers than grant recipients, whether there’s a distinction between civil society and the nonprofit sector, generational differences within and mission creep on the part of nonprofits, the benefits of incrementalism in any practical change or policy reform of the sector, and his recommendations for nonprofit leaders in reacting to the nonprofit crisis.
Full ArticleWithout any internal pressure for change from conservatives, philanthropy will remain what it has always been: the wellspring of progressive thought and action.
Full ArticleJust one barrier stands in the way of a payout increase: Conservatives’ fear that an increase in foundation giving would largely fund election-adjacent projects and groups promoting progressive causes, instead of just funding programs that provide services to communities in need.
Full ArticleIn Laura K. Field’s book on the “making of the new MAGA right,” there could be no mythologizable, pre-2016 “Powell memo.” Since ’16, a different conservative intellectual infrastructure has arisen and is still developing, with new thinking and organizations and changed old groups—all with generally also-different and still-developing funding support.
Full ArticleThe legal policy fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether and if so, the degree to which constitutionally protected free speech can be limited, and whether tax-exempt groups exercising the freedom of speech have a constitutional right to their nonprofit status. He also applies the concept of “civil terrorism” to certain specific and some hypothetical circumstances.
Full ArticleThe legal policy fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about the concept of civil terrorism and—in the nonprofit context—existing and potentially strengthened anti-racketeering and -conspiracy, anti-riot, and foreign-agent-registration laws, as well as the effects and potential reforms of regulations permitting fiscal sponsorship of projects and activities.
Full ArticleThe nonprofit-sector leader talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about the politics of policy reform in philanthropy, the pressures brought to bear on those either proposing or receptive to reform, and the importance of the nonprofit sector.
After discussing some positive trends in philanthropy, the nonprofit-sector leader talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about several of its problems and areas for potential reform—including making a few specific suggestions.
The editor, author, and former nonprofit leader talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether his critiques of the nonprofit sector apply more to grantmakers than grant recipients, whether there’s a distinction between civil society and the nonprofit sector, generational differences within and mission creep on the part of nonprofits, the benefits of incrementalism in any practical change or policy reform of the sector, and his recommendations for nonprofit leaders in reacting to the nonprofit crisis.
The editor, author, and former nonprofit leader talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the nature of the nonprofit crisis, the fairness of some (cross-ideological) critiques of the nonprofit sector, the effects of political polarization on responding to the crisis, and the need for some introspection in and reform of the sector.
Just one barrier stands in the way of a payout increase: Conservatives’ fear that an increase in foundation giving would largely fund election-adjacent projects and groups promoting progressive causes, instead of just funding programs that provide services to communities in need.
Without any internal pressure for change from conservatives, philanthropy will remain what it has always been: the wellspring of progressive thought and action.
In Laura K. Field’s book on the “making of the new MAGA right,” there could be no mythologizable, pre-2016 “Powell memo.” Since ’16, a different conservative intellectual infrastructure has arisen and is still developing, with new thinking and organizations and changed old groups—all with generally also-different and still-developing funding support.
The legal policy fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about the concept of civil terrorism and—in the nonprofit context—existing and potentially strengthened anti-racketeering and -conspiracy, anti-riot, and foreign-agent-registration laws, as well as the effects and potential reforms of regulations permitting fiscal sponsorship of projects and activities.
The legal policy fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether and if so, the degree to which constitutionally protected free speech can be limited, and whether tax-exempt groups exercising the freedom of speech have a constitutional right to their nonprofit status. He also applies the concept of “civil terrorism” to certain specific and some hypothetical circumstances.
The attorney and think-tank fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the government’s high burden to prove a grantmaker’s criminal liability for the activities of a grantee, the narrow circumstances under which any such liability would be found, and steps to avoid risking liability.
The attorney and think-tank fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the increased scrutiny of the nonprofit sector, the potential effects of that scrutiny on civil society, the Trump administration’s recently reported plans to enhance the IRS’s criminal-investigative division, and the potential effects of that enhancement on philanthropy and nonprofits.
As conservatives consider how best to revitalize and depoliticize civil society in America approaching its semiquincentennial celebration, still-relevant thoughts on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector from 2009.
Sampling some legislative and regulatory proposals and reactions to new and anticipated executive action.
Ross Douthat properly laments the influence and power of activists and elites effecting dramatic change outside the democratic process and then trying to survive or sidestep backlash from voters.
A modest 1 or 2 percent increase could significantly benefit the nonprofit sector.
The former director of special projects at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and current policy fellow at the Ash Center’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation talks with Michael E. Hartmann about the various trade-offs in the relationships with government of legacy foundations and the new institutional vehicles that bigger, trillionaire philanthropists likely will use in the coming years, along with the growing global role of American givers.
With Michael E. Hartmann, the former director of special projects at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and current policy fellow at the Ash Center’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation talks about his work and research interests, differences between the billionaire philanthropy of the past and the trillionaire philanthropy of the future, and whether the tensions of each with democracy will also be different.
The mailing list and its extensions have been the quiet architecture behind the very decline we are now struggling to comprehend.
The investigative reporter talks to Michael E. Hartmann about more factors surrounding potential policy reform regarding nonprofit flows of money in the business of college sports, along with newer and likely forthcoming flows of that money, whether nonprofit or otherwise.
The investigative reporter talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the growing flow of money in college sports—including through tax-incentivized, nonprofit entities with charitable status.
The research fellow talks about Alexis de Tocqueville, whether “civil society” and the “nonprofit sector” are the same thing, and what his new Philanthropy Roundtable research on government funding of nonprofit entities has to say both to their leaders and to policymakers, if anything.
The research fellow talks about his new Philanthropy Roundtable report on government funding of nonprofit entities and the ways in which various forms of government benefits can compromise their independence—as well as the range of conditions government can and cannot, and should and shouldn’t, attach to its funding of them.
It is understandable, and in some ways even admirable, that many Christians feel a responsibility to directly care for the poor. But the Biblical mandate to care for the poor should not be taken as a mandate to be in charge.
In the face of a lot of offered professional advice and guidance—and the risk or fear of ignoring or subordinating it to other, everyday, perhaps-urgent tasks central to pursuing a mission—a comforting compilation of less-pricey, basic precepts.
Warns of coming supercharged dynastic philanthropy.
Daniel J. Flynn’s forthcoming biography of Frank S. Meyer describes foundations’ roles in his life and work—and thus in the American conservatism, and America, he helped forge.
The real-estate developer, activist, and civic builder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the idea of time limits on foundations, as well as his and his wife’s own donor intent—and the worth of the hard work in determining and articulating it.
The real-estate developer, activist, and civic builder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the principle of donor intent and the practical importance of articulating it with some specificity.
Helped by Sam Tanenhaus’ new biography, insights into the benefits and drawbacks of for-profit versus nonprofit status, the balancing of control with the risks of “capture,” and the potential ramifications of more belief and trust in grantees who are going to do what they’re going to do, with or without any grant.
A survey of some context.
To survive future scrutiny, foundations need to reform how and where they give.
A compilation of interesting and insightful thinking from the last six of 13 recorded discussions so far this year about grantmaking and giving.
A compilation of interesting and insightful thinking from the first seven of 13 recorded discussions so far this year about grantmaking and giving.
The think-tank senior fellow, historian, and teacher talks to Michael E. Hartmann about what conservatives and conservative philanthropy should consider doing in these (counter-)revolutionary times.
The think-tank senior fellow, historian, and teacher talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the American story and way of life, conservatism and revolution, progressivism, and progressive philanthropy—specifically including the Mellon Foundation and its attempt to reimagine U.S. history.
The author of a book on Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation talks to Michael E. Hartmann about Melinda French Gates’ grantmaking, as well as potential aggressive policy reforms of philanthropy and whether they could ever be cooperatively pursued by those of different worldviews.
The author of a book on Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the reaction to his book, the degree to which the foundation is representative of establishment philanthropy in America, the recent announcement that the foundation will increase its spend-out rate, and what happened to the (once-)cooperative grantmaking relationship between Gates and Warren Buffett.
How the hard-fought battle for the soul of a foundation should inform the struggle to preserve even a handful of large grantmakers devoted to conservative causes will require more than abstract doctrine.
Taxing the investment income of tax-exempt assets is no different from how investments in 401(k) accounts are taxed.
In both messaging and missions, bridges instead of bubbles.
Now, in a moment of political backlash and financial scrutiny, those same institutions are asking everyday Americans to stand with them against proposals for increased oversight and higher excise taxes on their endowments. It’s a tough ask. Because the truth is most people haven’t seen that tax-incentivized wealth show up in meaningful ways—not in their neighborhoods, not in their schools, not in their civic life. When Big Philanthropy backed the wrong theory of change and cut itself off from the concerns of working-class Americans, it made a trade-off. And now the cost of that trade is coming due.
The London-based policy analyst and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about where criticism of politicized charity is coming from in the U.K., why, and what could and should perhaps be done about it.
The London-based policy analyst and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the politicization of charities in the U.K., the role of the Charity Commission and other “quangos” there, and cross-Atlantic similarities in challenges being both presented by and facing nonprofit groups.
Today’s polarization between left-wing Democrats and populist conservative Republicans is also a polarization between two radically different understandings of giving.
Wealthy foundations and nonprofits need to change their ways—not scare the rest of the field into submission.
The think-tank fellow and accounting professor discuss ways to think about any potential legal and regulatory reforms of donor-advised funds.
The think-tank fellow and accounting professor talk to Michael E. Hartmann about their research and writing on donor-advised funds (DAFs) in general and why they’re controversial—along with different kinds of DAF sponsors, and their different focuses and emphases, in particular.
The point wasn’t to organize people—it was to acquire them.
How many more wake-up calls?
And the new current unrest it has wrought.
In the wake of recent rumors and reports, revisiting a real-life, very pre-Earth Day revocation.
Steve Taylor urges local nonprofit leaders in Republican districts to let their representatives know about the supposed dangers of proposed nonprofit tax-law reforms. With the moral authority of the nonprofit sector now so diminished, policymakers may ask some reasonable questions of them.
Remembering and honoring the best of conservatism, philanthropy, and conservative philanthropy.
And the damage likely to be done if it takes his advice to deepen involvement in partisan politics.
The think-tank fellow and higher-education researcher talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the necessary scrutiny of and unfortunate lack of transparency in much philanthropically supported programs and projects in higher education, along with what he thinks conservative grantmakers can and should consider doing in the area.
The think-tank fellow and higher-education researcher talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the Mellon Foundation’s and other grantmakers’ substantial support of the “scholar-activist pipeline” and how it tilts colleges and universities to the left.
There is a tremendous moral hazard inherent in using crisis language to describe problems that are more chronic in nature.
The Indiana University professor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the challenges of interpreting survey data about trust in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector and, the historical “paradox of nonprofit trustworthiness,” and the relationship between civil society and the state writ large—as well as, writ smaller and looking ahead, that between exempt nonprofitdom and the tax system.
The Indiana University professor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the degree to which trust, or lack of it, in wealth and the wealthy may or may not have played a role in the creation of Big Philanthropy at the beginning of the last century, through to the 1969 Tax Reform Act that essentially still structures the nonprofit sector, to today. He also discusses the growth of nonprofits in the urban context, as well as some ramifications of that growth.
