Other Funds Need to Follow Markle’s Lead

To the Editor:

I enthusiastically support the decision of Zoë Baird, president of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, to give away assets at least twice as fast as the 5 per cent required by law (“Taming the New Frontier,” July 29), and hope it sets a precedent for our nation’s public and private foundations.

While the average foundation payout is only slightly more than the minimum requirement, those institutions that have experienced a windfall from the dramatic stock-market returns of recent years should seriously consider more-generous annual grant making than the legal minimum. . . .

Granted, spending large sums of money in bold new ways, as the Markle Foundation seems intent to do, is bound to reduce a foundation’s principal. But deteriorating conditions are taking such a severe toll on our neighborhoods, our cities, and our planet that for foundations (and the laws that govern them), solving societal ills must take priority over capital accumulation. It’s hard enough to uncover groundbreaking opportunities for prudent and effective grants. Foundations whose endowments have grown more than anticipated should not miss a chance to make a real difference in the world simply because members of their staff have backed themselves into a 5-per-cent-grant-making mentality.

Certainly we should not force foundations to give away more than 5 per cent of corpus per year. However, institutions that pay out more than 5 per cent of their assets per year should make themselves known so that other foundations might consult with them and, in some cases, follow suit.

And while maintaining a grant-making institution into perpetuity is appealing, I believe that our world’s needs today are so compelling that a philanthropist’s most dynamic, enduring legacy will emanate from deeds accomplished right now. To make such tremendous contributions to human betterment — as Andrew Carnegie did — a philanthropist (or a foundation board, or staff) must adopt a stronger, urgent entrepreneurial spirit whose motto should be: “Save humanity, not principal.”

It is to everyone’s benefit for foundations to invest more in societal gains, which is why they were formed in the first place. To do so, government, foundations, private donors, and the for-profit sector must work more closely together in a powerful re-constellation that the Markle Foundation well understands. This is an urgent mat ter because the technological revolution is changing every dimension of our world at a faster rate than ever before. If we cannot devote more funds to helping society cope with such changes, we will all pay a far more serious price later.

Claude Rosenberg
Founder
Newtithing Group
San Francisco