The successful conservative legal strategist and activist talks with Michael E. Hartmann about his groups’ current and contemplated activities in the wake of the recent precedent-setting Supreme Court decisions against race-based admissions in higher education, as well as the future of public-interest law in general.| the Giving Review
The heir, author, and researcher talks to Craig Kennedy and Michael E. Hartmann about the “Wealth Defense Industry,” the degree to which philanthropy is used and charity is abused by the wealthy, and what could perhaps be done about it.| the Giving Review
The Demos founder and author of The Givers talks to Michael E. Hartmann about covering foundations and donors, the changing nature of the wealthy as a class, and the role of philanthropy in a democracy.| the Giving Review
The London-based policy analyst and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about where criticism of politicized charity is coming from in the U.K., why, and what could and should perhaps be done about it.| the Giving Review
The London-based policy analyst and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the politicization of charities in the U.K., the role of the Charity Commission and other “quangos” there, and cross-Atlantic similarities in challenges being both presented by and facing nonprofit groups.| the Giving Review
The short of it: in his new book’s ambitious thinking about the “full scale of human history,” William MacAskill undervalues the past—by definition, but more than needed—and elides in practice what that thinking could perhaps offer those of a different ideological worldview.| the Giving Review
Molly Ball confirms it, fails at trying to creatively mischaracterize it, and raises more questions about it.| the Giving Review
The professor and specialist in nonprofit law and philanthropy talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether private foundations got a better or worse bargain in the 1969 Tax Reform Act than donor-advised funds (DAFs) got in the 2006 Pension Protection Act, the benefits of “bright-line” rules in the context of the public-support test loophole specifically, but also others in philanthropy and nonprofitdom, and the “low-hanging fruit” of closing DAFs’ public-support test loophole compare...| the Giving Review
The professor and specialist in nonprofit law and philanthropy talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the history and purpose of the public-support test, the “Grand Bargain” of the 1969 Tax Reform Act and the “new bargain” of the 2006 Pension Protection Act, and potential explanations for the use of donor-advised funds to avoid the test and its ramifications.| the Giving Review
The Instapundit founder and Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the tax incentivizations given to the nonprofit sector and whether they’re really effecting their original policy purpose, and what to consider doing about it.| the Giving Review
The College Endowment Accountability Act, according to Sen. J. D. Vance, responds to “a problem, borne of unfairness and of mass subsidy from the American taxpayer, that has now metastasized into one of the most-corrupt and one of the most politically active and politically hostile organizations in the United States of America, and that is elite colleges.”| the Giving Review
The senior editor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about staff turnover and accusations of mismanagement in the San Francisco DA’s office, including in grants administration, and more broadly, the underappreciated role of philanthropy in local government, in terms of both the size of its funding and its influence.| the Giving Review
The senior editor talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the nonprofit news site, the visions and aims of the MacArthur and Crankstart Foundations’ criminal- and restorative-justice grantmaking in San Francisco, and the backlash in the city and state against aggressive criminal-justice reforms that began in the 2010s.| the Giving Review
In J. D. Vance’s Munich Security Conference speech, echoes of the Pera-Ratzinger debate’s basic questions about identity, democracy, and the West—and the ability, the very place, of the people to democratically offer answers to those questions.| the Giving Review
The Washington, D.C., attorney and writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about natural and constitutional rights in general; those conditions that can or could legally attach to governmental benefits, including tax-exemption, in particular; and first principles and the common good.| the Giving Review
With whom, though, and for what? In Leah Hunt-Hendrix’s and Astra Taylor’s new book, unfortunately, it seems as if meaningful, bottom-up anti-centralism might be too constrained by their modifying adjective.| the Giving Review
In discussion with Charity Reform Initiative associate director Bella DeVaan and Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann, the editor and journalist talks about donor-advised funds and the challenges of, and prospects for, potential reform of the laws and regulations structuring the nonprofit sector more generally.| the Giving Review
2025 Edelman Trust Barometer finds higher level of trust in business than NGOs, much-lower level of trust in NGOs among low-income than high-income.| the Giving Review
Michael E. Hartmann talks to the research analyst about his proposed new IRS Form 990 Schedule S for nonprofits that provide fiscal sponsorships and how it would increase trust in the entire sector.| the Giving Review
The research analyst talks to Michael E. Hartmann about fiscal sponsorship—including how it works, its history and purpose, its apparent growth, and the benefits it provides, one of which may be considered a drawback.| the Giving Review
The Ohio state-budget expert and research fellow talks more to Michael E. Hartmann about his recent report on rulemaking nongovernment organizations (NGOs), different types of rulemaking NGOs, their various funding sources, and what can be done to make sure they play an appropriate role in helping to shape state policy implementation and regulation.| the Giving Review
