Leader of Foundation Umbrella Group Announces Plans to Retire This Year

Dorothy S. Ridings’s announcement last month that she will step down this year as president of the Council on Foundations has touched off a debate among the organization’s members and outside observers about what it needs to look for in its next leader.

Ms. Ridings has led the council — which represents about 2,000 foundations, including many of the nation’s wealthiest grant makers — since 1996. While Ms. Ridings, 65, said she will not leave until the council names a successor, she also said she hoped not to stay past June.

Ms. Ridings’s decision to retire comes during a period of intense scrutiny by Congress of foundation operations, including allegations that compensation of foundation executives is too high and that grant makers are spending too much on administrative expenses.

With the Senate Finance Committee expected to consider new restrictions on how foundations operate, most observers agree the council needs a president adept at lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“Someone who can smell the trends in Washington,” said William S. White, president of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a council member in Flint, Mich. In addition, Mr. White said the new leader will need to know how to motivate the organization’s membership nationwide.

The council’s choice should also do a better job of representing small and midsize charitable funds, a group that Ms. Ridings neglected during her tenure, said Neal B. Freeman, chairman of the Foundation Management Institute, a foundation watchdog group, in Vienna, Va. Ms. Ridings represented the concerns of the “large, old-money foundations,” especially as the number of foundations accused of financial improprieties grew, Mr. Freeman said. “Her attempts to clean up the foundation mess, while laudable in principle, were constrained in practice by the interests of her most powerful constituents,” he said in an e-mail to The Chronicle.

New Grant Makers

Legislative affairs aside, the council’s new leader should understand the foundation world, especially the important role new grant makers will play in shaping the philanthropy of the future, said Rebecca W. Rimel, chief executive of the Pew Charitable Trusts, in Philadelphia. “The new leader needs to understand the vastness, the complexity, and the evolution of the foundation sector,” she said.

Emmett D. Carson, chairman of the council’s board and president of the Minneapolis Foundation, said the council will form an executive search committee this month. He said the group recently went through a “period of reflection” and has established a new strategy for its immediate future, including an increased focus on legislative issues.

With that plan in place, the organization will more easily make the transition from Ms. Ridings to her successor, he said. “We have the ingredients. We just need to find a cook that can make that dish,” said Mr. Carson.

Improving Communications

Regardless of who the Council on Foundations chooses, many foundation officials said filling Ms. Ridings’s shoes will not be easy. They praise her dedication to helping foundations improve their communications with lawmakers, the news media, and others who influence public opinion and public policy and who often know little about how charitable funds work.

“The foundation field is made of a lot of big egos,” said Mr. White, of the Mott Foundation. “Getting us to feel like we’re in this together and increase our accountability took a tremendous amount of effort.”

Said Karen Menichelli, executive vice president of the Benton Foundation, in Washington: “Legislators still do not get foundations. It has been a challenge for Dot to get the successes you need, but her commitment has been steadfast.”

But Ms. Ridings’s leadership has not been without criticism.

With Ms. Ridings at the helm, the “Council on Foundations has been naïve in its government relations. It views government as a gentle partner,” said Joseph N. Ignat, a trustee of the Nord Family Foundation, a grant maker in Amherst, Ohio, that is a member of the council.

Mr. Ignat said he wants the council’s officials to be wary of working with Congress to craft new restrictions on grant makers, comparing making deals with government to trying to please a wild animal. “They go pet the bear in the woods. Don’t pet the bear,” he said.

Despite criticism of her efforts, Ms. Ridings said her decision to retire was a personal one. “It came to the point where I needed to move on,” she said. “It just felt right.” But she admits that leaving the council during a period of growing scrutiny was not an easy choice. “We’re really headed into a legislative tempest. That was the only thing that gave me pause,” she said.

Ms. Ridings plans to return to her former home of Louisville, Ky., a move prompted in part by her son Matthew, who as a mentally retarded adult lives with Ms. Ridings. “I want to make sure he is in a place he feels is home,” she said.

While she is retiring, Ms. Ridings, a former journalist and newspaper publisher, said she hopes to fulfill a long-held goal of working with local students. “I have always wanted to be a high-school newspaper adviser,” she said.

Holly Hall contributed to this article.