‘National Journal’: High-Tech Philanthropy

Despite the collapse of technology stocks, many dot-com executives still have plenty of money to give away to good causes, and those donors could have a significant influence on major social issues, says National Journal (March 31), a magazine that covers public policy.

If the past is any indication, says the magazine, high-tech donors are more likely to support liberal causes than conservative ones. Among the most popular charities: feminist groups and environmental organizations.

And, the magazine says, faith-based charities “have had little success in tapping into the high-tech donor network.” The reason: “The orientation of many of the new philanthropists is secular not religious.”

The magazine notes that at Community Foundation Silicon Valley, only $40,000 of the $65-million awarded last year went to religious causes.

Peter Hero, head of the foundation, told the magazine that one reason for the lack of such donations is that most technology executives learn about charitable causes from colleagues on the job, not from religious leaders. “I hesitate to say it,” he said, “but the workplace is the church of the 21st century.”

Most giving by high-tech donors is “apolitical, or at least noncontroversial,” says the magazine. “But a lot of high-tech money is also going toward political causes.”

It adds: “The implications for policy making can be significant.” For example, it says, President Bush’s decision to prohibit federal aid to groups that promote or perform abortions abroad “will be partly offset by the estimated $539-million that flowed last year from the 14 largest U.S. foundations — including several high-tech givers — to overseas groups involved in family planning, AIDS prevention, and abortion services.” By contrast, the article notes, “antiabortion groups that support Bush’s policy received only a few million dollars from the major foundations and very little from high-tech donors.”