Adding Up the Gores’ Giving

Hands-on volunteerism wins praise, but flap over ’97 donations lingers

Charity has proven to be a controversial subject for Al Gore.

The vice president touched off a national debate on personal giving after his 1997

tax returns disclosed that his family had donated just $353 that year.

And Mr. Gore’s only major presidential campaign speech on non-profit issues to date — a call for government to form a “new partnership” with religious groups that provide social services — has drawn fire from liberals and conservatives alike.

Some of Mr. Gore’s most loyal supporters have attacked the plan as an unconstitutional blurring of church and state, while those who endorse an expanded role for religious groups have questioned Mr. Gore’s commitment to the issue.

But a close look at the Gore family’s charity connections over time makes it hard to dismiss the vice president as someone who doesn’t understand or care about the needs of non-profit organizations.

While it is unclear what charity tax proposals and other non-profit policies Mr. Gore, a Democrat, would promote if elected president — his office declined to provide detailed information for this article — his personal involvement with the charitable world gives some indication of the forces that could shape his decisions. Mr. Gore, and his wife, Tipper, have been particularly devoted to environmental, religious, homelessness, and mental-health causes.

“The electorate should look to their leaders for what they give from their hearts, in addition to what they give from their wallets,” said Mr. Gore, in a written response to questions posed by The Chronicle. “I think in the future non-profit organizations will be the pioneers at the core of our national strategy for building a better, more just nation.”

The Gores have opened their wallets to charities many times over the years.

From 1992, the year Mr. Gore was elected vice president, through 1999, Al and Tipper Gore took charitable deductions for $118,638 — or 4.4 percent of their total income of $2.7-million for that period.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush reported giving 3 percent — or $674,299 — of his taxable income of $22.2-million during the same time (The Chronicle, April 6).

Independent Sector, a national coalition of non-profit organizations and grant makers, says that Americans on average give away about 2 percent of their incomes.

But the sum the Gores contributed in 1997 — less than 0.2 percent of their income — drew the most national attention.

“The vice president clearly had sort of a political tone deafness,” says Bill Turque, a Newsweek reporter and author of the biography Inventing Al Gore. “He knew that he’d be running for president. He knew that his 1997 tax returns would be gone over with a fine tooth comb. Yet he let this $353 go through, which opened the gate for all sorts of ridicule.”

Mr. Gore told The Chronicle that people should not draw conclusions about his generosity based on just a single year of his donations.

“To judge my commitment to public service by looking at a one-year snapshot of my taxes is too narrow as it does not take into account the time I have contributed to charitable organizations and the financial contributions I have made over the years,” he said.

What’s more, “while we have been blessed more than others,” Mr. Gore said, “the fact remains that we still have substantial financial obligations, i.e. two kids in school.” He added: “When we have the resources, we do contribute financially.”

The Gores made their largest contribution in the past eight years in 1992, when they claimed $52,558 in gifts, including $50,000 to the University of Tennessee from the proceeds of Mr. Gore’s book on the environment, Earth in the Balance.

For three years, from 1993 through 1995, the Gores did not itemize on their tax returns and thus did not claim any charitable-contribution deductions.

When the Gores have claimed charitable deductions, they often declined to say which groups received their gifts. For example, in 1999 they donated $15,000, according to a White House press release, to “causes committed to helping those with various illnesses, religious organizations, educational institutions, and other public service entities.”

While observers have often focused on the sums he has given to charity over the years, Mr. Gore says that the volunteer hours and other non-profit connections of his family are as important as the dollars donated.

Mr. Gore credits his mother, Pauline LaFon Gore, with teaching him “the importance of giving back to the community.” Her volunteer efforts have included a stint at the American Red Cross during World War II interviewing young women who wanted to go overseas to help.

Al and Tipper Gore and their four children have used a combination of government service and volunteer work to promote social change.

For example, in the early 1980’s, after seeing a mentally ill homeless woman walking down the street, the family came up with three ways to help people like her. The Gore children decided to make sandwiches at Martha’s Table, a soup kitchen in Washington. Mr. Gore, then a Representative in the U.S. Congress from Tennessee, held a conference on homelessness in his home state. And Mrs. Gore used her camera, creating a photo exhibit designed “to put a human face on the numbing statistics.”