The think-tank fellow and former top Congressional staffer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about effective and ineffective nonprofit projects and activities related to the judicial-nomination and -confirmation processes, what could perhaps be done legally or regulatorily about improper endeavors in this context, if anything, and the benefits of philanthropically supporting efforts in the area.
The think-tank fellow and former top Congressional staffer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the role of the American Bar Association and other, different kinds of nonprofit groups in the federal judicial-nomination and -confirmation processes.
No matter how you frame it, we’ve professionalized, optimized, and branded our way into stagnation and retreat. We treated the gift like an input in a machine.
Contestation between conservative and liberal conceptions of civil society—and the way we might come to a healthy compromise.
Conceptions of civil society among populist conservative writers and thinkers and in magazines and journals open to populist conservatism.
The professor and specialist in nonprofit law and philanthropy talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether private foundations got a better or worse bargain in the 1969 Tax Reform Act than donor-advised funds (DAFs) got in the 2006 Pension Protection Act, the benefits of “bright-line” rules in the context of the public-support test loophole specifically, but also others in philanthropy and nonprofitdom, and the “low-hanging fruit” of closing DAFs’ public-support test loophole compared to other contemplated reforms.
The professor and specialist in nonprofit law and philanthropy talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the history and purpose of the public-support test, the “Grand Bargain” of the 1969 Tax Reform Act and the “new bargain” of the 2006 Pension Protection Act, and potential explanations for the use of donor-advised funds to avoid the test and its ramifications.
For inspiration, they should consider the successful example of Hillsdale College, which cut the federal funding cord four decades ago.
To the reaction against philanthropy and the nonprofit sector and their activities, there’s a cause.
“During a period of great disruption, we need fair and accurate reporting on how individuals and institutions will be affected.”
The senior editor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about staff turnover and accusations of mismanagement in the San Francisco DA’s office, including in grants administration, and more broadly, the underappreciated role of philanthropy in local government, in terms of both the size of its funding and its influence.
The senior editor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the nonprofit news site, the visions and aims of the MacArthur and Crankstart Foundations’ criminal- and restorative-justice grantmaking in San Francisco, and the backlash in the city and state against aggressive criminal-justice reforms that began in the 2010s.
In J. D. Vance’s Munich Security Conference speech, echoes of the Pera-Ratzinger debate’s basic questions about identity, democracy, and the West—and the ability, the very place, of the people to democratically offer answers to those questions.
Back to the future, of foundations.
2025 Edelman Trust Barometer finds higher level of trust in business than NGOs, much-lower level of trust in NGOs among low-income than high-income.
Michael E. Hartmann talks to the research analyst about his proposed new IRS Form 990 Schedule S for nonprofits that provide fiscal sponsorships and how it would increase trust in the entire sector.
The research analyst talks to Michael E. Hartmann about fiscal sponsorship—including how it works, its history and purpose, its apparent growth, and the benefits it provides, one of which may be considered a drawback.
Discussion follows creation of the Think Tank Funding Tracker, which quantifies support from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Defense Department contractors.
The Ohio state-budget expert and research fellow talks more to Michael E. Hartmann about his recent report on rulemaking nongovernment organizations (NGOs), different types of rulemaking NGOs, their various funding sources, and what can be done to make sure they play an appropriate role in helping to shape state policy implementation and regulation.
The Ohio state-budget expert and research fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his recent report on rulemaking nongovernment organizations and how they can serve good purposes, but should operate transparently and be subject to the scrutiny of democratically elected policymakers.
He thought the best thing the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation could do was find a few good nonprofits that were doing sensible things, and bring them whatever help they needed.
The former Fulbright Scholar and research fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the upward trend in foreign funding of American think tanks, the applicability of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying-disclosure law to U.S. think tanks, and some recommendations in the new report he’s co-authored on think-tank funding for policy reform and a “culture shift.”
The former Fulbright Scholar and research fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the new report he’s co-authored on the funding of American think tanks, the online repository of data he’s helped compile about the funding, and the transparency scale created for the project.
The “best kind of dialogue across racial lines is not dialogue about race,” said the historian, who has died. We “are all people with many common interests to talk about, and a call for a dialogue on race sets us in opposing camps. ‘Oh, you are the spokesman for the white position and you are the spokesman for the black position.’ That, I don’t think, is likely to lead us to a better society.”
Casey Michel’s book explores, among other things, the growing problem of foreign funding of U.S. nonprofits in order to exert political influence. Addressing this issue might be the best initial opportunity for cross-ideological, bipartisan cooperation toward meaningful nonprofit-sector reform—perhaps leading to broader, bolder efforts against Big Philanthropy and its increasingly stretched definitions of charity.
A story—still being written, fortunately—about pluralism and (lack of) permanence.
The sociologist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about what happened in previous Great Awokenings, the choice before symbolic capitalists in the face of growing populist reaction against them, the similarity of symbolic capitalists in conservative philanthropy and the rest of philanthropy, and recommendations for how they should all defend themselves and their position during the coming years.
The sociologist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about symbolic capitalists in general and in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in particular, how they exacerbate a lot of problems, and why the growth in their numbers has been making things even worse.
Expanding the charitable deduction is not a good use of taxpayer subsidies. Taxpayers would be better off with lower tax rates and greater take-home pay.
“At a later date, OMB will offer a new proposal designed to ensure that contractors and grantees do not use federal funds for lobbying or political activity,” the Office of Management and Budget’s Michael Horowitz wrote in May 1983.
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.
“What difference was there between Brooke the person and the Asher and Carol Jaffee Foundation, really?”
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
Republican lawmakers are committed to nonprofit reform in 2025. That could spell challenges for the field.
37% of Democrats, 45% of independents, and 48% of Republicans support it, and 34% of Democrats, 29% of independents, and 30% of Republicans oppose it.
Conservatives have suggested that federal-government departments and agencies should be relocated from Washington, D.C, to the heartland—a good idea, for many reasons. For some of the same ones, why not also philanthropically supported, conservative D.C.-based think tanks, other nonprofits, and activist organizations?
Carl Rhodes’ forthcoming book offers biting critiques of the ultra-wealthy and those stories they tell, to themselves and others, about how they became and stay that way.
As potential future legislative and regulatory battles beckon, a two-chart look at lobbying by three prominent groups in particular.
To some, a “parade of horribles,” or a “slippery slope;” to others, a “menu of options.”
To counter attacks from the Trump administration, philanthropy should adopt Walker’s pluralism playbook.
Forthcoming in December.
“Using tax privileges, matching grants, special restrictions, and unique legal devices, the modern state gives the practice of philanthropy its particular strength and texture,” according to Theodore M. Lechterman. “Which if any of these regulatory strategies can be justified requires careful analysis and evaluation.”
A selection of recent reviews.
Philanthropy is uniquely unsuited for involvement in American politics. Indeed, what it considers its political strengths turn out to be serious liabilities. Nothing demonstrates this better than its role in the 2024 presidential election.
“[W]hy shouldn’t tax be collected before the money is given away?”
A reminder of a previous willingness to offer harsh conservative criticism of Big Philanthropy, and of that which gave rise to the critique.
A disagreement about how to spend grant money offers poignant lessons on the perils of investing in public institutions.
The Washington, D.C., attorney and writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about natural and constitutional rights in general; those conditions that can or could legally attach to governmental benefits, including tax-exemption, in particular; and first principles and the common good.
The Washington, D.C., attorney and writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about “the myth of Citizens United,” its historically anachronistic basis, and its ramifications in the context of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
IJ bears his mark in particular, of course, as does conservative public-interest law in general.
In discussion with Charity Reform Initiative associate director Bella DeVaan and Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann, the editor and journalist talks about donor-advised funds and the challenges of, and prospects for, potential reform of the laws and regulations structuring the nonprofit sector more generally.
In discussion with Charity Reform Initiative associate director Bella DeVaan and Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann, the editor and journalist talks about his important recent article on “The Left’s Fragile Foundations;” philanthropy and politics in general, including funding of voter-registration projects in particular; and liberal and conservative grantmaking, including in the wake of populism’s ascendance.
The editor of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute journal talks to Michael E. Hartmann about establishment and conservative philanthropy, including in the context of populism’s ascendance.
The editor of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute journal talks to Michael E. Hartmann about recent developments in, the current states of, and potential future directions for conservatism and philanthropy, including conservative philanthropy in particular.
The tension between strategic philanthropy and Erlebnis is not resolved by our typical, chirpy rejoinder “Why can’t we just do both?”—which always evokes satisfied nods at conferences where these matters are discussed.
Lots of data and analysis about giving and volunteering.
Tevi Troy’s newest book tells stories about the relationships between presidents and corporate titans who became charitable givers—prominently including interesting and entertaining ones about Theodore Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller, Sr., essentially a founder of establishment philanthropy in America.
If others are not going to devote funding to operationalize or weaponize the conservative vision, then the 85 Fund needs to weight its support much more heavily in that direction and much less in the direction of research, policy, and general education.
Handbooks and lectures rarely result in on-ramps to the “success sequence.”
The Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the concept of a parallel polis to stand against progressive managerialism, whether such polei are political, whether there might already be one or the beginning of one in America, and how conservative philanthropy could and should support one.
The Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about his newsletter, Gnosticism, progressive managerialism, the Ford Foundation, philanthropy’s role in the ideological revolution, and what could perhaps be done about it.
In this case, to the MacArthur Foundation’s failed, and democratically rejected, vision of criminal-justice reform.
The fifth in a series of five republished articles to mark our fifth anniversary.
The consulting-firm founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about the benefits and challenges of rural grantmaking, including the growing role of intermediaries and the proper, localist sense of place in it.
The consulting-firm founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about rural philanthropy in America—its size and scope, its nature, and the benefits of and challenges to doing it well.
Recent legislation meant to promote transparency in giving by foreign philanthropists will boost the charitable world’s credibility.
The tax-policy expert talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the broad way in which tax neutrality should be applied to charitable nonprofits’ business income, as well as the benefits to economic growth of doing so.
The tax-policy expert talks to Michael E. Hartmann about reigning in America’s $3.3 trillion tax-exempt economy by narrowing the tax code’s definition of “public charity” and subjecting supposedly charitable nonprofitdom to tax neutrality.
The fourth in a series of five republished articles to mark our fifth anniversary.
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.
The third in a series of five republished articles to mark our fifth anniversary.
Wondering why the shifts, and whether there might be fuller explanations of the reasoning behind them.
A call for more scrutiny and consideration of the role of elite grantmaking institutions and what they’re doing in, and to, America.
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
“This will not be the first movement in human history to flourish by incorporating the wisdom of unorthodox groups hitherto exiled to the margins of respectable society. … [I]t’s time for a conservative parallel polis. But the outline of that polis is already there, to be discovered and nurtured, not created. It’s up to us to provide it the attention and resources that it deserves.”
In the wake of Warren Buffett’s announcement that he will create huge new charitable trust upon his death, some historical context.
The second in a series of five republished articles to mark our fifth anniversary.