The Ohio state-budget expert and research fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about his recent report on rulemaking nongovernment organizations and how they can serve good purposes, but should operate transparently and be subject to the scrutiny of democratically elected policymakers.| the Giving Review
An insular and distinctive cartel, pretty much ignoring everyone else, fueling woke capitalism.| the Giving Review
The former Fulbright Scholar and research fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the upward trend in foreign funding of American think tanks, the applicability of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying-disclosure law to U.S. think tanks, and some recommendations in the new report he’s co-authored on think-tank funding for policy reform and a “culture shift.”| the Giving Review
The former Fulbright Scholar and research fellow talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the new report he’s co-authored on the funding of American think tanks, the online repository of data he’s helped compile about the funding, and the transparency scale created for the project.| the Giving Review
Tevi Troy’s newest book tells stories about the relationships between presidents and corporate titans who became charitable givers—prominently including interesting and entertaining ones about Theodore Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller, Sr., essentially a founder of establishment philanthropy in America.| the Giving Review
"What difference was there between Brooke the person and the Asher and Carol Jaffee Foundation, really?"| the Giving Review
The consulting-firm founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about the benefits and challenges of rural grantmaking, including the growing role of intermediaries and the proper, localist sense of place in it.| the Giving Review
“[W]hy shouldn’t tax be collected before the money is given away?”| the Giving Review
A reminder of a previous willingness to offer harsh conservative criticism of Big Philanthropy, and of that which gave rise to the critique.| the Giving Review
The Washington, D.C., attorney and writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about “the myth of Citizens United,” its historically anachronistic basis, and its ramifications in the context of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.| the Giving Review
In discussion with Charity Reform Initiative associate director Bella DeVaan and Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann, the editor and journalist talks about his important recent article on “The Left’s Fragile Foundations;” philanthropy and politics in general, including funding of voter-registration projects in particular; and liberal and conservative grantmaking, including in the wake of populism’s ascendance.| the Giving Review
The consulting-firm founder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about rural philanthropy in America—its size and scope, its nature, and the benefits of and challenges to doing it well.| the Giving Review
Examining the origin of some of the official lines, at least as originally drawn, between charity and politics.| the Giving Review
Given the growing number of harsh progressive, populist, and just plain rule-of-law critiques about so much of unelected, unaccountable, and tax-favored establishment philanthropy, there may be a desire on the part of policymakers to aggressively examine some or all of it again.| the Giving Review
On the basis of his long experience in the sector, the advisor, observer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about how the nature of charitable giving has changed and how those changes affect fundraising challenges, including because of DAFs.| the Giving Review
Tim Schwab’s book on Gates is an education, and an opportunity to examine certain questions.| the Giving Review
If race-based grant contracts violate §1981, practical legal advice for grantors and grantees alike would include options ranging from linguistically just avoiding any reference to race in grant agreements to avoiding grant contracts altogether.| the Giving Review
The former White House official and Philanthropy Roundtable vice president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about the Tappan brothers’ belief in the primary role of individual human beings to do what’s right and get things done, as well as how today’s alternative faith in the promise of technology is a serious challenge for any return to that primacy of people.| the Giving Review
The former White House official and Philanthropy Roundtable vice president talks to Michael E. Hartmann and Daniel P. Schmidt about his new novel on the underappreciated history of the Tappan brothers and the ways in which they changed American culture, including through their philanthropy.| the Giving Review
Jeffrey E. Paul’s new book about the authoritarian strain in American academia—including where it came from and what its effects have been, in politics and policy—uses an easily understood, nautical analogy to describe an emerging oligarchy, its financiers, and their role.| the Giving Review
Labor journalist Hamilton Nolan’s new book on “the struggle for the soul of labor” takes progressive philanthropy to task for not prioritizing the promotion of America’s labor movement and makes an urgent plea for it to do more, and with more patience.| the Giving Review
The Instapundit founder and Substack writer talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the folly of tax-incentivized support of America’s ruling-class elites, including its philanthropic ones, and what to consider doing about it.| the Giving Review
The Ohio University professor emeritus talks to Michael E. Hartmann about whether tax-incentivization is a subsidy, the taxation of endowments in higher education, Milton Friedman’s 2003 e-mail to him about negative externalities in higher ed, whether there might also be negative externalities in philanthropy, and the taxation of endowments in philanthropy, as well as a little about the Ohio Bobcats’ football team.| the Giving Review
The Ohio University professor emeritus talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the academic study of economics overall and applies a basic, general economic concept or two in the context of charitable giving to higher education.| the Giving Review
