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.
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.
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 mailing list and its extensions have been the quiet architecture behind the very decline we are now struggling to comprehend.
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.
A survey of some context.
To survive future scrutiny, foundations need to reform how and where they give.
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.
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.
Today’s polarization between left-wing Democrats and populist conservative Republicans is also a polarization between two radically different understandings of giving.
How many more wake-up calls?
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.
There is a tremendous moral hazard inherent in using crisis language to describe problems that are more chronic in nature.
Contestation between conservative and liberal conceptions of civil society—and the way we might come to a healthy compromise.
For inspiration, they should consider the successful example of Hillsdale College, which cut the federal funding cord four decades ago.
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.
A story—still being written, fortunately—about pluralism and (lack of) permanence.
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?
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 disagreement about how to spend grant money offers poignant lessons on the perils of investing in public institutions.
IJ bears his mark in particular, of course, as does conservative public-interest law in general.
The fifth in a series of five republished articles to mark our fifth anniversary.
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.
“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.”
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.
They should not be seen as a source of untoward profit, but as value for money.
Remembering, and appreciating, his willingness to challenge traditional authority to help the poor and middle class.
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.
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.
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.
Looking to glean what the rise of DAFs means for our troubled voluntary sector and civil society in general.
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.
This year’s election demands greater scrutiny of nonprofits involved in political activities.
In large part because of him—his warmth, his wit, his wisdom—a great group that got along and, we think, did some good.
Remarks at the Council on Foundations annual conference a decade ago.
Carefully crafted, profoundly misguided.
Sector-bending has always been a symptom of a larger intellectual problem: utopianism.
Are management training and statistical measurement really the keys to solving our deepest social problems?
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.
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…