Projects to address social problems do better when centered on an individual’s and community’s unique characteristics.
The first in a series of five republished articles to mark our fifth anniversary.
To mark our fifth anniversary, a selection of five of our favorite articles.
Seeming to despair of creating anything of lasting value from philanthropy understood as a free-standing activity—and shifting to what turns out to be little more than another Democratic Party get-out-the vote effort, of the sort already very much in evidence in today’s political philanthropy.
N. S. Lyons will also be on same “Alternative Political Structures” panel. “Parallel polis” boldly urged by Lyons may already exist in latent form, Schambra has written.
They should not be seen as a source of untoward profit, but as value for money.
The polymath and Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about libertarian and progressive views of the roles of government, for-profit business, and nonprofit charity.
The polymath and Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his government service, his Substack page, the role nonprofits should and actually do play in America, and generally outlines potential policy reforms related to nonprofits.
Remembering, and appreciating, his willingness to challenge traditional authority to help the poor and middle class.
This time, however qualified, in Mehrsa Baradaran’s new progressive critique of neoliberalism.
Daniel Schlozman’s and Sam Rosenfeld’s new book tells how wealthy givers, on both the left and the right, have played a part in weakening political parties, and thus also politics and policymaking, in America.
Good character and healthy habits are best transmitted through trusting human relationships. The strength of those relationships is difficult to quantify, but research that ignores them can only produce inconclusive evidence.
In the framework of the “parallel polis” for which N. S. Lyons called at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels, there already exists a latent one in America’s central-city neighborhoods.
If successful, the suit would further politicize the charitable world, to its great detriment.
On the basis of his long experience in the sector, the advisor, observer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about those against DAF reform, some of the different kinds of nonprofit board members, different types of grantmaking strategies and tactics, and the underappreciated value of staffs at nonprofits.
On the basis of his long experience in the sector, the advisor, observer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about how the nature of charitable giving has changed and how those changes affect fundraising challenges, including because of DAFs.
Observations on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “The Commons” debate about whether philanthropy can bring America together.
The former Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones executive, onetime top Rockefeller Foundation official, former ProPublica president, and current Substack writer and consultant talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about the relationship between funding and content in nonprofit and for-profit journalism, groupthink and diversity in the news business overall, and some specific challenges facing both foundation funders and management teams of nonprofit news organizations.
The former Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones executive, onetime top Rockefeller Foundation official, former ProPublica president, and current Substack writer and consultant talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the changing natures of philanthropy and journalism since he began his career—including the necessary lines in journalism between those funding it and those producing it, in both the for-profit and nonprofit contexts.
Nonprofits no longer have the influence they once did to bridge divides.
Americans shouldn’t look to nondemocratic, publicly unaccountable foundations to save democracy.
Progressivism and donor-advised funds in local charity.
With whom, though, and for what? In Leah Hunt-Hendrix’s and Astra Taylor’s new book, unfortunately, it seems as if meaningful, bottom-up anti-centralism might be too constrained by their modifying adjective.
“It’s past time,” Vance said, to end allowing “these deals to escape tax liability.” Whitehouse said we should “get our government out of the business of subsidizing” them.
Without checks and balances, scrutinizing and challenging foundation leaders’ million-dollar paychecks is nearly impossible.
Tim Schwab’s book on Gates is an education, and an opportunity to examine certain questions.
If race-based grant contracts violate §1981, practical legal advice for grantors and grantees alike would include options ranging from linguistically just avoiding any reference to race in grant agreements to avoiding grant contracts altogether.
The former White House official and Philanthropy Roundtable vice president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the Tappan brothers’ belief in the primary role of individual human beings to do what’s right and get things done, as well as how today’s alternative faith in the promise of technology is a serious challenge for any return to that primacy of people.
The former White House official and Philanthropy Roundtable vice president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about his new novel on the underappreciated history of the Tappan brothers and the ways in which they changed American culture, including through their philanthropy.
According to an Ipsos poll commissioned by Inequality.org in cooperation with The Giving Review, most Americans are unaware of details about philanthropy. When presented with specific statements describing policy concepts and ideas, though, many reform ideas are supported by a solid majority, both on the left and right.
Jeffrey E. Paul’s new book about the authoritarian strain in American academia—including where it came from and what its effects have been, in politics and policy—uses an easily understood, nautical analogy to describe an emerging oligarchy, its financiers, and their role.
Democratic self-governance is a rare and precious thing, all too readily surrendered by citizens to professional experts who are all too happy to take charge.
Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan’s new book on “the struggle for the soul of labor” takes progressive philanthropy to task for not prioritizing the promotion of America’s labor movement and makes an urgent plea for it to do more, and with more patience.
Looking to glean what the rise of DAFs means for our troubled voluntary sector and civil society in general.
The Instapundit founder and Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the folly of tax-incentivized support of America’s ruling-class elites, including its philanthropic ones, and what to consider doing about it.
The Instapundit founder and Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the tax incentivizations given to the nonprofit sector and whether they’re really effecting their original policy purpose, and what to consider doing about it.
While you and millions like you work hard, save, take risks, invest, and create opportunities, the elitist knowledge factories we count on to turn out productive, well-trained workers and managers have been transformed into indoctrination centers.
And in the A’s, 16 more Q’s.
Progressivism “certainly came to dominate the first modern foundations, the universities, journalism, and most other institutions of American intellectual life. But … it nonetheless failed in its effort to change entirely the way everyday American political life plays itself out.”
Eleven colleges with a combined total of $270 billion; six foundations totaling $163 billion.
This year’s election demands greater scrutiny of nonprofits involved in political activities.
The Ohio University professor emeritus talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether tax-incentivization is a subsidy, the taxation of endowments in higher education, Milton Friedman’s 2003 e-mail to him about negative externalities in higher ed, whether there might also be negative externalities in philanthropy, and the taxation of endowments in philanthropy, as well as a little about the Ohio Bobcats’ football team.
The Ohio University professor emeritus talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the academic study of economics overall and applies a basic, general economic concept or two in the context of charitable giving to higher education.
The author of a recent Urban institute report comments on the “1 Q: 5 A’s” set of reactions to it.
In large part because of him—his warmth, his wit, his wisdom—a great group that got along and, we think, did some good.
Conversation reviews year in philanthropy.
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.
The College Endowment Accountability Act, according to Sen. J. D. Vance, responds to “a problem, borne of unfairness and of mass subsidy from the American taxpayer, that has now metastasized into one of the most-corrupt and one of the most politically active and politically hostile organizations in the United States of America, and that is elite colleges.”
Subcommittee on Oversight members and hearing witnesses mull some potential reforms.
Subcommittee on Oversight to hear from legal experts and researchers.
Anonymous donations to controversial anti-Israel groups shine a spotlight on the urgent need for donor-advised fund reform. Will this finally motivate Congress to pass much-needed legislation?
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s president and vice president talk to Michael E. Hartmann more about the need for and nature of higher-ed reform in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack and its aftermath—including on-campus pro-Hamas activities, their tolerance if not encouragement by administrators, and the “donor revolt” against all of it.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s president and vice president talk to Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropic support of higher education and efforts to reform it—before and after October 7.
Is there a “Charity, Inc.” and if so, what could perhaps be done about it?
Trustees need to keep in mind that long success at following orders does not always equate to success at giving them.
Quick reactions to the new report from Ben Soskis on two schools of thought about philanthropy—whether a diversity of charitable causes supported by donors is itself a good thing or, alternatively, some causes are more worthy of support than others.
The American Institute for Economic Research senior research fellow talks with Michael E. Hartmann about the perverse incentives of the tax system on nonprofits, what hypothetically would happen to the third sector absent tax-incentivization, whether progressive Big Philanthropy might do damage to it along with Big Government, and encouraging more bottom-up experimentation in addressing social ills.
The American Institute for Economic Research senior research fellow talks with Michael E. Hartmann about his research, why Tocquevillian voluntary association became such a beneficial part of America’s social contract, the relationship between volunteerism and governmental and individual sovereignty, and the detrimental effect that enlarged government and its taxation had on voluntariness.
Time and money. The bottom and the top.
Building a better future for young Black men and women just can’t be done in a research institute, no matter how well-funded. It is going to happen in classrooms, in living rooms, in churches, and on sidewalks.
Rep. David Schweikert: there are continuing Congressional “conversations on charitable giving … and how we make sure it’s doing good in the world and not ultimately financing evil.”
Forthcoming book describes strategies oligarchs use to fuse wealth and power, including philanthropy.
Remembering an active, faithful Milwaukee citizen.
And argues for charity reform.
Advice for the House Ways and Means Committee as it convenes a hearing this afternoon investigating the nexus between antisemitism, tax-exempt universities, and terror financing.
And what it is.
Leading nonprofit associations have rejected efforts to expand the rules governing donor privacy. Their concern is misplaced, and the field’s legitimacy is at stake.
Newly including philanthropic support for activities leading up to and in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The international-relations scholar talks with Michael E. Hartmann about those who fund the anti-Israel NGOs his organization monitors, most prominently including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and how private givers and public policymakers could and should consider reacting to the October 7 attack and its aftermath.
The international-relations scholar talks with Michael E. Hartmann about anti-Israel non-governmental organizations’ political power, their fundraising skill, and their culpability for the horrific October 7 attack.
Quick reactions to the recent, high-profile withdrawals of major philanthropic support of certain higher-education institutions for their tolerance, if not actual outright promotion, of pro-Hamas sentiment and activities.
Lauren Lassabe Shepherd’s new book on the “campus wars” can credit philanthropically supported conservative groups only for throwing “sand into the gears of the machines that drive the academy’s democratic mission.” She finds other, positive effects of this philanthropic support for conservatism—off-campus and decades later.
Activist, organizer, and journalist Fredrik deBoer argues in his new book that ideologically progressive nonprofits are, to their detriment, too institutionally conservative. So might be conservative ones.
Wealthy nonprofits, especially universities, increasingly demonstrate the same behaviors that led Congress to regulate foundations more than 50 years ago. The law should be updated to include these organizations.
From a Philanthropy Roundtable debate after original publication of the 2008 book by Dan Pallotta on which the new documentary film is based.
Quick reactions to some results of the Independent Sector survey with Edelman, in five short answers to one question.
“[A]cross the political divide.”
“Reshaping the Conversation: How to Rebuild Public Trust in Philanthropy.”
The successful conservative legal strategist and activist talks with Michael E. Hartmann about his groups’ current and contemplated activities in the wake of the recent precedent-setting Supreme Court decisions against race-based admissions in higher education, as well as the future of public-interest law in general.
The successful conservative legal strategist and activist talks with Michael E. Hartmann about the challenges of raising money for public-interest law in general and the mismatch between the perception and the reality of some of that funding in particular.
The online publication’s president and executive editor talks with Michael E. Hartmann about whether partisanship in the nonprofit sector reflects philanthropic strategies, the effect of Donald Trump on the left and the right in nonprofitdom, and what could perhaps be done to change the situation for the better.
The online publication’s president and executive editor talks with Michael E. Hartmann about advancing human freedom and American interests, his background, and his and the publication’s priorities.
