Around the Blogosphere: Philanthropy Updates
Who is more generous – Compassionate Conservatives or Progressive Liberals?
Well, it turns out that the CCs are, if research out of Syracuse University is to be believed. (And why shouldn't it?) The researcher, Arthur Brooks, is a professor there, and also is the director of nonprofit studies for the university's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also the author of a recently published book, “The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism" (Basic Books). Here is a quote from the article in beliefnet:
The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money.
Such an attitude, he writes, not only shortchanges the nonprofits but also diminishes the positive fallout of giving, including personal health, wealth and happiness for the donor and overall economic growth.
So, now we know.
Points of Light or Supernovas?
Robert Reich has a piece in The Prospect that draws some valuable distinctions about the state of philanthropy between today and some 40 years ago. His analysis of our dependencies on the newly minted billionaires – they are not points of light, but supernovas – deserves some light of its own. As he says,
We depend on individual billionaires to do what government used to do. That's not a good thing.
An important read dished up here.
This just in… Gates Foundation not to last the century….
Reuters is reporting a Wall Street Journal article that says that the trustees of the Gates Foundation – Bill, Melinda and Warren? – have decided to spend down the foundation’s assets within 50 years of the death of either Bill or Melinda.
In a statement from the foundation the trustees asserted that:
"The decision to focus all of our resources in this century underscores our optimism for making huge progress and for making sure that we do as much as possible, as soon as possible, on the comparatively narrow set of issues we've chosen to focus on.”
No doubt a testament to the emerging complexities of the foundation’s recent hypergrowth, it has also decided to split the organization into two internal strictures – an asset trust and a program foundation.
These decisions are clearly in alignment with the Gates’ and Buffett’s philosophy of taking on big problems sooner rather than later.