Free Republic

According to Bloomberg.com the U.S. has committed $11.6 trillion to bailouts, stimulus packages, and other government programs that have mostly benefited the rich and politically connected. No one really knows for sure how much of that money has been wasted, lost, or stolen. Imagine what positive things could be done if that money were put in a charitable foundation where two laws apply: 1. the principal can never be touched 2. The foundation must use 5% of its earnings annually on philanthropic activities. Any earnings above the 5% can be used for administrative cost and/or to build the principal. Some...

Bill Gates took on the Famine Lobby while addressing a forum on the world food supply in Iowa. Speaking at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Gates took aim at the chorus of environmental leftists and organic food advocates who believe Africans should starve rather than eat genetically modified (GM) foods. “Some voices are instantly hostile to any emphasis on productivity. They act as if there is no emergency, even though in the poorest, hungriest places on earth, population is growing faster than productivity,” he said.The opposition is significant, because Gates is left-of-center himself. The Bill and Melinda...

Goldman Sachs is considering donating in excess of $1bn (£627m) to charity in an attempt to quell the growing furore over the likely size of its 2009 bonus pot. The investment bank which is set to report its results for the three months to September on Thursday, is understood to be giving serious thought to some form of large philanthropic donation. The aim of the donation, first disclosed by Henry Blodget's Business Insider blog, would be to deflect the likely row come at the end of the year. By then Goldman's total compensation pot is expected to be a record...

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and girlfriend Kathryn Rogers have promised the town $100,000 toward the cost of new holiday decorations. The gift is part of $350,000 in private donations pledged by a few town residents, Town Council President David Rosow said at Tuesday's council meeting. Limbaugh wanted to help bring "brightness and cheer" to a town he dearly loves, said Rosow, who is a friend of Limbaugh's. Rosow solicited the donations to cover the entire cost of the new lights and garlands, and installation of wiring to support them. "No one I called said 'no,' " Rosow said....

TIDE FOUNDATION: Overview Tides Foundation & Tides Center When is a foundation not a foundation? When it gives away other foundations’ money. Most of America’s big-money philanthropies trace their largesse back to one or two wealthy contributors. The Pew Charitable Trusts was funded by Joseph Pew’s Sun Oil Company earnings, the David & Lucille Packard Foundation got its endowment from the Hewlett-Packard fortune, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation grew out of General Motors profits, and so on. In most cases, the donors’ descendants manage and invest these huge piles of money, distributing a portion each year to nonprofit groups of...

Microsoft’s Gates gets Indira Gandhi Prize Foundation has committed nearly $1 billion to India for health projects NEW DELHI - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Saturday received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development from India's president, a government statement said. The prize recognizes his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is awarded annually to individuals or organizations for creative efforts that promote peace, development and a new international economic order. As of this month, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had committed nearly $1 billion for health and development projects in India. Most of...

A Massachusetts philanthropist who lost most of his personal fortune in the Bernard Madoff scandal has paid $5 million out of his own pocket to restore the retirement savings of employees who lost money in the multibillion dollar scam. Robert I. Lappin on Wednesday made up for the lost savings of the 60 employees of his company, Shetland Properties Inc., and of his charity, the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, whose 401(k) plans were managed by Madoff. The foundation, which sends Jewish youths to Israel, closed briefly when it lost $8 million in Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Lappin tells The Boston...

[Attack on freedom with an ACORN tie-in.] June 12, 2009 – Americans historically are a generous people. Thus it’s shocking to see the National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy undermining the valid foundations of charity in the name of charity. A major report from that organization asserts that “Philanthropy at its Best must serve the public good by contributing to strong, participatory democracy that engages all communities.” It then asserts that any charitable organization that properly promotes this value must do two things: First, “Provide at least 50 percent of its grant dollars to benefit low-income communities, communities of color and...

In one of the largest sums ever donated to charity by a U.S. public official, Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne gave away nearly $7 million last year to help the poor and to medical research. According to income tax information released by the White House on Friday, the Cheneys' adjusted gross income in 2005 was $8,819,006. The sum was largely the result of Mr. Cheney's stock options from Halliburton and royalties from three books written by Mrs. Cheney. The Cheneys gave more than three-quarters of their income - $6,869,655 - to several charities, including George Washington University's...

