Hewlett’s $400-Million Grant Respected Donor’s Wishes

To the Editor:

Readers of Rick Cohen’s comments on the Hewlett Foundation’s $400-million gift to Stanford University deserve an accurate description of its nature and circumstances (“$400-Million Grant Wasted an Opportunity,” Opinion, May 17). The following facts were made clear in the press release and public announcement of the gift:

The gift was not general endowment for Stanford. It was earmarked for student financial aid and faculty support in the School of Humanities and Sciences, which bears the responsibility for most undergraduate and much graduate education. In a university in which each school must do its own fund raising, relying largely on donations from its own alumni or from corporations, Humanities and Sciences is the poor cousin of schools such as Business, Engineering, and Law.

Mr. Cohen comments on the infusion of assets to the foundation from William Hewlett’s trust. However, those assets came with a responsibility to honor the donor’s wishes.

At the public announcement of the gift for Stanford, Walter Hewlett explained that plans for the gift had been under way for about a year: “Unfortunately, my father’s death in January intervened in this process and it no longer became possible for his trust to make an outright gift to Stanford. The terms of his living trust specified that virtually all of his financial assets would transfer to the Hewlett Foundation on his death. The trustees of the foundation felt that if he had been able, he would have made this kind of gift to Stanford. We think of this gift not in the context of our normal grant making at the foundation, but rather as being like a final bequest to Stanford from Bill Hewlett.”

Mr. Cohen is correct that there is a close relationship between the Hewlett Foundation and Stanford. This is a historical relationship that grows not out of its top management — my two predecessors came from the University of California — but from its founder’s continuing gratitude to the university that helped launch the career responsible for the foundation’s endowment.

Finally, Mr. Cohen mentions other uses to which the $400-million might have been put, which, in his opinion, would have been more productive. Of course, for any grant toward a particular objective there are myriad alternatives. However, the Hewlett Foundation has for many years supported the nation’s colleges and universities in the belief that strong institutions of higher education are essential to a vibrant and productive democracy. The foundation is proud to support one of the world’s great universities and to make its education available to students regardless of their means.

Paul Brest
President
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Menlo Park, Calif.