A nice article on the effect of the financial crisis on charitable
giving. It is funny that the author who so lucidly identifies all the
problems with the non-profit foundations system ("there is nothing
sacred about perpetuity") is still unable to draw the obvious
conclusion: maybe the public authorities should do this job that the
private sector is so obviously doing such a poor job of..http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704500604574481773446591750.html ----------------------------------------------------snip While the assets of private and public foundations have decreased between 15% and 25% over the past couple of years with the decline of the stock market, foundations in general have been reluctant to dip into their often huge endowments to either maintain or increase their giving to financially starved grantees. Many have simply cut their grant making. Despite the phenomenal growth of their assets over the past 20 years, foundations have insisted that Congress not increase the minimum required payout rate of 5% of foundation net assets annually for grants and administrative costs. This should no longer be tolerated, especially in these tough times. An increase in the payout rate to 6%, all in grants, would eventually add about $10 billion a year to the coffers of nonprofit organizations to the approximately $40 million that it is estimated that foundations now give. Foundations have claimed that such an increase would jeopardize the perpetuity of their assets, yet a number of studies argue that their assets could be maintained with a payout of 7% or 8%. Moreover, there is nothing sacred about perpetuity. What is more important is the health and vitality of our nonprofit community. The Obama administration and the Congress should act quickly to increase the payout to 6% in grants, and the president should use his bully pulpit to pressure foundations to give much more than they are currently giving. -raghu. -- Today is National Existential Ennui Awareness Day. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
