Reform Efforts Won’t Solve Education Crisis
To the Editor: Although I am not surprised that the leaders of Walter Annenberg’s $500-million school-reform program rallied to its defense (“Critique of Annenberg School Plan Was Hasty, Misinformed,” Letters, May 7), I am surprised at the extent to which they distort the truth to suggest that I…
Charities Must Meet Donors’ Terms
To the Editor: I at first read with interest -- and eventually with concern -- Stephen Greene’s article “Federal Judge Orders Brooklyn Private School to Return $3-Million Gift” (April 9). As assistant director of a small New England museum, with responsibility for institutional development, I am…
Public Radio Requires Full Disclosure
To the Editor: I would like to respond to Steven Rothschild’s April 23 letter to the editor (“Minn. Radio Stories Were a Disservice”). The objective of my column (“Making Charities’ For-Profit Arms More Accountable,” Opinion, April 9) was to argue for full disclosure of all transactions between a…
Quashing Mistaken Notions of Philanthropy
The American system of philanthropy suffers two great weaknesses: It is hard to describe and easy to mock. Its great strength -- with roots that go back to the Bill of Rights and its guarantees of freedom of religion and of association -- is that it allows divergent visions to express themselves as…
By PUTNAM BARBER
Contributor
General Powell Needs a Battle Map to Fulfill America’s Promise
To the Editor: The tool almost every general takes into battle is a map. Had General Colin Powell or any community organizer started with a map and some research back in January 1996, the outcomes of America’s Promise after one year might have been a bit different (“America Answers Call to Help…
Grant Makers, Beware the ‘Global’ Juggernaut
The growing temptation to see the world through a single lens is a crucial one for grant makers to resist. Although eating Big Macs and using the World-Wide Web may be spreading like wildfire across the globe, it is facile to assume that such habits are being accompanied by underlying shifts in…
By Michael Shifter
Contributor
Group’s Exemption Pulled Because of Ties to Consultant
The I.R.S. has revoked the tax exemption of a charity because of the organization’s contract with a controversial fund-raising consultant, the Watson and Hughey Company. According to court documents filed by the charity, Adopt-A-Pet in Tulsa, Okla., the I.R.S. concluded that the organization’s…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
European Philanthropy Experts Disagree on Rules for Giving in Era of Euro
Europe will soon have a single currency to spend: the euro. But philanthropy leaders are divided over the wisdom of establishing one set of rules to govern how that currency may be given to charity. At “The Future of Foundations in an Open Society,” an international conference held here this month…
By Vince Stehle
Contributor
Levi Strauss’s Descendants Help Lead Revolution in Jewish Philanthropy
Jewish philanthropy has gone through a period of rapid change of seismic proportions in recent years. Although the shock waves have been felt across the country -- indeed, all the way to Israel -- the epicenter of that shakeup was in San Francisco. And several members of the Levi Strauss clan were…
By Vince Stehle
Contributor
Independent Streak Marks Philanthropy of Heir to Blue-Jeans Fortune
Of the many descendants of Levi Strauss, his great grandniece Madeleine Haas Russell has followed perhaps the most independent path in her philanthropy. Among the earliest grants of the Columbia Foundation, a private foundation that she founded in 1940 with her late brother William Haas, were…
By Vince Stehle
Contributor