Donors should know that any “answer” to poverty that takes the form of a paper or policy summit—even with the occasional overcoming-poverty anecdote thrown in for inspiration—is at best several degrees removed from making life better for the poor.
On September 26, “Reshaping the Conversation: How to Rebuild Public Trust in Philanthropy.”
We see the tripartite—dependent—relationship between government, commercial interests, and nonprofits in the rise of institutional DAFs.
Remembering Cordelia Taylor and her love for others.
Contemplating a framework for Schedule F that would default to full disclosure of all foreign grant recipients, but also provide an exception allowing for redaction when there is a genuine safety threat.
Approaching Labor Day, remembering Penn Kemble … and Robert Nisbet.
In 1994, the Bradley Foundation’s then-president described the “Bradley Project on the 90s,” led by Bill Kristol, and its call for a “new citizenship” that helped form the foundation’s grantmaking program.
Benda, Gurri, Rufo, and us.
“The expansion of politics into almost all aspects of life means that activities that were previously considered nonpartisan have been made partisan—legislation and regulation have not kept up,” concludes open letter co-signed by its chairman.
“Philanthropy’s expanding footprint has spurred ongoing debates about how the nonprofit world is managed and regulated—a discussion I hope to contribute to in this column,” Kennedy writes.
Further, expanded reflections on Giving USA’s annual report on philanthropy.
“American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize investments that benefit the Chinese Communist Party,” according to U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin. “[I]nstitutions that want preferential tax treatment must choose ….”
The historian, researcher, and teacher talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about The Bradley Project on America’s National Identity in 2008, the risks of “conservative accommodationism”—including in philanthropy—and the need for conservatives to provide a genuine American narrative that stands as an alternative to progressivism’s false one.
The historian, researcher, and teacher talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about history and civics education, successful efforts to change the American narrative, and the risks of what he calls “conservative accommodationism” in the necessary attempt to rediscover a genuine one.
Manhattan Institute distinguished fellow harshly critiques Kenneth Griffin’s $300 million contribution to Harvard.
Wondering whether there may be symptoms of groupthink, of heavy-handed treatment of dissent, in philanthropy.
Matt K. Lewis’ new book highlights partisan politicians benefiting greatly—politically and even personally—from a tax-exempt, nonprofit, charitable organization.
The analyst and author talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy’s reaction to popular discontent with elites, contemplates the populist future of conservatism, and considers some potential implications of that future for unpopular philanthropy.
The analyst and author talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy as an elite institution that should be as “on the defensive” against populist discontent as much as all of the other such institutions that have so ill-exercised their authority.
Part of American Confidence in Elections Act.
The economist and scholar of the nonprofit sector and philanthropy talks to Michael E. Hartmann about her recent article, “How Dark Is It? An Investigation of Dark Money Operations in U.S. Nonprofit Political Advocacy Organizations,” applies some economic analysis to the use of §501 (c)(4)s, and contemplates potential policy reform of (c)(4) status.
The economist and scholar of the nonprofit sector and philanthropy talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the definition(s) of “dark money,” and her recent article, “How Dark Is It? An Investigation of Dark Money Operations in U.S. Nonprofit Political Advocacy Organizations.”
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
Supporting knowledge and appreciation of American history, and democracy.
Remarks at the Council on Foundations annual conference a decade ago.
The anti-elite tone of Marco Rubio’s new book is evidence that he understands what gave rise to Donald Trump in 2016 and what that ascendant populism portends for future political and policy debates, including the politics surrounding—and potentially, the policy structuring—establishment philanthropy.
Suggesting a session for serious self-examination.
The association executive talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about donor-advised funds, charity and politics, and the attention-getting op-ed in support of civility and pluralism in the sector that she signed with five others.
The association executive talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about populism and polarization, the minimum-distribution requirement for private foundations, and foundations’ uses of donor-advised funds.
Carefully crafted, profoundly misguided.
Conservative donors need to take a hard look at where their dollars go.
Newly out in paperback, Stephen R. Soukup’s straightforward explanation of increasing “wokism” in the country’s for-profit sector necessarily includes the roles of some who are in the nonprofit sector, too.
The successful entrepreneur and Napa Institute founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his grantmaking, the importance of a focus on mission, and the continuing relevance of the work of Michael Novak.
The Carlyle Group co-founder and co-chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about his upcoming PBS documentary series examining the history and meaning of some of America’s iconic national symbols.
The Carlyle Group co-founder and co-chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about what he calls “patriotic philanthropy.”
What non-official sources can tell us about the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Learning again from a still-relevant event a decade ago at the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal.
The nationally prominent legal expert in the taxation of nonprofits talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the taxation of higher-education endowments, comparing and contrasting the rationale for it to that for taxing private-foundation endowments, and explores some tax ramifications of other, newly emerging forms of giving.
The nationally prominent legal expert in the taxation of nonprofits talks to Michael E. Hartmann about her career, the different revenue-raising and regulatory roles of the IRS, the non-revenue-related role of state attorneys general, the tax treatment of private-foundation endowments, and the challenges of following complicated IRS rules for small foundations.
The editor, author, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his article in the “Conservatism and the Future of Tax-Incentivized Big Philanthropy” symposium.
Remarks from a panel discussion on populism at the “Foundations on the Hill” event for foundation leaders and officials in Washington, D.C.
Remarks from a panel discussion on populism at the “Foundations on the Hill” event for foundation leaders and officials in Washington, D.C.
The author and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his article in the “Conservatism and the Future of Tax-Incentivized Big Philanthropy” symposium.
All contributions to The Giving Review online symposium, which have been published here during the past weeks, are now compiled in one printable document, “Conservatism and the Future of Tax-Incentivized Big Philanthropy.” The symposium is meant to earnestly and meaningfully explore conservatism’s past and future relationships with the country’s philanthropic establishment, which is overwhelmingly predominantly progressive,… Continue reading Contributions to “Conservatism and the Future of Tax-Incentivized Big Philanthropy” compiled in one document
The Philanthropy Roundtable’s Adam Meyerson Distinguished Fellow in Philanthropic Excellence talks to Michael E. Hartmann about her article and some of the others in the “Conservatism and the Future of Tax-Incentivized Big Philanthropy” symposium.
“Such an examination by a respected Congressional agency could reassure both critics and defenders of the IRS generally and the Exempt Organizations division in particular,” according to Ellen P. Aprill and Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer.
On February 9, The Giving Review ran a piece authored by Julius Krein, “What Do Conservative Donors Want?,” that alleges that the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) “recently had to hold an all-hands meeting to discuss whether it was still a conservative institution.” The statement is laughably false. No such meeting has happened, or could happen,… Continue reading AEI: alleged meeting never took place
Conservative philanthropy is in crisis. It needs to be self-critically clear and honest about its position, as well as disciplined in pursuing its issues and aims.
Recognizing a tenuous credibility, and reviving a true charity.
Improve lives, grow and strengthen civil society, and demonstrate the power of private giving based on our core values.
It has reconstituted the very system that Alexis de Tocqueville once famously lauded Americans for not having. Meaningful reform will be of the hatchet, not the scalpel variety.
Part of post-frontier America’s failed “managerial elite.”
Policymakers must divorce themselves from the old connotations of what they always believed “charity” represented, and instead see them as what they have morphed into today.
Newly out in paperback, Joel Kotkin’s book on the coming “neo-feudalism”—comparing current class conditions to those of the Middle Ages—correctly characterizes the current status and a current role of foundations.
Applying an analytical framework in another, related context.
An excerpt from our 2020 conversation with Samuel Gregg, during which he discusses Benedict and “the civilizational challenge of our time.”
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.
This article, republished with permission, originally appeared in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on December 13, 2022. With Democratic Senator Rafael Warnock’s victory last week, another contentious Georgia Senate race is over, and with it, the attention focused on nonprofits for their role in registering, educating, and mobilizing voters and monitoring the fairness of the electoral process.… Continue reading Georgia Senate race shows why the fraying line between charity and politics must be repaired
It is difficult to even conceive of, much less construct, what might be a conservative version of Reiser’s and Dean’s More Perfect Bargain. Nevertheless, some conservatives should at least try, perhaps even, however warily, with unorthodox allies—which not all conservatives, especially the energetic populist ones, find automatically off-putting.
We should be as willing to continue to learn from him as he has always so humbly been to learn from, and with, others.
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
Jurisdiction includes nonprofit tax law and its oversight.
Adam Rutherford’s new book about eugenics reminds us again of those progressive foundations that supported it—and that it’s long past time for a full and fair accounting of them for what they funded and fomented, and why.
Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he issued a “civil investigative demand” to the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) as part of an investigation into whether the nonprofit charity solicited donations under the pretext of protecting voters from Covid-19, while actually using raised money for partisan electioneering or election… Continue reading Ken Paxton’s questions of Mark Zuckerberg-funded CTCL show investigative power of state attorneys general
The educational administrator talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about Catholic education, the importance of remaining faithful to its core mission of eternal salvation, and the educational and societal benefits of school choice.
The educational administrator talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about Catholic education and identity, creating a community of learners and believers, and the challenge of raising money for its mission in the current culture.
This article originally appeared on the IUPUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy blog on October 31, 2022. In the second of the two 1889 essays known as “The Gospel of Wealth,” Andrew Carnegie tries to identify the “best uses” for philanthropic giving. At the top of his list, “standing apart by itself,” is founding a… Continue reading Did philanthropy kill Jane Stanford?
Egger: “I question openly whether those laws were designed by people to keep us right where we are. … [O]ur ultimate goal is to change the laws.”
Eisenberg: “[H]e strongly believes that the regulations governing nonprofits are too restrictive and should be changed to allow nonprofits to participate directly in political campaigns and partisan politics … and I heartily disagree.”
The economist and technologist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the potential implications of decentralized autonomous organizations for philanthropy in contexts beyond the arts, including higher education, and whether they will complement or substitute for the many intermediaries in the existing grantmaking structure.
The economist and technologist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about blockchain technology, decentralized autonomous organizations, and what the nonprofit Living Arts DAO might be able to do for arts philanthropy.
Recalling, and appreciating, his insistence on support for the grassroots and willingness to criticize the powerful.
A lengthening list.
A work to read in “the Wilderness.”
Levels of ambition, including philanthropic, the impossibility of a “New Man,” and the consequences of trying to create him.
In southwest Florida after Hurricane Ian, thousands of people are pitching in to help their next-door neighbor and also the unknown victim of a flat tire in the middle of a busy road.
Active, outward, consistent conservatives getting top score in Forbes Philanthropy Score 2022: zero.
Using one guiding principle, here are two proposed reforms to improve the permissions, restrictions, and tax advantages around 501(c)4s.
The short of it: in his new book’s ambitious thinking about the “full scale of human history,” William MacAskill undervalues the past—by definition, but more than needed—and elides in practice what that thinking could perhaps offer those of a different ideological worldview.
Here are four serious proposals to separate “charitable” and “political” giving.
Apparently, the value of philanthropy is determined by the worldview of the gift-giver.
The spotlight on the Newman’s Own Foundation invites scrutiny of its overall business model, one based on virtue-signaling intended to influence consumer behavior.