Aram Shishmanian understands the connections that bind people to gold. For 35 years, he has worn a matte gold watch, a graduation present from his father. That sentiment, and a 33-year career as a consultant and business philanthropist, has helped him run the World Gold Council (WGC) in an age when the metal’s appeal is under pressure from a growing array of consumer attractions such as mobile phones and designer handbags. In recent years, gold has lost “some of its aspirational character”, Mr Shishmanian says. He points out that many young consumers in major emerging economies such as China and...

NEW YORK – Trustees of real estate baroness Leona Helmsley's estate say they're giving $136 million to charity — with just $1 million going to the dogs. Helmsley's estate announced 53 charitable grants Tuesday, the bulk of which went to New York City hospitals and medical research. The largest grant, $40 million, went to a digestive diseases center at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, while $35 million went to start two research facilities in Helmsley's name at Mount Sinai Medical Center. The estate for Helmsley — who died in 2007 at age 87 — divided $1 million equally to 10...

Pop superstar Madonna has reached out to the victims of the recent earthquake in Italy - donating a substantial sum to the ongoing rescue effort in area where her "ancestors" are from. The country's Abruzzo region was struck by tremors on Monday, killing over 200 people. The town of Pacentro, where Madonna's paternal grandparents lived until 1919, was severely affected by the disaster, prompting the region's mayor to appeal to the singer for help. And Madonna has responded by donating a $500,000 (£345,000) sum to the relief effort, according to People.com. The star says in a statement, "I am happy...

In his 1835 masterpiece, Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, reported on his observations of the American scene after an extensive tour of the new Republic. One of his most profound insights had to do with the genius of Americans in the formation of institutions that mediate between large, distant government and the solitary, insular individual: Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, religious, moral serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans...

Conservatives More Liberal Givers By George Will WASHINGTON -- Residents of Austin, Texas, home of the state's government and flagship university, have very refined social consciences, if they do say so themselves, and they do say so, speaking via bumper stickers. Don R. Willett, a justice of the state Supreme Court, has commuted behind bumpers proclaiming "Better a Bleeding Heart Than None at All," "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty," "The Moral High Ground Is Built on Compassion," "Arms Are For Hugging," "Will Work (When the Jobs Come Back From India)," "Jesus Is a Liberal," "God Wants Spiritual...

Nonprofit leaders are reeling from the recent news that President Barack Obama's proposed budget would limit tax deductions on charitable contributions from wealthy Americans. But now the philanthropic world has something else to worry about. Today the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), a research and advocacy group, will release a report offering "benchmarks to assess foundation performance." Its real aim is to push philanthropic organizations into ignoring donor intent and instead giving grants based on political considerations. The committee is part of a rising tide of politicians and activists who are working to change the face of American philanthropy...

Some charities and nonprofit experts are worried that President Obama’s proposal to impose new limits on charitable tax deductions for wealthy people would dampen giving at a time when charities are under severe strain because of the recession. “During the current economic downturn, which has forced nonprofits to do more with less, any proposal which would result in a decrease in private giving will be a disaster for America’s charities, and for those who depend upon them,” said United Jewish Communities, an umbrella group for Jewish social-service charities. Mr. Obama proposed the new caps on Thursday as a way to...

Anyone want to guess what the media would be saying if a young, stylish Republican President and his wife were in office? I remember the media criticism of Nancy Reagan's high-fashion in the 1980s. It didn't exactly play like this: Under Obama, D.C. turns fashionable Washington, D.C., might not be ready to overtake New York, Paris or Milan as a fashion mecca, but with a stylish first couple as its best ambassadors since the Kennedy era, the sartorially challenged seat of power in sensible pinstripes is finally getting a little respect. Fashion observers credit the change to new Vogue cover...

Since founding the Gerard Health Foundation in 2001, retired Catholic businessman Raymond B. Ruddy has given away millions to fund pro-life causes, abstinence education and efforts to end the HIV and AIDS pandemic. But his businessman's mind would like those seeking grants to quantify the effect his dollars are having on the foundation's stated goal -- to save lives.

Just Wow. For those that were listening, it was one of the most facinating exchanges between a listener and Rush Limbaugh. Rush was speaking to an out-of-work grandmother who loves Pittsburg, and used to live there when Rush was working at a local radio station. She said that she couldn't afford the trip up, and was nearly indigent, and Rush is going to get her and her son a hotel room, a ride from their home in FL to Tampa for the Super Bowl.

