Foundation Watch

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Committee Hearing Debacle
The Ford Foundation gives well over $100 million per year to programs that advance policy and political wins for the Left and Democratic politicians, yet Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) recently…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Senator Cancel Culture
The Ford Foundation is an accidental byproduct of bad tax policy and unforeseen consequences. Confiscatory estate tax rates during the first half of the 20th century left one of the…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Hard Left Turns
Sen. Whitehouse’s assertion that the Ford Foundation “doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a political motive or purpose” is contradicted by tens of millions of dollars in…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Mystery Billionaire: Dark Roads Through Arabella
At least 114 separate Ford Foundation grants, totaling almost $65 million, were given over the previous five years to the New Venture Fund. In Sen. Whitehouse’s classification system, each one…
by Ken Braun on November 2, 2021

Foundation Watch
Philanthropy for “Citizens of the World”: Community Foundations
America has always had its patricians, but as the word suggests, they saw themselves as patriotic “fathers” of their country, and their wealth and prestige were tied up in their…
by Hayden Ludwig on September 20, 2021

Foundation Watch
Philanthropy for “Citizens of the World”: Grants
So which politically active organizations are the biggest beneficiaries of community foundation money? To sift through tens of thousands of grants and avoid cherry-picking recipients, we identified nonprofits that are…
by Hayden Ludwig on September 20, 2021

Foundation Watch
Philanthropy for “Citizens of the World”: Donors
Community foundation grants ultimately originated with (mostly) anonymous donors, not the community foundations themselves, which serve as conduits for donor-advised-fund account holders. The largest community foundation givers on this list…
by Hayden Ludwig on September 20, 2021

Foundation Watch
Philanthropy for “Citizens of the World”: What Is Philanthropy For?
Who does philanthropy serve? Until we answer that question—one that our forebears understood—community foundations, private foundations, and 501(c) groups are immaterial. Philanthropos is the love of mankind rooted in the…
by Hayden Ludwig on September 20, 2021

Foundation Watch
The Left’s Campaign for Socialized Housing
For the increasing unaffordability of housing in much of America, observers offer a variety of explanations and remedies. Numerous factors are at play. The housing market is, after all, a…
by Robert Stilson on August 26, 2021

Foundation Watch
Funding Leftist Groups Is Apparently “Public Health”
The California Endowment, a massive nonprofit born of the health care industry, uses its vast wealth to support “social justice” campaigns and defund-the-police efforts. It’s a lesson in what passes…
by Hayden Ludwig on August 17, 2021