Philanthropy

Philanthropy
Looking at the Largest Higher-Education and Grantmaker Endowments in America
Of the 50 largest higher-education and grantmaker endowments in America, as measured by total assets and reported in their publicly available data for 2018, 28 were those of institutions of…
by Michael E. Hartmann on March 8, 2021

Philanthropy
Revival of DOJ “Slush-Fund” Settlements Raises Important Questions About the Nonprofit Organization Revolving Door
The president’s day one executive order directing a review of numerous agency actions related to climate change and the environment. One such review involves the possibility of reviving a controversial Justice Department practice allowing…
by Robert Stilson on February 16, 2021

Philanthropy
Liberal Philanthropy’s Role in the 2020 Election
Molly Ball’s lengthy article in the most-recent edition of Time, which purports to tell “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,” is sure to reverberate for a…
by Michael E. Hartmann on February 9, 2021

Philanthropy
The Ford Foundation, the 1967 Cleveland Mayoral Election, and the 1969 Tax Reform Act
The origins of much of American nonprofit tax law’s lines between philanthropically supportable charity and politics lie in a controversial July 1967 Ford Foundation grant to the Congress of Racial…
by Michael E. Hartmann on February 8, 2021

Philanthropy
For the People Act (H.R. 1):
Congress Recycling Bad Ideas from 2019
In the past week, two groups sent letters to Democratic and Republic congressional leaders condemning the ridiculously named For the People Act (H.R. 1 and S. 1) as a…
by CRC Staff on February 4, 2021

Philanthropy
David Packard and AEI’s “Near-Death Experience”
“Few of the histories of the conservative movement give pride of place to David Packard as a paladin of conservative philanthropy," according to a December case study from Johns Hopkins…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 28, 2021

Philanthropy
Benefiting from Information at the Philanthropic Top of a Pyramid
“What a lot of people think of as raw IQ from CEOs is actually a) access to information from smart people,” and “b) the compounding effects of (a).” Yet the…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 26, 2021

Philanthropy
Charitable Giving Is the Lifeblood of Social Capital, According to Mike Lee
“Government doesn’t have the ability to create institutions of civil society, and bad things tend to happen when government pretends that it does,” U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, Republican of Utah,…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 21, 2021

Philanthropy
“Tax Expenditures” on Charitable Deduction to Total Estimated $56.1 Billion in 2020
Our federal government tabulates how much it costs to incentivize us to behave in certain ways through the tax code. Every year, it adds up its estimated revenue losses from…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 19, 2021

Philanthropy
The Fate of Philanthropic Funding for Faded “Blue Ribbons”
Following the 2000 election—about which, recall, there had been more than a little controversy—the private, “blue-ribbon” National Commission on Federal Election Reform was convened to study and make recommendations about…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 13, 2021