Speakers’ remarks at the recent Council on Foundations conference that ended Tuesday, exhibited a trend among foundation leaders to shift charitable organizations’ missions from public service to political activism, writes Anthony Paletta, an editor at the Manhattan Institute’s Center for the American University, in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Paletta cites the speeches of Valerie Jarrett, an adviser to President Obama and the head of the White Office of Public Engagement, and those of numerous foundation leaders at the conference as a sign that foundations are turning away from supporting programs to help those in need and enrich society toward a kind of political activism that Mr. Paletta finds worrisome and dangerous.
0 Responses to Opinion: Are Foundations Going Too Far in Embracing Political Activism?
connieboyd - April 30, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Conservative foundations, which advocate for the interests of the wealthy, have been at it much longer and much more aggressively. (For some reason Paletta fails to mention this in his WSJ op-ed.) Some suggested alternative reading matter:”Buying a Movement: Right-Wing Foundations and American Politics” (People for the American Way, 1996).Sally Covington, “Moving a Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations” (National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 1998).”Justice for Sale” (Alliance for Justice, 1993).Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado, “No Mercy: How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Changed America’s Social Agenda” (Temple University Press, 1996).Mark Schmitt, “Philanthropy is My Co-Pilot,” The American Prospect Online, April 29, 2010.