Opinion: Activists Aim to Politicize Philanthropy

A column in today’s Wall Street Journal blasts the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and other advocacy groups that author Naomi Schaefer Riley says aim to introduce racial quotas and other political considerations into charitable giving.

Ms. Riley, deputy editor of the newspaper’s Taste section, cites a report released today by the committee that calls on foundations to direct at least half of their grant dollars “to benefit lower-income communities, communities of color, and other marginalized groups.” She also notes efforts by groups such as the Greenlining Institute and the Council on Foundations to promote diversity in foundations’ giving and on their boards.

“Philanthropists give money to foundations with a particular cause in mind,” Ms. Riley writes. Organizations that redirect funding to match the activist groups’ criteria “may have to violate donor intent in order to do so.”