August 3, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
NEW BOOKS
Great Philanthropic Mistakes
by Martin Morse Wooster
Martin Morse Wooster, a senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, in Washington, presents eight examples of grant-making programs that spent extraordinary time and resources tackling social problems, but did so without producing what the author considers long-term success.
The case studies span the last century and look at the Annenberg Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Mr. Wooster says that some foundations may attempt to solve unwieldy, complex issues overnight or adopt unrealistic goals.
“Their failures provide valuable lessons for future philanthropists who believe that their wealth gives them unlimited power to change the world,” he writes.
One case study follows a 30-year program at the Lasker Foundation that began in the 1940s with Mrs. Lasker’s insistence on constant breakthroughs and new “miracle drugs” to fight cancer.
James Shannon, who directed the National Institutes of Health during that period, came into conflict with Mrs. Lasker, and argued that steady support of medical research would ultimately help counter the disease more efficiently.
Mr. Shannon never received a Lasker Award for Public Service, which the foundation gives annually to people who raise public awareness of health issues. The author says that Mrs. Lasker instead used the award during her lifetime to reward political allies who increased federal health spending, although a cure for cancer was never found.
“Philanthropic mistakes begin with the premise that a foundation has the one right way to shape the world,” Mr. Wooster writes in his conclusion. “Arrogant philanthropists shape the chaotic world to fit their theories.”
Publisher: Hudson Institute, 1015 15th Street, N.W., Sixth Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005; (202) 974-2400; fax (202) 974-2410; http://www.hudson.org; 158 pages; $14.95; ISBN 1-55813-147-7.
