Opinion: Helmsley Grants Make a Mockery of Donor Intent

Last month’s disbursements of the first grants from the late hotelier Leona Helmsley’s charitable trust “throw donor intent out the window,” The Wall Street Journal opines in an editorial.

Ms. Helmsley’s nonbinding “mission statement” for the foundation directed trustees to spend money first for the care of dogs and second for “other charitable activities” as they see fit. A February court ruling gave the trustees sole discretion in spending the money, and only $1-million of the $136-million in initial grants announced in April went to animal-rights and -welfare causes.

Donors who “don’t want to have their intentions similarly distorted” should be very specific about how they want their money posthumously spent, or else give it away before they die, the Journal writes.

See The Chronicle’s article on the disbursement of grants from the Helmsley Trust.