Criticisms of Barre Seid’s historic $1.6 billion to the Marble Freedom Trust are ignorant of both details and context.
Increasing attention.
The heir, author, and researcher talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy in America, including its “top-heaviness,” what could perhaps be done about it, and whether any charitable reform might be able to attract cross-ideological support.
The heir, author, and researcher talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about the “Wealth Defense Industry,” the degree to which philanthropy is used and charity is abused by the wealthy, and what could perhaps be done about it.
And knowledgeable observer of, and commentator on, philanthropy.
The popular EconTalk podcast host Russ Roberts’ new book offers a helpful insight to any grantmakers willing to receive it—and self-aware enough to risk considering themselves as essentially engaged in art, not science.
At three foundations in the “FoundationMark 15,” 100% of contributions made by employees went to Democrats. At 12, contributions to Democrats exceeded 96%.
As her memoir is released, the Holocaust survivor and philanthropy professional talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy and education reform, the need for reform of philanthropy itself, and the benefits of a universal basic income.
As her memoir is released, the Holocaust survivor and philanthropy professional talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about her family history, education, and the American dream.
The Spectrum Nonprofit Services founder and author talks to Michael E. Hartmann about nonprofit sustainability as an orientation and not a destination, and the states of nonprofitdom overall and philanthropy in particular.
The Spectrum Nonprofit Services founder and author talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his career and clientele, strategic plans and business plans as “a luxury,” and the proper relationship between donor influence on a nonprofit and its mission.
Overall, 81% oppose such tax incentivization, according to new survey from Institute for Policy Studies and conducted by Ipsos. Ninety percent of conservatives oppose it; 80% of liberals do.
As excerpts of a Watergate hearing show, concerns about the political activity of tax-incentivized charity are not new—having arisen soon after the 1969 Tax Reform Act that still provides the legal structure of nonprofitdom.
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.
Given recent attention to the Federalist Society, policy-oriented donors can learn some underappreciated lessons from the Society’s early philanthropic support.
Don’t miss influential author, in new book, floating idea “in order to avoid an excessive concentration of power within a small number of entities and to enable less wealthy entities to develop.”
The former Bradley Foundation chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about short- and long-term grantmaking strategies, the politicization of philanthropy and donor freedom, the imbalance between left and right among major givers, and what conservatives should try doing about it.
The former Bradley Foundation chairman talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about his decades’ worth of experience in real-estate investing, politics, and philanthropy.
And look at how to rebuild it.
Claire Dunning’s impressive new history on government support of nonprofits in Boston offers helpful insights for private philanthropy.
Editor David Callahan notes that philanthropic and nonprofit trade groups might “be out of touch with their own communities.”
Forty years ago this week, President Ronald Reagan delivered his historic speech to the British Parliament at Westminster, during which he famously predicted that Marxism-Leninism would end up “on the ash heap of history.” Daniel P. Schmidt writes about the Westminster speech in the article that we republish below, which originally appeared here on November 18,… Continue reading Revisiting Westminster before the fall of the Wall, and Sheptytsky before Schabowske
After 16 years as chief executive officer and executive director of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Wash., Steve Moore is retiring at the end of next month, when Romanita Hairston will succeed him in the role. During Moore’s tenure at its helm, the Trust—one of the largest philanthropies in the Pacific Northwest—has continued… Continue reading A conversation with retiring Murdock Trust CEO Steve Moore (Part 2 of 2)
After 16 years as a philanthropic executive, he talks to Michael E. Hartmann about Jack Murdock and his fellow Tektronix founder Howard Vollum, the opportunities and challenges of planning for a foundation to exist in perpetuity, and the consequences of ideas, both good and bad.
High trust in nonprofits and philanthropy correlates with high socioeconomic status. Democrats trust philanthropy appreciably more than the general population.
Historian Gary Gerstle’s new book on America in what he considers the bygone free-market era includes a role for philanthropy in its narrative—well, at least in its purportedly “Powell-ian” rise, anyway.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s promise that any efforts to “clean up” the politicization of nonprofits will be pursued regardless of various practical effects on those engaging in it may present an opportunity.
Looking at some of the edifices, atriums, and façades.
As tracked by Candid, of top 200 givers, 121 are left-of-center and 21 are right-of-center. All but two of top 20 are left-leaning.
Congressional interest in sector’s activities seems to be increasing.
Healthy cooperation and equally healthy collisions between fully functioning capitalism, government, and civil society.
A “joke,” and other characterizations.
“The turn of so much of mainstream conservative philanthropy away from engaged foreign and defense policy work has been to America’s detriment, and to the detriment of the world as well,” according to the former Hudson Institute president. “It is time for conservative philanthropy to … return to supporting serious, sober, creative, security-oriented foreign-policy work ….”
“Vladimir Bukovsky, Václav Havel, Adam Michnik, and Czeslaw Milosz come to mind, among others,” according to the longtime Bradley Foundation vice president, “as do the Polish Solidarność trade union, the Czech Charter 77 group, and the Russian truth-telling group Memorial.”
“Peace is a conservative value, and a benefit to America and the world,” according to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft chief executive officer. “Increased conservative support for realism and restraint in U.S. foreign policy is imperative.”
“Left of center American donors now largely set the agenda and dominate international giving. There is a strong emphasis on exporting American morality on gender, orientation, and race, as well as a major focus on various development schemes in Africa and elsewhere,” the former Joyce Foundation and German Marshall Fund president writes. “There are no conservative donors that are supporting alternatives to this agenda.”
“After helping people in their moments of crisis and humanitarian need,” according to the Wilson Center president, “conservative giving should focus on capacity building and supporting people, communities, and countries in their journey to self-reliance.”
Overall, giving by conservatives in America to support organizations and projects concerned with foreign policy and national security, as well as to groups and efforts at work “on the ground” in other countries that promote democracy or provide humanitarian aid, seems to have changed in many ways during the past decade, if not longer—concerningly to… Continue reading Symposium on conservative international giving: Introduction
The writer, analyst, and podcast co-host talks to Michael E. Hartmann about how conservative philanthropy was caught flat-footed by the political ascendancy of conservative populism in 2016 and progressive and populist discontent with elites, potentially including nonprofit and philanthropic ones.
The writer, analyst, and podcast co-host talks to Michael E. Hartmann about ideas, why we believe in the ones we do, and how sophisticated argumentation can better help us know that. “It’s perfectly all right with us to not find agreement,” he says.
The professor of public policy and political science talks to Michael E. Hartmann about how policy plutocrats actually go about trying to get their way, the effects of this plutocracy, critiques of it from both progressives and populist conservatives, and whether there could be some overlap in those critiques as philanthropy reforms might be proposed and considered in the future.
The professor of public policy and political science talks to Michael E. Hartmann about her career, and the level and nature of academic study and journalistic coverage of policy-oriented philanthropy.
As his book on the John M. Olin Foundation is released in paperback, we feature its author talking to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about Olin himself, his decision to “sunset” the foundation, the reasons for its success, and whether—and if so, how—other conservative givers could replicate that success now and in the future.
As his book on the John M. Olin Foundation is released in paperback, we feature The College Fix founder talking to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the benefits of a long-term philanthropic outlook in ambitious projects like transforming the media.
Parsing a few Sections, Parts, columns, and Schedules.
Among other things, according to the outgoing Hewlett Foundation program staffer, “Knowing that I would hold my position for only eight years has, throughout my service at the Foundation, reminded me that this is not my money.”
There’s a lot to talk about.
This article, republished with permission, originally appeared on the great Rockefeller Archive Center’s (RAC’s) RE:source website on February 20, 2019. It is based on the keynote address of a conference RAC organized on the 50th anniversary of the Tax Reform Act of 1969. (Footnotes omitted.) Fifty years ago, on December 30, 1969, President Richard Nixon… Continue reading From populist crusade to comprehensive regulation: the Tax Reform Act of 1969
The journalism-nonprofit president talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the state of the Fourth Estate, the thinking that can and should happen in its decentralized online marketplace, and the thoughtful current re-examinations in both conservatism and liberalism.
The journalism-nonprofit president talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his education and its benefits, the consequences of ideas in New York City, the worth of having a place for dialogue and reporting online, and philanthropy at its best.
The lazy failure to burn down much of this progressivist cladding has hampered conservatives at every turn. And yet they still do nothing to react against the laws, groups and funding sources that they control and suffer from.
Including potential witnesses.
William A. Schambra, Further thoughts on “other-side” giving, July 17, 2019 (“The tricky part of ‘other-side’ giving for conservative funders—the dilemma that also faced capitalist funders of socialist trade unions after World War II—is that the grants aren’t going to compliant ideological allies who share the full range of conservative political beliefs. They’re going to… Continue reading A collection of Giving Review articles about conservative international philanthropy, during and informed by the Cold War
Given the growing number of harsh progressive, populist, and just plain rule-of-law critiques about so much of unelected, unaccountable, and tax-favored establishment philanthropy, there may be a desire on the part of policymakers to aggressively examine some or all of it again.
“[P]rivate foundations had become increasingly active in political and legislative activities,” according to Congressional staff. “[F]unds were spent in a ways clearly designed to favor certain candidates. In some cases, this was done by financing registration campaigns in certain areas.”
“Patman had much to allege with respect to his Committee’s accumulated evidence of … foundation abuse of the sanctuary of income tax exemption,” according to the Midland, Mich., tax attorney’s 1964 law-review article.
The scholar of nonprofit and election law talks to Michael E. Hartmann about past and potential future cross-ideological overlap in the critique of establishment philanthropy, non-exempt vehicles for wealthy givers, and the roles and capabilities of the IRS and the FEC.
The scholar of nonprofit and election law talks to Michael E. Hartmann about what should and shouldn’t be considered a subsidy for charities, and the relationships between charity, politics, and government.
Adding a new entry—but still counting on one hand, maybe two.
The American Enterprise Institute senior fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about donor-advised funds and anonymous giving through them, as well as the large, mostly progressive foundations’ influence and self-perpetuating non-accountability.
The American Enterprise Institute senior fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his career, the Civil Society Awards program, whether civil society is a “luxury good,” and philanthropy and donor-advised funds.
“Political activity,” according to the Reece Committee general counsel’s 1958 book, “endangers the future of the foundation as an institution.”
What might she think of The New York Times’ in-depth investigation of nonprofits and politics?
Conceptually, to what sort of standard or standards, if any, should giving advisors of various sorts be held, by whom, and how?
2022 Edelman Trust Barometer finds trust in business remains higher than that in NGOs.
“Using tax privileges, matching grants, special restrictions, and unique legal devices, the modern state gives the practice of philanthropy its particular strength and texture,” according to Theodore M. Lechterman. “Which if any of these regulatory strategies can be justified requires careful analysis and evaluation.”
Levels of ambition, including philanthropic, the impossibility of a “New Man,” and the consequences of trying to create him.
The analyst and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about infrastructure, incrementalism, involvement, and new institutions, as well as good giving tactics.
The analyst and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about professional leftist activism and the right’s lackluster equivalent, accomplishing technical tasks in hostile environments, and successfully organizing by building community and new institutions.
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful passages.
Trying to help build more trust among farmers and those who serve and finance them would yield much benefit.
