First in a series on the future of Foundations:
There are a staggering 68,000 private foundations in America issuing over $32 billion in grants every year. Some critics are now suggesting that these organizations, most of which operate tax-free, should conduct their business more openly and with more oversight.
Author JoelFleishman has started a national conversation of sorts with a new book on the history of foundations and how they function — asserting that regulation of foundations is limited and varies widely from state to state.
The book comes on the heels of a report by the Senate Finance Committee this fall recommending more oversight of tax-exempt organizations.
The call for expanded regulation has alarmed some in the nonprofit sector, who worry the government will hamstring nonprofits.
“Many foundations are very small, and some have no staff at all — so for them, any regulation can be onerous,” said Tamara Copeland, president of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers. “… We have to make sure that the net effect of any potential legislation would be to strengthen the sector, not to reduce charitable activity.”
Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the D.C.-based Council on Foundations, said he believes there are an “extremely small number” of people abusing nonprofits, and says there has to be a balance between targeting wrongdoers and encouraging those who use foundations to contribute to their communities.
“We must promote and grow philanthropy in size and service, not just regulate it,” Gunderson told The Examiner.
“Foundations do have lots of shortcomings,” John Samples of the D.C.-based Cato Institute told The Examiner, “but it is far from clear, to put it mildly, that more government regulation would overcome these problems. It is far more likely that they would further politicize the nonprofit sector.”
Fleishman, Samples noted, has said of foundations that it is private money, and people ought to be able to do what they want to do.
“I want desperately to protect” foundations, Samples said, from any kind of government incursions that tell them what they should do.
Have information about area nonprofits? Contact Frank Sietzen at [email protected].
