September 6, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Few presidents of the United States have had more impact out of office than they did in the White House, and “William Jefferson Clinton aims to be one” who accomplishes such a feat, says the cover article in Condé Nast Traveler’s September issue. “His mission is monumental — to turn the planet’s prosperous to the service of the poor. His method and inspiration include traveling the earth in a whirlwind of philanthropy.”
Patricia Storace, a poet and essayist, writes that “the global philanthropic enterprise that Clinton envisions will sustain thousands of HIV/AIDS patients, confront climate change at an emergency pace, and defy global poverty.”
In an interview in his New York office, Mr. Clinton says his foundation attracts contributions in part because it runs “on very low overhead, which donors like. They know we’re sort of bleeding-heart cheapskates around here. We don’t spend their money if we don’t have to, and we try to maximize the dollars that go directly to benefit the cause that they fund, whatever it is.”
Ms. Storace says Mr. Clinton’s “blockbuster philanthropic ambitions” have produced anxiety as well as admiration. One concern, she says, is that “Clinton is no longer in office, but his intense fund raising on behalf of his wife’s presidential campaign may shape the foundation’s domestic programs to suit donors’ interests, diverting attention from beneficiaries’ actual needs.”
The article adds: “An overriding concern among public-health officials, AIDS activists, and analysts of philanthropies is the ability of the Clinton foundation to walk the tightrope between corporate America’s interests and the foundation’s own social goals; what might happen, for instance, to patients dependent on the low prices [the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative] has obtained for AIDS therapies if one of the small generic drug companies it works with is bought by a big pharmaceutical company hungry for maximum profits? Others are concerned about the foundation’s ability to find the right balance between its ties with governments and service to local communities.”
The article is available online.