From the Carnegie Corporation’s promotion of eugenics to—as Maribel Morey’s new book provocatively argues—its furthering of white supremacy, establishment philanthropy in America has much to answer for, and to resolve. It will have to do so in the coming years, in what will likely be an uncharitable cultural and political context. In all of American establishment philanthropy’s… Continue reading Philanthropy’s original sin
As Tim Stanley recalls it in his new book, Tevye says “You may ask, how did this tradition get started. I’ll tell you. I don’t know.” And another, unsettling question: without tradition, will there be anything left?
“I could hear them as if it were yesterday. I can hear the voices.”
On the newest “Givers, Doers, & Thinkers” podcast, Philanthropy Daily publisher Jeremy Beer talks to Giving Review co-editor and Capital Research Center senior fellow Michael E. Hartmann about the biggest challenges facing philanthropy today.
Let’s be uncharitable: how charity foundations damage Western societies.
Philanthropy and data, oxytocin and neurological unity, and love and charity in Arthur C. Brooks’ new book on the culture of contempt.
Christopher DeMuth’s is a deeply insightful critique to be taken seriously, including by conservative philanthropy.
Tax likely to remain at current level, at least for now. “The Harvard faculty club should lay in extra scotch for members to drown their sorrows,” according to a tax-policy expert.
Considering the proper distance between charity and politics.
The State Policy Network executive vice president talks to Michael E. Hartmann about love of neighbor, Tocqueville, localism, and politics, as well as more about philanthropy.
The State Policy Network executive vice president talks to Michael E. Hartmann about path dependence, his career in conservative policy-oriented nonprofitdom, and whether philanthropy has contributed to the decline of American self-governance.
The conservative grassroots activist, author, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about ideas, action, and giving, as well as some recent proposals to reform philanthropy.
The conservative grassroots activist, author, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about ideas and action, and giving and grifting.
The tax-law scholar talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about whether the reasoning underlying the excise tax on higher-education endowments could apply to private foundations, the potential for a cross-ideological coalition to back philanthropy reform, and the real-world ramifications of such reform.
The tax-law scholar talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the excise tax on investment income in higher education and whether its underlying reasoning could perhaps also apply in other nonprofit contexts.
“[T]oday’s politics of the street,” according to political historian Donald T. Critchlow, “resembles that of the late Roman Republic, when oligarchs, such as Caesar, Sulla, and Catiline, organized mobs to serve their factional interests.”
Foundations’ collective effort presented as exemplary isn’t, or at least not for the reasons the consultants think.
On the newest InfluenceWatch podcast, Capital Research Center (CRC) research director Michael Watson talks to CRC senior fellow and Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann for 26 minutes about establishment philanthropy in America and some recent harsh reactions to and critiques of it.
Leslie Lenkowsky: “obvious solution” to “money not really being used for charitable purposes” is to end “tax deduction for all contributions.”
As establishment philanthropy defends its position in American society, it would do well to tend to more than just one flank.
Where New Labour boldly reformed schools, Keir Starmer retreats to the class-war comfort zone.
Education is a public good, but so is medicine and Pfizer doesn’t claim to be a charity.
Philanthropic insights from Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Max Chafkin’s new biography of PayPal co-founder, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and intellectual and political provocateur Peter Thiel.
Twenty-five years after enactment of state and federal work-based welfare reform, the executive director of the Secretaries’ Innovation Group (SIG) addresses philanthropy and welfare reform, SIG, and application of the reform concepts internationally.
Twenty-five years after enactment of state and federal work-based welfare reform, the executive director of the Secretaries’ Innovation Group covers the circumstances surrounding the reforms’ passage and the positive effects of their implementation.
The cutting critique of and stance against corporate America’s adoption of an extreme social-justice agenda in Vivek Ramaswamy’s new book could certainly, and perhaps should, be considered in the context of politicized charitable nonprofitdom, too.
We cannot allow our fantastic philanthropic institutions to become subsumed by wokery.
More receptivity to and respect for faith at the top of establishment grantmaking in the country might be beneficial, too.
Looking back at a previous, successful attempt to reform the nonprofit sector, with the lawyer and author who literally wrote the book on it.
The journalist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the different factors motivating Silicon Valley giving, scrutiny of and transparency in philanthropy, progressive and populist critiques of grantmakers, and the prospects for future reform of nonprofitdom.
The journalist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his new media platform, the state of coverage of and commentary about philanthropy, and the shift in American giving to Silicon Valley.
Brief insights from an area of utmost geopolitical, religious, and cultural significance.
The University of Chicago sociologist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the political construction of philanthropy and charity, current strains on that construction, a potential revival of mutual aid, and what it might mean for our us all as a nation.
The University of Chicago sociologist talks to Michael E. Hartmann about politics in social life, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the March of Dimes, and the power of voluntarism.
In the latest installment of an ongoing interview series, First Things contributing editor Mark Bauerlein talks to Giving Review co-editor and Capital Research Center senior fellow Michael E. Hartmann for just more than half an hour about philanthropy in America today.
Activist billionaires use community foundations to funnel even more money to their national and global causes.
“At a time when philanthropy faces mounting critiques,” the Council on Foundation’s new strategic plan proves it’s not up to the challenge of facing those critiques.
Fifteen years after publication of his book on the John M. Olin Foundation, its author talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about Olin himself, his decision to “sunset” the foundation, the reasons for its success, and whether—and if so, how—other conservative givers could replicate that success now and in the future.
The College Fix founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the benefits of a long-term philanthropic outlook in ambitious projects like transforming the media.
The investigative researcher talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the difficult and growing problem of homelessness in Los Angeles—and philanthropy’s role in creating and perpetuating it.
The lawyer representing the LA Alliance for Human Rights talks about its lawsuit against Los Angeles for its handling, or mishandling, of the difficult and growing problem of homelessness there—and philanthropy’s role in creating and perpetuating it.
An outline of options.
The “playing field” and potential proposals.
As University of Kentucky law professor asks, “Why are we focused only on universities?”
The economist and Social Gospel movement leader thought and taught that some philanthropy “could and must come from government coercion,” as Ronald J. Pestritto reminds us in his new book on the rise and legacy of progressivism.
Wealthy elite gravitate toward elitism, however well-endowed already.
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
Mostly in one of them, increasingly in another. But maybe it’s only “the terms of accreditation that have changed.” That would be bad.
A mid-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.
Ivy League degree, military service, tough Midwesterner who could throw a punch when necessary.
Checking the power of progressive Big Philanthropy An updated collection of various recent ideas to reform philanthropy Plutocrats and their philanthropy: More ideas for saving the soul of the charitable sector Conservatives should applaud—not fight—efforts to change philanthropic giving rules We agree, foundations should be held accountable for high salaries and staggering expenses What would… Continue reading A collection of Giving Review articles about or related to philanthropy reform
Some of biggest pillars of America’s liberal philanthropic establishment to not just financially support, but actually participate in project.
Online Murdock Trust conversation features lively exchanges.
New book about successful gay-marriage movement highlights role of some grantmakers who supported it—prominently including the Haas Fund and Tim Gill—and suggesting some funding lessons to be drawn, including by others and in any context.
The retired “civic environmentalist” talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the Green New Deal, some successes of conservative environmentalism, and the perils of polarized philanthropic funding of environmental activity.
The retired “civic environmentalist” talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about Aldo Leopold, the Land Ethic, and the Sand County Foundation he led for more than three decades.
Elisabeth S. Clemens’ book—including its description of the March of Dimes, what would now be properly considered a “working charity,” in the polio crusade—impressively details questions about roles of, and relationship between, public and private sectors in meeting social challenges through American history.
The Mother Jones senior editor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the need for more and better thinking about the proper role of philanthropy in a democracy and people’s fear about being on the wrong side of America’s economic divide.
The Mother Jones senior editor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the state of journalism, including about philanthropy, and his new book on the super-rich, including their problems.
Chuck Collins’ new book about the “Wealth Defense Industry” references its philanthropic component’s managerial elite, about which there should be more honest truth-telling and analysis.
In the wake of madness or even just in the midst of mere distraction, look elsewhere, and deeper.
Scott Rasmussen national survey finds substantial support for ending tax exemption for wealthy institutions with nonprofit status.
Technological tracking to trump trust—and risk trampling on it.
As shown in and by Sanford, Mich., starting one year ago, it’s often when massive devastation is visited on a population that it discovers its true character.
ICYMI.
The elite arts-and-culture establishment, its echelons, and everyone else.
What gives, and to what to give?
And what can be done about it, including by philanthropy.
Including about the charitable and the political.
The Christian philanthropist, author, blogger, and Sunday-school teacher talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the state of public discourse in America today, religion and philanthropy, friendship, and C. S. Lewis.
The Christian philanthropist, author, blogger, and Sunday-school teacher talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about The Gathering’s beginnings and learning in the context of a relationship.
“The Role of Community in Place-Based Giving,” new paper in series from think tank, explores why strong communities matter and how philanthropists can strengthen the local fiber that helps communities improve.
A letter to the editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The professor, writer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the politicization of philanthropy and advises grantmakers to have a long-term outlook and consider supporting membership organizations and “extra-parliamentary institutions.”
The professor, writer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about philanthropy and nonprofitdom as part of the managerial elite’s threat to democracy, the difference between the overclass and the upper class, and the proper relationship between grantmaking and politics.
In any real-life revision of the parable so often cited by philanthropists, there’s a strong likelihood that the philanthropists forging their way upstream to the source of the problem will never get there. As with the challenge of homelessness in L.A., they will instead become hopelessly entangled in the real-world obstacles that invariably complicate the drive for simplistic, root-cause solutions.
An insular and distinctive cartel, pretty much ignoring everyone else, fueling woke capitalism.
Washington, D.C., is not where the important battles of the day are fought. Change the culture first.
Place-based strategies seem attractive to overcome these constraints, but while they help ameliorate financial and political challenges, they actually exacerbate information challenges.
Professors make strong case for high-status grantmaking to be taken more seriously within management and organizational research. Such increased attention would be well-warranted, including from much-wider circles.
The finance economist and popular blogger talks to Michael E. Hartmann about nonprofitdom’s tax-favored legal structure, which he thinks we should consider scrapping.
Revisiting the risky confidence and nihilistic moral certainty of an intelligentsia—this time, of Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, and Delta.
Michael Mechanic’s forthcoming book well-describes “how the super-rich really live,” then promotes a progressive social-justice agenda that would supposedly prevent wealth from “harming us all.”
New poll from Vox and Data for Progress is consistent with previous ones throughout history: people are quite willing to tax, but unwilling to crush the very wealthy.
The veteran reporter and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about grantmaking and respect for individual agency, and the state of reporting and commentary on funders.
The veteran reporter and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his in-depth examination of Michael Bloomberg’s grantmaking against flavored e-cigarettes, and what it says about the nature and effects of much of progressive philanthropy.
The education scholar, activist, and philanthropist talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the current states of philanthropy, school choice, and history and civics education.
The education scholar, activist, and philanthropist talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about his mentor Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the current state of conservatism.