Many statistics and people say that atheists aren’t charitable people. However, they seem to miss that the nation’s largest charitable foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was founded by an atheist – Bill Gates. It was reported by the Associated Press today that several charitable groups have committed to continue charitable giving during this time of economic crisis. Among those committing to do so is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. What’s more is they have gone a step further.

Out of all of the financial woes stemming from the current economic slump, this one hits me the hardest: Shriners Hospital for Children-Galveston will suspend operations to cope with a $3 billion shortfall in the Shriners International endowment fund, the organization’s president said Tuesday. In 2008, the Galveston hospital had a $33 million operating budget, according to information provided by the hospital. The hospital, which specializes in treating burned children, has been closed since Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Island Sept. 13. The hospital treats about 250 acutely burned children each year and keeps treating them until they are 18. In...

Left-of-center nonprofits are getting the bailout they wanted from the U.S. government, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. The news comes a month after Independent Sector president Diana Aviv demanded it. Our lawmakers are intent on pissing away billions of dollars on utterly useless giveaways to their supporters in the liberal nonprofit establishment. The money will have virtually no positive impact on the economy, except perhaps that it might bolster employment at nonprofit groups. One of the more egregious line items is the $1 billion allocation for community development block grants (CDBG). These are slush funds that liberal groups like La...

Michael Bienes, the fabulously wealthy Fort Lauderdale benefactor, abruptly resigned from the Performing Arts Center Authority board Wednesday with a one-sentence letter, according to a center spokeswoman. "We received the letter yesterday which said he was resigning, effective immediately," said Broward Center of The Arts spokeswoman Jan Goodheart. There's very clearly trouble in paradise -- and rumors are swirling among the county's elite that Bienes, who has poured more than $30 million into various Broward County causes and has his name emblazoned on the Broward County Library and Holy Cross Hospital, is dropping out of public life altogether. His leaving...

In 2006, Publix Supermarket Charities donated almost $30 million to causes that included Habitat for Humanity, the March of Dimes and United Way. But Al Piña isn't satisfied. Mr. Piña, the chairman of the Florida Minority Community Reinvestment Coalition, believes Publix isn't giving enough to people of color who donate to other people of color. Welcome to the latest trend in racial extortion. According to a study that Mr. Piña commissioned from the California-based activist group Greenlining, Publix gave only 2.81% of its grants in 2006 to "minority-led organizations." Minority-led is defined as groups whose staff and board of directors...

Suppose you were standing on the stairs outside the New York Public Library, beside Leo Astor or Leo Lenox, who gaze with serene, marbled regard across the exuberant pandemonium of Midtown Manhattan. Suppose, also, you were to ask the panoply of patrons passing by to name the fictional character who best captures the essence of capitalism. Chances are, the names you’d hear most often would be of miserly or unscrupulous figures—Dickens’ unredeemed Ebenezer Scrooge, for example, or Gordon (“Greed is Good!”) Gecko, from the movie Wall Street. Even in December, no one heading up to the Main Reading Room is...

Americans give more to charity, per capita and as a percentage of gross domestic product, than the citizens of other nations. But why? It would be nice to believe that as a group they are just more generous. Of course, it's more complicated than that. For instance in the U.S., which is notably religious among wealthy Western nations, about a third of all charitable giving goes to houses of worship. Some of that money, in turn, goes to projects that have an obvious benefit to the needy, like soup kitchens. But some does not, rather going toward paying the church...

This holiday season is a time to examine who's been naughty and who's been nice, but I'm unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet, when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates. Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, "Who Really Cares," cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an...

Liberals love to spend other people’s money to make themselves look, and feel, compassionate. But it is conservatives who actually donate more of their own funds than leftists to charitable causes. According to a study cited this weekend in The New York Times by uber-leftist hagiographer Nicholas Kristof, households headed by conservativs give 30 percent more to charity than households led by liberals. The study was by Arthur Brooks, called, “Who Really Cares?” Another study was even more astounding — Google found an even greater disparity: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals. What’s more,...

This holiday season is a time to examine who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but I’m unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates. Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, “Who Really Cares,” cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an...

I have been posting on this site about the trials and tribulations of young donors. I’m in the middle of chronicling the life of Michael, an heir to a trust, who must soon begin giving away $78 million (U.S.). More on his philanthropic journey in the next post. Another group is stumbling into the American philanthropic scene. Young South Asians living in the U.S. (Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis are the majority). Some moved to America after college, and others (like me) were raised here. They are coming into significant personal wealth. I recently brokered a discussion of six prospective donors....

