Conservative Foundations Are Effective in Supporting School-Voucher Programs, Study Finds

NEW BOOKS

Strategic Grantmaking: Foundations and the School Privatization Movement, by Rick Cohen, says that conservative foundations’ support of projects to promote school vouchers “is strategic philanthropy at its best.” School vouchers provide government money to families to be used for private education. The report seeks to answer the questions, “What have conservative foundations done with their grant dollars to promote concepts of privatizing public education through ‘school choice,’ primarily linked to school vouchers? What were their strategies in providing resources to an array of conservative education think tanks, public-policy advocates, and organizers?” The report looks at giving trends, advocacy, and politics, and argues that the school-privatization movement is “flourishing” and is “a philanthropic playbook that other foundations interested in effective movement-building might learn from.”

Publisher: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2001 S Street, N.W., Suite 620, Washington, D.C. 20009; (202) 387-9177; fax (202) 332-5084; http://www.ncrp.org; 34 pages; available free for download on the organization’s Web site.