Columnist’s Lament Is Out of Tune With the Times

To the Editor:

If only we could identify and educate the spate of new, young philanthropists, then they will stop focusing almost entirely on gifts for the environment, education, and children’s programs, which are so limited, and instead fund social-change programs for the invisible poor. That is Pablo Eisenberg’s lament (“New Giving Reflects Old Priorities,” March 9).

Leaving aside his narrow notion that education reform is not community development, or that children’s programs cannot be advocacy-oriented, Mr. Eisenberg’s argument misses three tenets of American society today.

First, too many social-change programs and policies have failed to convince those with wealth, new or old, of their efficacy.

Welfare, public housing, and a host of job-training programs, to name just three examples, were progressive reforms that today are commonly — though not entirely correctly — viewed as costly failures. New donors want new ideas and new programs.

Second, philanthropy is still a private domain (though government grants the affluent a public-realm benefit of avoided taxes). Private donors use private funds to make private choices about pet issues. Not surprising, then, that those with wealth seek comfort in picking their advisers, gatekeepers, or grantees.

Third, the new philanthropists who so desperately need to mature and be educated by anyone concerned with social and economic justice need not a lecture, but a dialogue. We can learn from their distinct vantage points and entrepreneurialism as they learn of our experience and insights.

Tim Siegel
Director of Organizational Development
National Association of Child Advocates
Washington