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November 07, 2008

Philanthropy Roundtable
Donors Urged to Support Families

Philanthropists should do more to support American families, which are threatened by social problems like absentee fathers and out-of-wedlock births, Robert P. George, a law professor at Princeton University, told the participants at the Philanthropy Roundtable’s annual meeting.

Mr. George, who is a trustee of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a conservative grant maker in Milwaukee, said government programs can not be a substitute for parents. “A family is the best department of health, education, and welfare,” he said.

He said he is concerned that more couples treat marriage as an “optional lifestyle choice.” “In the absence of a strong, flourishing marriage culture, families fail to form or when they do form they are often unstable,” he said.

The decline of the so-called traditional family structure has far-reaching consequences, he said. “The preservation of liberty and democracy depend on limited government, and limited government is possible only where there are flourishing institutions of civil society, beginning with the family,” he said.

Therefore, he concluded, philanthropy “has a big stake in the health of the family.” He encouraged foundations to support academic research that examines family trends and nonprofit groups like the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, an economic development charity that receives grants from the Bradley Foundation.

“We have to figure how to do it more and how to do it better,” he said about supporting families.

— Ian Wilhelm

Friday November 7, 2008 | Permalink

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