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May 09, 2008

Opinion: Government Scrutiny of College Endowments

The increased scrutiny of college endowments by lawmakers and the Internal Revenue Service is drawing criticism from a senior editorial writer at The Wall Street Journal.

In an opinion article, Collin Levy notes that college endowments are often subject to donor restrictions and that colleges that flout the intentions of their donors could land in court.

What’s more, she writes: “The money flowing into university coffers was to be spent at the discretion of the school.”

She quotes Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor of philanthropy at Indiana University and Chronicle of Philanthropy columnist, who says: “This is private money. The whole idea that a donation should be regulated by government really challenges our notion of what philanthropy is supposed to be about.”

Friday May 9, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

1. I have long had an issue with “non-profits” (especially hospitals) achieving monumental “profits” at the expense of taxpayers. Having said that, I do not believe that there should be corporate income tax—only people pay taxes— and these taxes are embedded in the pricing and borne by the employees, the suppliers, the customers, and ultimately the investors. So either one is profitable and gets taxed (the worse idea) or neither should get taxed (clearly the superior idea, on the micro and macro level). If one is a non-profit and achieves excess income, it is fitting that the gov’t that giveth, could also taketh.

   — Mitchell Levin    May 11, 01:20 PM    #

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