Richard J. Tofel

A conversation with Second Rough Draft’s Richard J. Tofel (Part 2 of 2)

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.

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Richard J. Tofel

A conversation with Second Rough Draft’s Richard J. Tofel (Part 1 of 2)

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.

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Karl Zinsmeister

A conversation with The Brothers author Karl Zinsmeister (Part 2 of 2)

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.

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Richard Vedder (Ohio University)

A conversation with economist and historian Richard Vedder (Part 2 of 2)

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.

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Michael Poliakoff and Emily Koons Jae

A conversation with ACTA’s Michael Poliakoff and Emily Koons Jae (Part 2 of 2)

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.

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Robert E. Wright

A conversation with Liberty Lost author Robert E. Wright (Part 2 of 2)

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.

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Robert E. Wright

A conversation with Liberty Lost author Robert E. Wright (Part 1 of 2)

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.

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John Fonte

A conversation with the Hudson Institute’s John Fonte (Part 2 of 2)

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.

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A conversation with retiring Murdock Trust CEO Steve Moore (Part 2 of 2)

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)

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