Debating their tax-reform plan first proposed in 1981, Hoover Institution’s Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka write, “it is perverse to tax the typical American to subsidize these elite institutions,” referring to nonprofits favored by the wealthy. “But granting tax deductions for gifts is precisely such a subsidy.”
On the 30th anniversary of substantial, work-based policy revision to social-service delivery, a still-relevant call for grantmakers to look beyond “picking up the slack” and instead strengthen the grassroots institutions that foster self-governing citizenship.
In the wake of the Canadian think tank’s recent report on “circular lobbying” by government-funded child-care advocacy groups, the senior fellow and researcher talk to Michael E. Hartmann more about the risks of government funding of private groups in civil society—to their independence in particular and democratic pluralism in general.
The senior fellow and researcher talk to Michael E. Hartmann about the Canadian think tank’s recent report on “circular lobbying” by government-funded child-care advocacy groups and what it can tell us about the state of Tocquevillian civil society there.
The author of “Madisonian Nonprofit Law” talks to Michael E. Hartmann about effects of philanthropic LLCs on Madisonian nonprofit law and of a Madisonian nonprofit sector on political parties and politics; the tradeoffs in analyzing the interaction between nonprofits and politics and thinking about both the nationalization and commercialization of nonprofits; democracy and the “art of losing;” and democratically expressed backlash against elites, including philanthropic ones, and its risks to Madisonianism.
The author of “Madisonian Nonprofit Law” talks to Michael E. Hartmann about James Madison, Alexis de Tocqueville, checks and balances in the context of the nonprofit sector in general, some of the different ways in which nonprofits engage with and can check government, and the role of philanthropy in particular in counterbalancing government power, or not.
In the wake of Warren Buffett ending his extraordinary philanthropic partnership with the Gates Foundation, revisiting questions raised after its initial announcement.
A compilation of interesting and insightful thinking from the first four of seven recorded discussions so far this year about grantmaking and giving.
As American philanthropy continues to evolve, may it one day catch up with Bob Woodson.
It’s only with the recovery of the principles of the American constitutional order—a genuinely unique contribution of conservative philanthropy—that conservatism achieved the degree of theoretical coherence, patriotic allegiance, and fidelity to human nature essential for political success.
As faith in national politics declines, Americans can find purpose, agency, and community by investing in the local institutions and civic associations that have long been the foundation of American life.
Citizen entrepreneurship, as described in the Manhattan Institute’s 2010 William E. Simon Lecture.
During Center for Civil Society podcast, the scholar, author, onetime philanthropy executive, editor, and commentator discusses establishment philanthropy’s elitist progressivism and alternative thinking and examples, as well as the need to balance philanthropic freedom against concerns about philanthropic power.
With Michael E. Hartmann, the economist and policy analyst talks about his recent article “Think Tanks Have Defeated Democracy;” why the U.S. has so many think tanks; how that differs from other democracies; and what philanthropy, its own managerial elite, and the one it funds have done to civil society rightly understood and democracy in America.
Donors and their advisors are going to have to come out from behind the desks and get out into the neighborhoods and see first-hand the sort of work that’s being done.
The Northwestern Pritzker School of Law professor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about America as both a commercial republic and a philanthropic republic; the relationship between the civil society about which Alexis de Tocqueville wrote and the tax-incentivized nonprofit sector in its current form; the wealthy and artificial intelligence; and sensible regulation and who’s best positioned to formulate it.
Throughout our nation’s history, zealous left-wing crusades have gradually but invariably lost ground because, sooner or later, the practical and immediate demands of commerce reasserted themselves in the face of abstract utopian promises.
If proponents of participatory philanthropy are looking to attract receptive conservatives to their cause, it may be impossible if participatoriness comes to be—or even to seem—just another mechanism to rationalize tax-incentivized philanthropy in furtherance of one particular ideological or partisan political end. If conservative philanthropy is honestly and self-critically looking to exemplify anti-elitism in and improve its grantmaking, however, it would more aggressively explore options to humbly check what might be its own elitism and increase participatoriness in that grantmaking.
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.
A compilation of interesting and insightful thinking from the last six of 13 recorded discussions so far this year about grantmaking and giving.
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.
Conceptions of civil society among populist conservative writers and thinkers and in magazines and journals open to populist conservatism.
Observations on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “The Commons” debate about whether philanthropy can bring America together.
Nonprofits no longer have the influence they once did to bridge divides.
Is there a “Charity, Inc.” and if so, what could perhaps be done about it?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
As shown in and by Sanford, Mich., it’s often when massive devastation is visited on a population that it discovers its true character.