Conservatives would be wise to push for a bolder plan that addresses the conflation of political and charitable causes—and clearly defines what constitutes legitimate charitable goals. That’s the only way to ensure philanthropy doesn’t lose all credibility and become completely politicized. Let’s focus on what really matters.
“Write some good ones.”
The Gathering’s Fred Smith calls a thought-provoking, almost-jarring question—for us all, but perhaps for conservatism and conservative philanthropy in particular.
The legal organization’s president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the different attributes of today’s law-school students, the state of conservatism in general and its current internal debate about “fusionism” in particular, and what and how conservative policy-oriented philanthropy should consider funding moving forward.
The legal organization’s president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about some of the reasons for its accomplishments, including the nature of its philanthropic support, and how the Left is now trying and whether it will be able to mimic its progress.
John Tuso’s new book recalls his advice succinctly: simply support and supervise management. CEOs shouldn’t surrender, and boards shouldn’t usurp, power. In the nonprofit context particularly, directors should also be willing to do more when asked.
She probably should have known better, and sure seemed to have known so once.
Stephen R. Soukup’s straightforward explanation of increasing, and increasingly destructive, “wokism” in the country’s for-profit sector necessarily includes the role of some who are also in, and/or are acting through, the nonprofit sector.
The Center for American Restoration, the American Cornerstone Institute, and the Center for the American Way of Life provide additional options for ideas-driven, policy-oriented conservative givers to consider.
Of the top 50 overall, colleges and universities are more than half. Very few, if any, of either type of the huge funds are clearly controlled by conservatives.
Theda Skocpol and Caroline Tervo tell the story of Indivisible and its donor-driven succumbing to the siren call of “the DC-based nonprofit industrial complex.”
The Washington Post columnist and author of The Working-Class Republican talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about Reagan properly understood and how he can help conservatives and conservative philanthropy consider current challenges in facing the future.
The Washington Post columnist and author of The Working-Class Republican talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about conservative philanthropy and its attitude toward populism, scotch neat, and It’s a Wonderful Life.
Lance Morrow’s new book provides an historically and religiously informed contextual overview for considering how money should be organized to do good.
Which may be permanent, and thus still relevant—including in the higher-education context.
Molly Ball confirms it, fails at trying to creatively mischaracterize it, and raises more questions about it.
For Democrats.
Examining the origin of some of the official lines, at least as originally drawn, between charity and politics.
We must steadfastly strive to see, and necessarily recall, others’ witness—so we can take the chances they give us to do so, too.
Before an almost-century-old social club, retired Bradley Foundation vice president remembers a famous cinematic bank run and overviews conservative-grantmaking history, then talks about philanthropic hubris, grantmaking in Russia, the Bradley brothers’ affinity for Milwaukee, and an increasing preference for localism on the part of donors.
Johns Hopkins case study explores challenges, and opportunities, facing philanthropic supporters of respected think tank as it faced bankruptcy 35 years ago.
The Bradley Foundation’s librarian has been doing it very well, and with a smile, for a quarter of a century.
The political scientist and author talks to Michael E. Hartmann about “compassionate conservatism,” the Never Trump movement, and the post-Trump future of conservatism—including how conservative philanthropy should consider the challenges of, and opportunities available in, facing that future.
The political scientist and author talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the nature of philanthropic support for the conservative legal movement, what it can teach foundations now, and what grantmakers can do about “organizational disequilibrium.”
The Georgetown University professor talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy as a supplement to justice, our commitment to liberty, and trusting the “deplorable” to govern themselves.
The Georgetown University professor talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about what identity politics has done to charity and philanthropy.
The appropriate context within which its eugenic past should be considered.
More money, but meaning less?
Or what used to be a pyramid—and may be again, albeit pixelated.
And he wants more of it to flow, and from more people.
From Charles Koch and Robert L. Woodson, Sr., decades’ worth of accumulated wisdom, but differing perspectives.
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful thinking about grantmaking and giving.
An important charitable lesson from the classic Christmas film.
As chairman of the National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, he urged “more of ourselves instead of more government.”
Highest-income individuals use deduction the most and get biggest benefit from it, according to Joint Committee on Taxation.
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful passages.
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful passages.
Carnegie Institution apologizes.
Regularly updated section will overview, and try to broaden a normally narrow, public discourse about grantmaking.
Several could perhaps play Robert M. Hutchins’ role today. Any potential B. Carroll Reeces?
More evidence from Give.org, which also notes some trends worth attention.
The think tank’s director of domestic-policy studies talks to Craig Kennedy about the changing nature of philanthropy, different ways of thinking about grantmaking to better society, and think tanks.
The think tank’s director of domestic-policy studies talks to Craig Kennedy about state and local government, “compassionate conservatism,” and what philanthropy can do to replace stagnation with dynamism in our society.
Lots of “expertise” from left-of-center grantmakers.
Suggesting some sunlight.
“Unlike others who simply demonize conservatives, Gara sought to understand what we believe and how we went about supporting it,” Bill Schambra notes.
The journalist and expert on nonprofit tax law talks to Michael E. Hartmann about Congressional interest in and public discourse about exempt organizations, limited-liability corporations, donor-advised funds, and watchdogs.
The journalist and expert on nonprofit tax law talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his career, how the IRS has changed and the challenges it faces, and his journal.
Post-election 1992: “The largest problem of all is that conservatism has utterly lost its focus, its sense of purpose, its mission. It has become too comfortable and too complacent.”
“Farewell book” by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., underscores role of history and civics education in developing shared knowledge necessary to be a nation. Philanthropy can and should help.
In philanthropy, for example, personal giving almost doubled from 1929 to 1964, then turned back downward from 1964 to 1996, according to new book by Robert D. Putnam with Shaylyn Romney Garrett. What to do about all this? Where to turn?
A significant, and widening, flow of funding through legally permissible public-charity lobbying is influenced by non-charitable interests, new study finds.
More of Irving Kristol’s kind of counter-establishment insurgence, as described in Michael J. Brown’s new book, might now be needed again—including in philanthropy.
Collection of essays from Manhattan Institute senior fellow, once a man of the left, lays out a century’s worth of instances in which elite experts—and, in at least one case, philanthropy—have failed the citizenry.
The Assumption University professor and author talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about charity, justice, subsidiarity, and what the Holy Father calls “political love” in the new encyclical.
The Assumption University professor and author talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about the Holy Father’s new encyclical and its “innovations” in Catholic social teaching.
Additional options for grantmakers interested in helping refine or redefine conservatism moving forward.
And now, “political love.”
Into an existing “philanthropic ecosystem” about which they should be wary.
The arcane, demanding jargon of strategic philanthropy is being replaced by an equally arcane, demanding jargon of social justice.
John Arnold and Ray Madoff float some suggestions of their own.
The reaction to Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination shows how the notion of God presents a challenge for the liberal intelligentsia, the cutting-edge moral and philosophical doctrines of which raise serious questions about any form of transcendent truth. For conservatism, a religious understanding of brokenness can only better it.
Exemplifying a tradition worth celebrating for its positive reflections on the American civic character.
Gerald F. Seib’s new book skillfully overviews what’s happened to conservatism since 1980 and helpfully frames its forthcoming challenges and opportunities.
Pitt Law’s Philip Hackney suggests denying tax-exempt status to 501(c)(3) groups that aren’t public charities.
Conservatives need to face that truth.
The risky confidence and nihilistic moral certainty of an intelligentsia.
In the decades before “darkness” was deemed descriptive.
Names at the top of the list, math on the “back of the envelope:” outnumbered, outspent.
An explanation and defense of his once-uncontroversial efforts to support America’s history and heritage would be well-warranted.
Assessing the adverse implications of intellectual intransigence.
Relearn the art of skepticism, and improve grantmaking.
But can giving be so conspicuous that it’s as bad as extravagant consumption?
If conservative donors hope to effect real change on college campuses, they need to be very careful about the ways they offer funding.
And the need for it in philanthropy.
Philanthropy can learn from Ike—who said at Normandy in 1964 of those who preceded us, “these people gave us a chance ….”
Sector-bending has always been a symptom of a larger intellectual problem: utopianism.
As Lawrence Lessig wrote, “code is law.”
Why did Candid so suddenly shrink in horror from one of the central premises of Big Philanthropy?
Briefly overviewing some potential grantmaking options.
His caution about “pitfalls and paradoxes” in philanthropy seems quite familiar.
From D.C.-centricity, to an emphasis on the local, humble, and practical.
Elisabeth S. Clemens impressively details questions about proper roles of, and relationship between, public and private sectors in meeting social challenges through American history.
Including for those progressive foundations that supported and promoted it.
In the wake of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s disavowal of Margaret Sanger.
In charity and corporate governance, there can be mixed motives, proper or improper purposes, and influenced independence. All should be subject to scrutiny, and maybe cause for concern.
Conservative philanthropy should be constantly on the lookout for young people deep within the heart of progressivism who are beginning to realize that, however noble its ends, its means always turn out to be illiberal and oppressive.
If not, don’t. As an aspect of the French Revolution suggests, the old will be new again.
Exploring ways to, if inclined, support that which ultimately undergirds Western civilization itself.
Courteousness, controversy, the culture, and courage.
“[T]he need is not so much for the Government to design new programs as it is for the Nation to generate new will.”
Joel Kotkin’s new book on the coming “neo-feudalism”—comparing current class conditions to those of the Middle Ages—correctly characterizes the current status and a current role of foundations.
And the meaning behind the money to build and maintain them.
Philanthropy tied for third.
For conservative givers, a sober assessment, with high stakes.
ActBlue’s clues.
The big, bold bonds bet of the Ford Foundation and its allies in establishment liberal philanthropy.
Giving Pledge letters contain an internal contradiction, an analysis notes. If genuine, it could be a healthy one.
As shown in and by Sanford, Mich., it’s often when massive devastation is visited on a population that it discovers its true character.
A seemingly automatic, and unfortunate, link.
Wondering whether there may be symptoms of groupthink, of heavy-handed treatment of dissent, in philanthropy.
Center for Effective Philanthropy report on policy-oriented foundations underscores importance of tightening thinking behind strategies and improving formulation and development of tactics—together, and for longer than usually first expected.
Research on effectiveness of faith-based groups’ social services overviewed in contribution to volume’s third edition.
Populist wave of resentment not likely to be turned back by an abstruse discussion of the finer points of tax law.
We have been here before: a debate about capitalism between clerics and capitalists occurred during preparation of a bishops’ pastoral letter on the economy in America almost four decades ago. The lay letter on the economy warrants serious re-examination, given the new debates into which its concepts should be re-introduced.
While trust in all institutions has increased during coronavirus crisis, trust in government has increased more—and in U.S., Republicans’ trust in NGOs has actually declined slightly.
Peter J. Hasson’s new book reminds us that Google’s YouTube and Amazon’s charitable program rely on the discredited group, too.
Contributions to volume’s third edition recognize role of right-wing grantmakers.
“For the souls that are within us, no one can degrade.”
One in particular.
Science and experts, muckrakers and establishments.
All foundations, but especially conservative ones, should consider annually spending substantially more than the five percent of their corpus now required by federal tax law.
An exhortation—and legislation?—about charitable endowments.
