March 05, 2009
Foundation Leader Calls Watchdog Report 'Breathtakingly Arrogant'
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a foundation watchdog group, is drawing fire from an unlikely source: a donor.
This week the committee, in Washington, released a set of benchmarks for good grant making, including one that urges foundations to give at least half of their grant dollars to help the poor, minorities, people with disabilities, and other “marginalized communities.”
Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which has given grants to the committee in the past, praises the watchdog’s mission to improve the effectiveness of philanthropies and focus their giving on disadvantaged people, but the new recommendations are a poor prescription for foundations.
“Even for someone who shares NCRP’s concerns about marginalized communities, its hierarchy of ends is breathtakingly arrogant,” he writes on The Huffington Post.
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy does not want its standards to be made law, but Mr. Brest is uneasy with its goal to use them to educate lawmakers about issues facing philanthropy.
He writes that the tactic is similar to the Greenlining Institute, in Berkeley, Calif., which helped persuade state legislators to pressure wealthy California foundations, including Hewlett, to provide more money to support grass-root charities led by minorities and ones that work in low-income neighborhoods.
“NCRP has just concealed Greenlining’s fist in a velveteen glove,” he writes.
Read The Chronicle’s articles about the committee’s recommendations and about the debate over grant making in California.
What do you think of Mr. Brest’s criticism? What do you think of the committee’s recommendations? Click on the comment button below to share your views.
Comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Previous: Aid Groups Kicked Out of Darfur
Next: U.K. Tax Proposal to Spur Philanthropy
I agree with Mr. Brest…foundations should have the liberty to support the initiatives that are core to the mission for which they were established. If that includes marginalized populations, etc., that is wonderful. However, there are many great causes out there, that they should have the ability to support with whatever funds they deem appropriate.
— ECP Mar 6, 02:28 PM #
I agree with ECP and Mr. Brest. If these watchdog groups are dedicated to the support of particular populations and causes, perhaps they should spend less time complaining and more time raising money to help those causes. The history of philanthropy teaches some hard lessons: If too much criticism is hurled at donors, they will simply stop being donors, which benefits no one.
— Richard S. Thill Mar 6, 03:06 PM #
Everyone has a “pet” project or cause. It is sheer arrogance for this watchdog group to dictate these benchmarks. I support charitable foundations following their original mission/dreams/goals of their original benfactor. It was their money in the first place. Please do not put your hand in my pocket and tell me how I should spend my money.
— Anon Mar 6, 03:58 PM #
This exposes a landmine in the push for enhanced metrics and greater efficiency. Such things are not value neutral; one person’s effective philanthropy is another’s hubris.
— Jeff Trexler Mar 9, 11:42 AM #
Anon on Mar 6 says “don’t put your hand in my pocket and tell me how to spend my money.” That’s a riot! That’s not your money – that’s taxpayers’ dollars who have given you generous tax breaks and other ways to squirrel away monies in tax shelters offshore or in Swiss bank accounts. Let’s have the rich pay the same proportionately of their income as the poor, or let’s tax the rich at 90% as they’re proposing for the toxic AIG traders and you can keep what’s left in your pocket! Charities to their disgrace are not transparent, not democratic, not elected by anyone, not obligated to be fair or non-racist – yet they try to steer social policy. Hubris is a good word for it, the hubris of so-called philanthropists who think they’ve become gods.
— anon Mar 20, 07:28 PM #