The analyst and author talks to Daniel P. Schmidt and Michael E. Hartmann about philanthropy as an elite institution that should be as “on the defensive” against populist discontent as much as all of the other such institutions that have so ill-exercised their authority.| the Giving Review
The former director of special projects at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and current policy fellow at the Ash Center’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation talks with Michael E. Hartmann about the various trade-offs in the relationships with government of legacy foundations and the new institutional vehicles that bigger, trillionaire philanthropists likely will use in the coming years, along with the growing global role of American givers. The post A conversation with the Harvard Kennedy Scho...| the Giving Review
With Michael E. Hartmann, the former director of special projects at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and current policy fellow at the Ash Center’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation talks about his work and research interests, differences between the billionaire philanthropy of the past and the trillionaire philanthropy of the future, and whether the tensions of each with democracy will also be different. The post A conversation with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Jeremy McKey (Part 1 of 2) a...| the Giving Review
The mailing list and its extensions have been the quiet architecture behind the very decline we are now struggling to comprehend. The post Nonprofits must find their hope in something more than mailing lists appeared first on the Giving Review.| the Giving Review
The investigative reporter talks to Michael E. Hartmann about more factors surrounding potential policy reform regarding nonprofit flows of money in the business of college sports, along with newer and likely forthcoming flows of that money, whether nonprofit or otherwise. The post A conversation with <i>Sportico</i>’s Daniel Libit (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on the Giving Review.| the Giving Review
The investigative reporter talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the growing flow of money in college sports—including through tax-incentivized, nonprofit entities with charitable status.| the Giving Review
The successful conservative legal strategist and activist talks with Michael E. Hartmann about the challenges of raising money for public-interest law in general and the mismatch between the perception and the reality of some of that funding in particular.| the Giving Review
The former Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones executive, onetime top Rockefeller Foundation official, former ProPublica president, and current Substack writer and consultant talks to Michael E. Hartmann more about the relationship between funding and content in nonprofit and for-profit journalism, groupthink and diversity in the news business overall, and some specific challenges facing both foundation funders and management teams of nonprofit news organizations.| the Giving Review
And what that means for fundraisers. The post Why Gen Z trusts nonprofits more than Congress appeared first on the Giving Review.| the Giving Review
The research fellow talks about Alexis de Tocqueville, whether “civil society” and the “nonprofit sector” are the same thing, and what his new Philanthropy Roundtable research on government funding of nonprofit entities has to say both to their leaders and to policymakers, if anything. The post A conversation with the Mercatus Center’s Jack Salmon (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on the Giving Review.| the Giving Review
The research fellow talks about his new Philanthropy Roundtable report on government funding of nonprofit entities and the ways in which various forms of government benefits can compromise their independence—as well as the range of conditions government can and cannot, and should and shouldn’t, attach to its funding of them. The post A conversation with the Mercatus Center’s Jack Salmon (Part 1 of 2) appeared first on the Giving Review.| the Giving Review
Comparing and contrasting.| the Giving Review
Independent analysis of and commentary about philanthropy and giving Co-edited by William A. Schambra, Daniel P. Schmidt, and Michael E. Hartmann| the Giving Review
A regular curation. The post Recent coverage of and commentary about philanthropy and giving appeared first on the Giving Review.| the Giving Review
It is understandable, and in some ways even admirable, that many Christians feel a responsibility to directly care for the poor. But the Biblical mandate to care for the poor should not be taken as a mandate to be in charge.| the Giving Review
In the face of a lot of offered professional advice and guidance—and the risk or fear of ignoring or subordinating it to other, everyday, perhaps-urgent tasks central to pursuing a mission—a comforting compilation of less-pricey, basic precepts.| the Giving Review
Warns of coming supercharged dynastic philanthropy.| the Giving Review
Daniel J. Flynn’s forthcoming biography of Frank S. Meyer describes foundations’ roles in his life and work—and thus in the American conservatism, and America, he helped forge.| the Giving Review
The real-estate developer, activist, and civic builder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the idea of time limits on foundations, as well as his and his wife’s own donor intent—and the worth of the hard work in determining and articulating it.| the Giving Review
The real-estate developer, activist, and civic builder talks to Michael E. Hartmann about the principle of donor intent and the practical importance of articulating it with some specificity.| the Giving Review
On the basis of his long experience in the sector, the advisor, observer, and commentator talks to Michael E. Hartmann about those against DAF reform, some of the different kinds of nonprofit board members, different types of grantmaking strategies and tactics, and the underappreciated value of staffs at nonprofits.| the Giving Review