Mr. Gore, who studied at Vanderbilt Divinity School, has said that his wife’s volunteer efforts at Christ House, a charity in Washington that provides a range of medical and other services to the homeless, helped shape his biggest speech on non-profit issues so far: His address to the Salvation Army in Atlanta last year proposing a new government partnership with so-called faith-based groups.

Mr. Gore has spent much time on the campaign trail talking about issues that indirectly affect charities and the people they serve — such as promoting plans to make child care more affordable and improving mental-health services for children.

But he has said little about federal tax policies and programs that directly affect donors and charities.

For example, in response to a written set of questions submitted to his office by The Chronicle, Mr. Gore declined to say whether he would support a plan President Clinton proposed earlier this year to give people who do not itemize their federal tax returns the opportunity to claim a charitable deduction. Mr. Gore told The Chronicle only that he believes “tax incentives that encourage contributions to charitable organizations are sound policy.”

Governor Bush, by comparison, is touting a detailed $8-billion plan that would provide new tax breaks — including a deduction for people who do not itemize their tax returns — and other incentives to encourage giving by all Americans and corporations.

Mr. Gore also declined to say where he stands on foundation-related issues, such as whether the government should increase the minimum percentage that grant makers must distribute annually. But he does have a family connection with the foundation world: his son-in-law, Andrew Schiff, serves as treasurer of a family foundation created by Mr. Schiff’s father and other relatives. The Schiff Foundation had about $12-million in assets in 1998, according to The Foundation Directory’s 2000 edition, and supports charities that include museums, social-service groups, and children’s organizations.

Some charity leaders say they hope Mr. Gore, if elected, will follow up on efforts such as the coalition he created after the major federal welfare changes of 1996. The Vice President’s Coalition to Sustain Success was designed to help charities that run job-training programs better coordinate their work. But several members say the partnership has done little since meeting a few times in 1997 and 1998.

“I’m hopeful that things will move along and some planning will start to happen again,” says Genie Cohen, executive director of the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services, in Philadelphia.

Many observers predict that Tipper Gore would play a key role in shaping issues of interest to non-profit groups in a Gore administration.

Over the years, Mrs. Gore has been a visible advocate for children, homeless people, and those suffering from mental illnesses. President Clinton named her an official adviser on mental-health issues, and she played a key role in organizing the first White House conference ever held to discuss mental health.

But Mrs. Gore’s policy work has also been controversial, the most notable being her work several years ago through the non-profit Parents’ Music Resource Center to persuade record companies to use labels that would help parents identify albums with sexually explicit or violent content. Many people criticized her efforts as an attempt to censor the music industry, although Mrs. Gore has always said that she never endorsed any restrictions on musicians.

Many of Mrs. Gore’s interests stem from hands-on experiences. On her birthday five years ago, Mrs. Gore celebrated by volunteering with an organization now known as Unity Health Care, in Washington.

That initial interaction developed into a long-term relationship. Mrs. Gore, who holds a master’s degree in psychology, has often ridden along in the charity’s outreach van on Friday mornings, combing the streets to try to coax homeless people to get the help they need, whether it is showers and clothing, medical aid, or psychological help.

“Mrs. Gore has gotten very personally involved with some of these clients,” says Vincent A. Keane, executive director of Unity Health Care, which changed its name from Healthcare for the Homeless several years ago after expanding its mission.

“Once they’ve gotten into housing she has continued contact with many of them. And she has had many of them over to her home.”

Mrs. Gore recounts several experiences from her volunteer work in photography books she has published or contributed to.

Among the memories she recalls: Once she took to the streets in search of a mentally ill man she had befriended to try to persuade him to return to Christ House.

Another time she used a letter from her husband to persuade a Vietnam veteran to get help. She also spent several days comforting and listening to the life stories of a homeless man with AIDS who left the hospital because he wanted to die under the bridge in Washington he used to call home.

Mrs. Gore has complemented her volunteer work with money, giving the proceeds from her book Picture This: A Visual Diary — about $35,000 — to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, in Nashville.

The council, of which Unity Health Care is a member, distributed the money from the book to four homelessness charities that aid the mentally ill.

Mrs. Gore also always includes a call to volunteerism in her books.

“I am a great believer in helping those in need one-on-one,” she writes in The Way Home: Ending Homelessness in America, a just-published collection of pictures by 13 photographers. “If you write a check, you will do a great good, but if you never connect directly with the people you want to help, you will never feel as fulfilled as you will if you take the time to forge a real relationship.”

How Much Al and Tipper Gore Have Given to Charity Since 1992