What Grant Makers Should Do Today
April 3, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
To the Editor:
As you rightly point out in “No More Wiggle Room” (March 6), the reaction by most foundations to the decline in their assets is to cut back on grant making. This is counter to the principles of philanthropy and charity.
As president of a foundation for more than 50 years, I have learned that it is during these difficult economic times that generosity is needed most. The IRS 5-percent minimum payout is just that — a minimum. It is not a maximum, and it is not a target.
How can we in the philanthropic community justify sitting on literally billions of dollars of assets when there are such great needs to be addressed right now? I applaud the MacArthur, Kellogg, Ford, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations for stepping forward rather than scaling back. At our family foundation, we have exceeded the 5-percent minimum payout since 1996, and reached our goal of 10 percent the past three years. We have recently decided to do the same or more in 2003 — simply because it is the right thing to do.
Richard N. Goldman
President
Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund
San Francisco
