Fannie Mae to Shut Its Foundation

Fannie Mae, the federally chartered housing finance organization, announced today that it is shutting down its charitable foundation, The Washington Post reports.

Fannie Mae said it would conduct its giving through the corporation and that it would continue to give just as much as it did in the past.

Since 1979, the foundation has spent more than $1-billion on charitable efforts in the Washington metropolitan area, the newspaper said.

The foundation has been criticized over the years for promoting the corporation’s interests and for giving to causes that the company’s leaders favor, the newspaper noted.

But a spokesman for Fannie Mae said the decision to eliminate the foundation was unrelated to past controversies and that the organization made the move to improve the efficiency of its operations.

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