Kresge Foundation turns left

Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon explains in a new article how the $3 billion Kresge Foundation took a hard left turn.

At Capital Research Center we’ve documented the process by which so many large philanthropies have succumbed to the siren song of progressivism. McMorris quotes a familiar face:

“Foundations fall into this progressivism and they never think to confess their ideology,” said Bill Schambra, director of the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. “They see themselves as objective, driven by social sciences and expertise.”

Kresge created the foundation with a $1.6 million endowment in order to “promote human progress,” a prerogative that resulted in hundreds of hospitals, schools, universities, and libraries over the first 80 years of its existence.

“The problem starts with the mission. Most of them say they are ‘promoting the well-being of mankind’; that’s so broad that it doesn’t restrain the ambitions of the foundations,” Schambra said. “Sooner or later you end up hiring professional philanthropists. That’s the kiss of death. This is how these groups end up perverted.”