October 2, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Philanthropy Roundtable kicked off its annual meeting this week with more than 400 participants gathering in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Adam Meyerson, president of the Washington coalition of grant makers and philanthropists, started the three-day meeting by offering brief eulogies about three people who died recently and who greatly influenced philanthropy.
He praised scientist Norman Borlaug for his role in creating the so-called green revolution, a foundation-supported agriculture project that helped feed millions of people in India and elsewhere.
He also spoke about Donald Fisher, the co-founder of the Gap clothing-store chain. Mr. Meyerson applauded the businessman’s philanthropic support for Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, a network of charter schools.
Finally, the Philanthropy Roundtable leader hailed the work of Irving Kristol, the conservative writer. While Mr. Kristol is best known for his political writing, he helped formed the organization that eventually became the Philanthropy Roundtable and gave an influential, if controversial, speech at a meeting of the Council on Foundations in 1980.
In the speech, titled “Foundations and the Sin of Pride: The Myth of the Third Sector,” he argued that grant makers can not separate themselves from their origins as offspring of the business world. He continued on to say that nonprofit groups do not qualify as a “third sector” distinct from government or corporations; when they try to do so they suffer from “hubris.”
“His words today are as important as they were in 1980,” said Mr. Meyerson.