I just saw on Hannity and Colmes where Hannity states how little Joe Biden gave to cherity. Democrat Bob Beckel stated he didn't know Biden gave so little and that he gave that much in used underwear the last 3 years!

Oprah Winfrey has been proclaimed the world's biggest giver -- again. For the seoncd year running, the day-time host topped a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for giving $50.2 million US last year through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and Oprah's Angel Network, which fund education, health care and advocacy for women and children. The list, now in its second year, was compiled by The Giving Back Fund, a charity that aims to encourage philanthropy. Claiming the No. 2 spot was trumpeter Herb Alpert, who gave $13 million for education, including music lessons, through the Herb Alpert Foundation. Three...

Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, has a new book out that is sure to drive the loony left, well, even loonier. In the new book Makers and Takers, Schweizer tells us "why conservatives work harder, feel happier, have closer families, take fewer drugs, give more generously, value honesty more, are less materialistic" than lefties in America. This from his website: Seventy-one percent of conservatives say you have an obligation to care for a seriously injured spouse or parent versus less than half (46 percent) of liberals. Conservatives have a better work ethic and are much less...

Sir John Templeton agreed with the proverb that it's "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." "There's a lot of truth in that," the billionaire philanthropist once said. "When people trust in something other than God, it's difficult to be truly spiritual. ... Don't fall in love with money." Sir John, a pioneering mutual fund manager, global investor and founder of the Templeton Prize, died Tuesday of pneumonia in the Bahamas, a spokeswoman at his foundation said. He was 95. Sir John was born...

Billionaire, former mutual fund manager, Sir John M. Templeton has died. Templeton ran some of the most successful mutual funds during the initial boom years for mutual funds. In 1939, when World War II began in Europe and the stock market was at record lows, Templeton borrowed $10,000 and bought 100 shares each in 104 companies that were selling at $1 a share or less, including 34 in bankruptcy. A few years later, he made large profits on 100 of the companies; four turned out to be worthless. Templeton renounced his American citizenship in the 1960's and moved to the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's love for children is by no means limited to their own: The couple has donated $1 million to help kids affected by the war in Iraq, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict announced Wednesday. The organization will distribute the donation, made through the couple's Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to four organizations working on behalf of children who have lost parents, homes and schools in Iraq. Children in the U.S. who have lost parents in the conflict will also benefit. "These educational support programs for children of conflict are the best way to...

Americans are hearing so much these days about how bad we are that we're starting to believe it. In a recent Gallup Poll, 68 percent said they are "dissatisfied with the position of the United States in the world today," and 55 percent said they think that the rest of the world views us unfavorably. However, as I page through a publication called the Index of Global Philanthropy, which is produced annually by the Center for Global Prosperity at the Hudson Institute in Washington, it becomes obvious that these American feelings of self-deprecation are misguided. This is the just released...

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2008 – After stringent review by one of the country’s premier charity watchdogs, a Massachusetts-based troop-support group has been added to a list of top-rated charities. The American Institute of Philanthropy has reviewed Homes for Our Troops’ finances and included the group in their “Top-Rated Veterans & Military Charities” listing. Homes for Our Troops is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad. “Homes for Our Troops is proud to be included in [American Institute of Philanthropy’s] list of top...

Chris Jardine gingerly reached out with his fingerless hands to touch the new wheelchair he was just given. He lifted his body into the new chair, but after a moment he pulled himself out and went back into his old wheelchair. “I want to wait and get up Christmas morning and have this be my Christmas gift,” Jardine said in his 10-by-10 room located in an old hospital in Mahaica, Guyana. Jardine was in dire need of a new wheelchair. His old one had loose and broken wheels, making transportation especially dangerous and difficult. The new chair would be more...

Many Americans were startled to learn that the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose campaign is built on an uplifting message of national unity and racial reconciliation, belongs to a church in Chicago where a very different view of America is preached by its longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mr. Wright, who just retired after decades in the pulpit, has argued that the "United States of White America" is still sharply divided between an oppressive white power structure and oppressed African-Americans, that God should "damn America for treating our citizens as less than human," and that the 2001 terrorist...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Philanthropist David Rockefeller donated a record $100 million to Harvard University's undergraduate program, the largest gift by a Harvard alumnus in the history of the oldest and richest U.S. college. About $70 million will be used to expand Harvard's student travel and study abroad programs and $30 million will go to arts education, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school said in a statement on Friday. Rockefeller, 92, the last surviving grandchild of billionaire oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 150 wealthiest Americans, with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion. He graduated...