Helped by Sam Tanenhaus’ new biography, insights into the benefits and drawbacks of for-profit versus nonprofit status, the balancing of control with the risks of “capture,” and the potential ramifications of more belief and trust in grantees who are going to do what they’re going to do, with or without any grant.| the Giving Review
A survey of some context.| the Giving Review
A compilation of interesting and insightful thinking from the first seven of 13 recorded discussions so far this year about grantmaking and giving.| the Giving Review
How the hard-fought battle for the soul of a foundation should inform the struggle to preserve even a handful of large grantmakers devoted to conservative causes will require more than abstract doctrine.| the Giving Review
Benda, Gurri, Rufo, and us.| the Giving Review
Taxing the investment income of tax-exempt assets is no different from how investments in 401(k) accounts are taxed.| the Giving Review
In both messaging and missions, bridges instead of bubbles.| the Giving Review
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
Advice for the House Ways and Means Committee as it convenes a hearing this afternoon investigating the nexus between antisemitism, tax-exempt universities, and terror financing.| the Giving Review
Nonprofits no longer have the influence they once did to bridge divides.| the Giving Review
This article originally appeared on the IUPUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy blog on October 31, 2022. In the second of the two 1889 essays known as “The Gospel of Wealth,” Andrew Carnegie tries to identify the “best uses” for philanthropic giving. At the top of his list, “standing apart by itself,” is founding a… Continue reading Untitled| the Giving Review
Looking at some of the edifices, atriums, and façades.| 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
Now, in a moment of political backlash and financial scrutiny, those same institutions are asking everyday Americans to stand with them against proposals for increased oversight and higher excise taxes on their endowments. It’s a tough ask. Because the truth is most people haven’t seen that tax-incentivized wealth show up in meaningful ways—not in their neighborhoods, not in their schools, not in their civic life. When Big Philanthropy backed the wrong theory of change and cut itself of...| 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
We cannot allow our fantastic philanthropic institutions to become subsumed by wokery.| the Giving Review
Policymakers must divorce themselves from the old connotations of what they always believed “charity” represented, and instead see them as what they have morphed into today.| 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 point wasn’t to organize people—it was to acquire them.| 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
In 1994, the Bradley Foundation’s then-president described the “Bradley Project on the 90s,” led by Bill Kristol, and its call for a “new citizenship” that helped form the foundation’s grantmaking program.| the Giving Review
In this case, to the MacArthur Foundation’s failed, and democratically rejected, vision of criminal-justice reform.| 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
Back to the future, of foundations.| 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
Discussion follows creation of the Think Tank Funding Tracker, which quantifies support from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Defense Department contractors.| 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
A brief excerpt.| the Giving Review
An insular and distinctive cartel, pretty much ignoring everyone else, fueling woke capitalism.| the Giving Review
Conservatives need to face that truth.| the Giving Review
He thought the best thing the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation could do was find a few good nonprofits that were doing sensible things, and bring them whatever help they needed.| 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
The “best kind of dialogue across racial lines is not dialogue about race,” said the historian, who has died. We “are all people with many common interests to talk about, and a call for a dialogue on race sets us in opposing camps. ‘Oh, you are the spokesman for the white position and you are the spokesman for the black position.’ That, I don’t think, is likely to lead us to a better society.”| the Giving Review
A story—still being written, fortunately—about pluralism and (lack of) permanence.| 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
An end-of-year collection of interesting and insightful passages.| 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
As establishment philanthropy defends its position in American society, it would do well to tend to more than just one flank.| 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
“Patman had much to allege with respect to his Committee’s accumulated evidence of … foundation abuse of the sanctuary of income tax exemption,” according to the Midland, Mich., tax attorney’s 1964 law-review article.| the Giving Review
Remarks at the Council on Foundations annual conference a decade ago.| the Giving Review
A lengthening list.| the Giving Review
A “joke,” and other characterizations.| the Giving Review
At three foundations in the “FoundationMark 15,” 100% of contributions made by employees went to Democrats. At 12, contributions to Democrats exceeded 96%.| the Giving Review
In the framework of the “parallel polis” for which N. S. Lyons called at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels, there already exists a latent one in America’s central-city neighborhoods.| 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
Observations on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “The Commons” debate about whether philanthropy can bring America together.| 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
According to an Ipsos poll commissioned by Inequality.org in cooperation with The Giving Review, most Americans are unaware of details about philanthropy. When presented with specific statements describing policy concepts and ideas, though, many reform ideas are supported by a solid majority, both on the left and right.| 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
