Philanthropy

Philanthropy
A Conversation with University of Tennessee Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Part 1 of 2)
There is “a pretty compelling case that” the nonprofit sector is “just an unregulated area with a lot of money sloshing around in a very tax-favored” environment—“and actually not just…
by Michael E. Hartmann on February 21, 2024

Philanthropy
A Conversation with University of Tennessee Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Part 2 of 2)
Reynolds discusses the folly of tax-incentivized support of America’s ruling-class elites, including its philanthropic ones, and what to consider doing about it. On philanthropy more largely, “anytime you get lots…
by Michael E. Hartmann on February 21, 2024

Philanthropy
Why Give Money To A College That Only Wants To Mock Your Values?
How many times have you moved since you graduated college? Lots, probably, but somehow, they always find you. If the FBI was half as successful at keeping tabs on wanted…
by Aaron Withe on February 12, 2024

Philanthropy
Martin Peretz on George Soros and His Philanthropy
“Soros is an interesting man: generous, idealistic, and egomaniacal,” according to Peretz. Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire and founder of the humongous Open Society Foundations (OSF), “sees himself at the center…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 22, 2024

Philanthropy
Trustees! Beware Hiring A Queeg
Regardless of the iteration, Captain Philip Francis Queeg represents an archetypical leader that organizations of all stripes, especially nonprofits, must avoid placing atop their leadership structures, lest they founder when…
by Robert E. Wright on January 16, 2024

Philanthropy
A Conversation with Economist and Historian Richard Vedder (Part 1 of 2)
In the first part, before addressing endowment taxation in the second, we talk about the academic study of economics overall and he briefly applies a basic, general economic concept or two…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 11, 2024

Philanthropy
A Conversation with Economist and Historian Richard Vedder (Part 2 of 2)
In the second part, we discuss whether tax-incentivization is a subsidy, the taxation of endowments in higher education, Milton Friedman’s e-mail to him about negative externalities in higher ed, whether…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 11, 2024

Philanthropy
Politicized, Progressive Big Philanthropy
Steve Miller’s December 12 RealClearInvestigations article, “How Tax-Exempt Nonprofits Skirt U.S. Law to Turn Out the Democrat Base in Elections,” is both jarring and informative and helps frame many important…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 4, 2024

Philanthropy
The Tenuous Place of Big Philanthropy in America’s Social Contract
Supposedly charitable philanthropy in America is tax-incentivized and has always occupied a nebulous position in the American polity—neither fully public nor pristinely private. Policy-oriented philanthropy, in particular, is large and getting larg­er,…
by Michael E. Hartmann on January 3, 2024

Philanthropy
Ways and Means’ Subcommittee Considers Changes in Law on Tax-Exemption, Foreign Funding, and Politics
During the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight held a hearing earlier today about the “Growth of the Tax-Exempt Sector and the Impact on the American…
by Michael E. Hartmann on December 15, 2023