The Demos founder and author of The Givers talks to Michael E. Hartmann about covering foundations and donors, the changing nature of the wealthy as a class, and the role of philanthropy in a democracy.
The Demos founder and author of The Givers talks to Michael E. Hartmann about covering foundations and donors, the changing nature of the wealthy as a class, and the role of philanthropy in a democracy.
A former top tax aide to Sen. Charles Grassley talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the 2017 tax-reform bill, the recent harsh critiques of philanthropy, and how he thinks the nonprofit sector should approach any future reform legislation.
A former top tax aide to Sen. Charles Grassley talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his background, what it’s like to work for Grassley and on Capitol Hill, and the state of the nonprofit sector in general and philanthropy in particular.
Revisiting how to better bolster our shared allegiance to America and its principles. Of potential interest to donors, of course—but maybe also to parents who’ve become involuntary headmasters of their own home “academies” because of the coronavirus crisis.
Funding, fear of tarring, and consequences of insularity.
William E. Simon Foundation president and Manhattan Institute senior fellow James Piereson responds to arguments that foundations should join together in doing more to eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions on an emergency basis.
Hope for Prisoners in Las Vegas offers one good example.
They should spend their tax-exempt dollars on real philanthropy, not helping their favorite politicians get elected.
Why progressive expertise, guilty of alarming excesses, now?
At last, our largest foundations may see benefit in foregoing all their restrictions, processes, and expectations—opting instead for trust in grantees.
The two different types of giving are substitutive, researchers find. If so, there would be implications worth exploration.
Surveying crisis-caused civic involvement—and appreciating, and supporting, it.
Generate the moral energy for a reinvigorated central government, or rely on a bewilderingly diverse and dispersed network of local, decentralized civic institutions?
The moral philosopher and political economist speaks with Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about freedom and faith, economic nationalism and the working class, philanthropy and ideas, and faith and reason.
The moral philosopher and political economist speaks with Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about differing emphases in papal thinking and teaching about capitalism and markets, the Vatican’s circles of engagement in consultations about them, and divisions within American conservatism today.
There is a Great Divide.
The importance of institutions.
A sermon that bears repeating.
Organized standardization and independent wildcatting can show up in grantmaking, too.
Progressive philanthropy will be frustrated in its ultimate aim to achieve a fully just and equal society, because it is working against the grain of our order, in pursuit of an abstract, utopian goal.
Really thinking afresh.
The war for the minds of every generation must be fought anew lest the gains of the past be lost.
How’s it going?
After all these years, even more patience is needed in education philanthropy.
And foster continued healthy discourse within and among all of them.
The Urban Institute researcher and HistPhil co-editor speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about what the study of history brings to the practice of grantmaking, the challenges and opportunities currently facing those conservatives and progressives who are critiquing giving, and the difference between charity and philanthropy.
The Urban Institute researcher speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about how he came to study the history of philanthropy and the origins of the HistPhil website he co-edits.
In the current context, it certainly raises several important questions, large and small.
Just as with “pulling the goalie,” properly assess the future, but in this case to “skate to the puck.” Don’t wait to skate—or, again analogizing to grantmaking, to spend.
Twitter thread provocatively lets loose on problems and shortcomings, challenges and opportunities.
Where philanthropy might want to look in our current period of conflict.
Familiar takes on interests and institutions, among other things.
Analogically, assessing the right risks of waiting to spend.
From more than a decade ago, thoughts an what can best and most reliably be done by foundations.
To help mark National School Choice Week, a story of patience and perseverance.
A brief excerpt.
It’s not so unique. Nor are small, local, hometown ones like it built by national government as easily as the large-scale interstate-highway system.
Healthy cooperation and equally healthy collisions between fully functioning capitalism, government, and civil society.
The arrogance of assuming all people automatically agree with “taking action” on a progressive agenda.
The education scholar speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about “big-R” and “little-r” reform, “big-P” and “little-p” philanthropy, school choice, and an “ivory tower of our own.”
The education scholar speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about teaching, his early career, public-sector reform, and private-sector philanthropy.
Exploring how to better bolster our shared allegiance to America and its principles.
Profiles in Howard Husock’s new book tell a larger story, engagingly tracing an unfortunate development: the displacement of civil society by the state.
And her response to those who consider it a device for “social control.”
A year-end collection of interesting and insightful quotes.
An important charitable lesson from the classic Christmas film.
Examining whether “thoughts and prayers” substitute for or complement material help.
Once giving, volunteering, and self-help are seen by the public for what they have always been to the philanthropic professionals—mere myths that complicate the work of the credentialed experts—what will happen to the legitimacy of those professionals?
He conducted himself in the proper manner, and for the proper reasons.
The author and former theology professor speaks with Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy, the “open society,” populism, and true freedom.
The author and former theology professor speaks with Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about rock-climbing, conservatism, and opinion journals and magazines.
And she deserves some help.
It’s less important than the “pilgrimage.”
“Presentism” (over-)confidently relies on mere dots.
The approaches of some grassroots activists and conservative philanthropies are much closer to each other than those flowing from progressivism—which shift power away from the local grassroots to distant intellectual elites, who consider grassroots efforts mere “Band-Aids.”
“With all due respect, you’re not listening to us.”
What may become a common way of “contracting out” the role of ensuring steadfast adherence to the will of the donor.
By suggesting that our vast network of social services isn’t adequate to the task of meeting human needs, the everyday charitable acts of Americans “threaten” to carve out islands of independent civic initiative, free from the heavy-handed guidance and arrogant expertise of philanthropic reformers.
Troubling implications for foundations and grantmaking if those challenges fail.
With overriding principles of freedom and human dignity, underlying practices of patience and persistence.
Needing to nuance intensities in tension.
And totalitarianism, transcendence, and the triumph of truth.
Progressive critiques of private philanthropy ignore prior public experience with government spending.
Always greeted with a smile, jousted with good nature, and toasted with cheer.
George Soros’ new book notes “pitfalls and paradoxes” of philanthropy in ways that seem quite familiar.
As establishment philanthropy defends its position in American society, it would do well to tend to more than just one flank.
A role reversal, and its own grand renewal.
Briefly overviewing some potential grantmaking options.
And another option for grantmakers to at least consider.
In wake of USC Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy’s must-read report, third of three-part series offers different take on applying theory, facing reality, and learning lessons for future giving.
In wake of USC Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy’s must-read report, second of three-part series tracks depressingly increasing evidence of failure.
In wake of USC Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy’s must-read report, first of three-part series overviews initial ambitions and aspirations of effort led by city’s funders to deal with “wicked problem.”
From the Old Testament.
You may have missed it.
The Madison Initiative director talks about Congress, the initiative’s grantees, and “philanthropic pluralism.”
The Madison Initiative director talks about his early career, management consulting, and philanthropy.
The Department of Education Reform chair talks about philanthropic education-reform strategies—including the Gates Foundation’s—and learning from failure, or not.
The Department of Education Reform chair talks about education-reform philanthropy and that which animates it, as well as Teach for America.
Not skew corporate pronouncements and practices toward philanthropic purposes.
It’s not over. (It never is.)
If we’re moving from an “information age” to a “reputation age,” what are the implications for funding public discourse?
Sector-bending has always been a symptom of a larger intellectual problem: utopianism.
We’re in the midst one of the most-drastic changes in the flow of information in history. Policy-oriented funders need to change their strategies accordingly.
As the current Brewers owner says, “Teams can go in two directions” when major setbacks happen.
A “come-to-history” moment about the long and winding road ahead, deeper into a dictatorship of virtue.
Those who care about the sector should probably be a little unsettled.
A (merely) diversity-minded progressive donor should indeed venture with utmost caution into the unsettled new world of cultural philanthropy.
We have been here before: a debate about capitalism between clerics and capitalists occurred during preparation of a bishops’ pastoral letter on the economy in America almost four decades ago. The lay letter on the economy warrants serious re-examination, given the new debates into which its concepts should be re-introduced.
Picking up on its potential wider implications, including for philanthropy.
Picking up on aspects of good policy-oriented giving.
Conservatives should rethink their giving and look elsewhere.
And where to look for rebuilding self-governance.
Another option, to which one might think there would be more receptivity.
On Labor Day, remembering Penn Kemble … and Robert Nisbet.
Are management training and statistical measurement really the keys to solving our deepest social problems?
Overcoming temptations and the tragic with tough-mindedness and long-termism.
Reflections on my co-editors’ conversation with Howard Fuller.
Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann talk to the Hudson Institute senior fellow and former Joyce Foundation and German Marshall Fund president about philanthropy and international affairs.
The Syracuse University professor and former Kauffman Foundation president talks about entrepreneurship, education, and philanthropy with Michael E. Hartmann.
The Syracuse University professor and former Kauffman Foundation president talks about business plans and entrepreneurship, including philanthropic efforts to support it, with Michael E. Hartmann.
The civil-rights and parent-choice activist talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy, education reform, and the principles driving his work.
The civil-rights and parent-choice activist talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about basketball, his early life, community organizing, and being an organizer.
Too tidy and convenient an explanation for today’s conservative policy activism.
“Let’s you and him fight.”
Liberally educated generalists with range, rather than narrowly focused specialists with technical expertise and sometimes-overbearing confidence.
And for conservative philanthropy, a small measure of comfort.
More are recognizing America’s “identity crisis” as urgent.
Pretense, resentment, arrogance, and thus plausibility.
In Milwaukee, it didn’t start with any grantmaker. The indispensable groundwork was laid by parents concerned about the education of their children.
Searching for isolated, but incredibly powerful voices of authentic experience with utopian progressivism, who can speak about its excesses with an authority that scholars and activists don’t possess.
It may sometimes be a good idea for policy-oriented givers to consider supporting those on the other side of an otherwise-overarching ideological divide or with another worldview.
Remembering, and trying to learn from, a good philanthropic role played more than two decades ago.
Civil society should not be seen by experts, or funders, merely as a tool to solve social problems.
Michael E. Hartmann talks to the president of The Center for Effective Philanthropy and author of “Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count.”
Introducing our effort to provide independent analysis of and commentary about philanthropy and giving.
Michael E. Hartmann talks to the cousins leading a family group protesting the Surdna Foundation’s violation of Andrus’ donor intent.
Pillars of establishment philanthropy—including GuideStar and Charity Navigator—should be subject to increased scrutiny because of what went on at SPLC and their reactions to it.
Restoring a more patient philanthropy means backing away from the obsession with immediate policy and political outcomes.
The story of conservative policy philanthropy from Barry Goldwater to Donald Trump.
A documentary that details the fight over the stewardship of a $25-billion art collection raises enduring questions of donor intent.
Conservative philanthropy appears to be on the threshold of a new phase in its history.
Should you give to charity based on emotional ties or on calculated rational analysis?
The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES) released new findings on the District of Columbia school-choice program. The “evaluation showed that students who received a voucher did 7.3 percentage points worse on math than students who didn’t, while reading scores were not significantly different for the two groups,” according to Frederick M.… Continue reading In looking for truth, breezes over bushes
American philanthropy is thoroughly, fundamentally elitist. In the Trump era, it will be tempted to pursue political activity that will only make that fact painfully apparent to the American people…
