Bronfman Sheds Light on What Happens When a Foundation Prepares to Close

When a foundation decides to spend its way out of business, what happens to the art on the walls? Will the charities it has supported over the years collapse? How many employees will stick around until the last day?

There weren’t easy answers for these and other questions when the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies announced in 2011 that it would spend down its entire endowment and go out of business in 2016. But an ongoing series of blog posts at GrantCraft provides a revealing glimpse into how the billionaire Seagram heir Charles Bronfman, members of his staff, and grantees have conducted their long goodbye.

The job of collecting the stories was given to Amanda Levine, who writes in one of the blog posts that when she joined the foundation in 2013, she knew she had accepted a job “with an expiration date.”

Ms. Levine said that when the foundation’s leaders made the decision, there wasn’t a clear road map for foundations that decide to spend all their money by a certain date. She hopes the series provides some guidance long after Bronfman’s files are packed into storage.

“We won’t be sharing our stories anymore, but we hope this series can transcend that and that others can feel inspired to write about their experience,” she says.

Grappling With Questions

Originally, the grant maker contracted with GrantCraft, a service of the Foundation Center, to edit and post 12 blog entries, according to GrantCraft’s director, Jen Bokoff. The posts were such a hit among other foundation leaders, she said, that the series was extended to 30 posts, giving other spend-down foundations a chance to contribute their perspectives. GrantCraft plans to publish an edited version of all 30 posts in a case study and host an online panel discussion on the topic with Bronfman leaders this November.

The reason it’s proven popular is that the blog writers lay bare the challenges of closing up shop, Ms. Bokoff says.

“They were wrestling with a lot of internal questions,” she says. The blog series “has helped them think about what their legacy would be” beyond the more than $340 million Bronfman has made in grants in its 30-year history.

In one post, for instance, former Bronfman Vice President Jason Soloway recounts the “ambiguous messages” about staffing decisions at the foundation that “triggered unease among the staff.”

After leaving the foundation, Mr. Soloway attended culinary school and is now co-owner of two Manhattan restaurants.

In another essay, Mr. Bronfman’s art curator, Franklin Silverstone, discusses what the foundation decided to do with the art that adorned its office, which included a colorful sculpture of a couch potato and other vegetable and furniture pairings. (The pieces will be auctioned and the proceeds donated to Historica Canada, one of the fund’s projects.)

Grantees’ Fate

Many of the questions that arise when a grant maker closes concern what grantees will do when their major benefactor cuts off support.

Bronfman decided it would focus on nine organizations, each incubated at the foundation, that deal with its core issues: promoting Jewish unity, promoting Canadian history and culture, and improving the quality of life in Montreal, New York, and Israel.

Mr. Bronfman has promised to continue personally funding some of the grantees after the foundation closes, including Birthright Israel, Historica Canada, and the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at Mt. Sinai.

Even with the promise of personal support from Mr. Bronfman, Historica Canada had to make changes to stay viable after the foundation closes, according to a post by Ann Dadson, a board member of the group. The group cut staff, closed branch offices, and began spending its endowment more slowly so it might last longer. It also merged with another group with a similar mission, the Historica-Dominion Institute, to save money.

For other organizations, such as the Green Environment Fund, which supports environmental work in Israel, the loss of Bronfman’s support was too much to endure. The fund, which was undergoing a change in leadership when the spend-down was announced, decided to close its doors.

But, Ms. Levine says, that decision was made in close consultation with Bronfman, which throughout the process attempted to come up with strategies for longevity with each grantee.

The foundation told its grantees: “We’re going to be mentors to you until you don’t need it anymore,” she says. “We’ll do that until we close, and maybe even beyond.”