February 20, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Sparing no punches, Heather Mac Donald, a conservative thinker, takes on the growing effort to push foundations to give more to minority organizations and to be more diverse in their hiring.
In City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank in New York, she criticizes the Greenlining Institute, in Berkeley, Calif., which has been requesting that grant makers provide information about the racial make-up of their employees and how many charities led by minorities benefit from their philanthropy. The group has asked state and federal lawmakers to make such disclosures mandatory.
But Ms. Mac Donald argues that foundation support for the arts, disease research, and other efforts that at first blush seem not be focused on benefiting minorities, help blacks, Latinos, and minority populations.
She also chastises the Council on Foundations and others for failing to offer an adequate defense. “What has been the foundation sector’s response to this assault on philanthropic freedom? Total collapse,” she writes.
On PhilanTopic, the Foundation Center’s blog, David Jacobs, a senior editor of the center’s research publications, writes that Ms. Mac Donald “provides some much needed pushback … against the idea of government inserting itself into philanthropy and philanthropic decision making.”
The blog notes that Mr. Jacobs’s views do not necessarily reflect the center’s.
To be sure, other nonprofit leaders support Greenlining’s efforts.
Read an opinion article in The Chronicle by George Dean, chief executive of the Greater Phoenix Urban League, and Nativo Lopez, national director of Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana and national president of the Mexican American Political Association, that says foundations should provide more information about the diversity of their giving and hiring.
What do you think? Do you agree with Ms. Mac Donald? Click on the comment link below to share your views.