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign released their tax forms from 2000-2007 Thursday, which showed the Clintons earned more than $100 million in that time period and donated $10 million of that to their own charity. The Clinton campaign reports donating $10,256,741 to the CFF between 2000 and 2006. During that time, CFF dispersed $2,530,100 in money to other charities and causes. The names of other persons who donated to the CFF are not required to be disclosed. Over the years, the CFF gave $80,000 to the Clinton Birthplace Foundation Inc., $20,000 to the Shakespeare Theatre, $40,000 to the School of the...

Here is a very long word that may be new to you (I Googled it and, at the time of writing, it has only 2,710 hits): philanthrocapitalism. If you wish to be very hip and savvy, you can call it Philanthropy 3.0. At bottom - though, as we shall see, there is more to it - this is about very rich people, such as Bill Gates, Jeff Skoll (the creator of eBay), Bono, George Soros and the founders of Google, giving away lots of money. What's wrong with that? It shows they have a heart, doesn't it? But I have...

Charity, do-gooding, philanthropy it’s all just selfishness masquerading as virtue. So says the cynic. In modern times, the theory that each of us, despite occasional appearances of self-sacrificial nobility, is ultimately and invariably looking out for No. 1 got a big boost from Darwin’s theory of evolution. By the logic of natural selection, any tendency to act selflessly ought to be snuffed out in the struggle to survive and propagate. So if someone seems to be behaving as an altruist — say, by giving away a fortune to relieve the sufferings of others — that person is really following the...

The family of Utah inventor and billionaire philanthropist James LeVoy Sorenson said today that he willed his entire personal fortune to charity. Sorenson died of cancer last month at age 86. Last year, Forbes Magazine estimated his wealth to be approximately $4.5 billion. Sorenson was known for his numerous medical inventions and successful business endeavors, in addition to his dedication to charitable causes. His son, James Lee Sorenson, said his father had talked about leaving his vast fortune behind to help various worthy causes. "Over time, particularly the last 10 to 20 years having been successful, he asked himself, 'What...

ERIE, Pa. - Mike Batchelor invited the heads of 46 charities into his downtown office for one-on-one meetings to personally deliver the news. Nearby, on a small table, sat a box of tissues. And then he proceeded: A donor had given a staggering $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation, and all of the charities would receive a share. That was when the tears began to flow — and the mystery began — in this struggling old industrial city of 102,000 on Lake Erie, where the donor is known only as "Anonymous Friend." Batchelor, president of the Erie Community Foundation,...

Microsoft Corp. marked the end of its annual giving campaign by hosting former President Bill Clinton for a campus visit. Clinton, joining Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to reveal the results of this year’s campaign, told a standing-room-only audience of more than 1,000 employees and thousands more watching via webcast that every individual, regardless of status or income, can help solve global challenges such as climate change and poverty.

Google is a public company that operates the amazingly successful online search engine. Its founders have decided to create a philanthropic arm for the company called Google.org. Their aim is to change the world by fighting poverty, reversing global warming, and landing a robot on the moon. But if the company ever runs into financial trouble, will its shareholders still appreciate the founders’ grandiose projects?...... Google Inc.’s billionaire founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have decided to use their shareholders’ money to fund their adventures in philanthropy...... ...Page and Brin have outlined a sweeping, almost utopian vision for Google.org. In...

NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Clinton will appear on Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show next Tuesday, Sept. 4, his first interview to promote "Giving," a book on philanthropy and civic action coming out the same day. Clinton's appearance was announced Monday in an e-mail - "The first interview about his new passion!" - sent to members of Winfrey's book club. Winfrey, who interviewed Clinton in 2004 for his memoir "My Life," has good reason to think highly of the new book. "Giving" praises Winfrey's "Angel Network," which has donated millions of dollars around the world, from money for schools...

As Chicago companies broaden their market horizons, they also are broadening the meaning of charity Digging deep: To help Beijing prepare for the 2008 Olympics, Caterpillar donated a hydraulic excavator, like this one, to the Chinese government. It's a big world, and as Chicago's largest businesses go global, their charitable giving is following them. Tapping new markets like China, India and Eastern Europe, many firms are expanding their community involvement to include all the places where they do business. Simply put, giving makes for good business. It's part of a larger trend in corporate philanthropy. The share of U.S. corporate...