EDITOR'S CONTRIBUTION: Shamelessly Exploiting Philanthropy
By Andrew Collins
The huge boom in private philanthropy has given the world’s unfortunate the opportunity to attain a better life.
It has also given government a whopping excuse.
As foundations ramp up their splendid work, the federal government should not recede from its responsibilities to Americans and people all over the world. The government should persist with its schedule of domestic programs and foreign aid regardless of private donations, and let the foundations mete out additional funds to urgent projects and underfunded areas.
The Bush administration has recently taken the position that if the private sector is committing money to a cause, the government has a green light to withdraw support. For example, The New York Times reported Aug. 13 that the administration’s fiscal year 2007 budget eliminates a $93.5 million program to underwrite the development of smaller schools, citing the increase in support for those schools from “nonfederal funds” from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation.
This is clearly wrongheaded. If the Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation commit significant new funds to smaller schools, it is because they have deemed the development of such schools to be a high-need area—even with the existing $93.5 million federal commitment. For the Bush administration to withdraw that money leaves an already vulnerable area further exposed and increases the burden on foundations. It essentially creates more of a need where one already exists; it is the equivalent of dropping a drowning person back in the water because someone else has come over to help.
The government is abandoning its responsibilities to Americans and the world, using private philanthropy as an excuse. This should not be tolerated. The private sector should be free to operate according to need and the desires of donors, not forced to fill in the gaps of an increasingly deadbeat government.
Ironically, despite the Bush administration’s constant rhetoric about free enterprise in philanthropy, it has actually bound private organizations to the whims of government to a degree never before seen in American history. By stripping federal dollars from certain causes—with the expectation that private organizations will fill in the gaps—the administration has exerted a classic “big government” overreach and now essentially controls a considerable portion of these organization’s budgets. The Bush administration is backhandedly treating private foundations as if they were US agencies; this is both ill advised and completely contrary to conservative ideals.
Foundations like Gates, Carnegie, and countless smaller organizations should be released from the dictates of government and allowed to move with the agility and critical analysis that distinguish them from the sometimes lugubrious federal government. Private organizations should not fill in lines in the federal budget, but rather swiftly analyze situations and apolitically allot funds to causes that need them most. The government can then distribute its aid along a generally consistent schedule, bowing, of course, to immediate exigencies like the AIDS crisis in Africa and Asia and disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
The private sector can and should be the vital “extra” that fills one of three roles: 1) money for a problem to which the government is too slow and/or unwieldy to respond; 2) a well researched “big picture” contribution for a cause not quite identified by government; 3) a concentrated boost to solve, not just alleviate, a problem; or 4) funding for a cause the government cannot approach for political reasons.
This state of affairs—the status quo for most of American history—gives the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and others the freedom to function as capitalist enterprises, addressing vital needs that the government cannot quite reach. It frees these organizations from inappropriate governmental restrictions, and ceases the backhanded provision of resources to the Bush administration for its rancid policies. Where the Bush administration sees “money for the taking,” wise philanthropists like Bill Gates see opportunities to help major world problems. Gates’s money should be his to spend.
If President Bush needs money to alleviate his record budget deficit, I can suggest one place to start: withdraw the tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. Don’t patch up your sinking ship by exploiting the generous people who know what the hell’s going on and have the means and know-how to make a difference.
The huge boom in private philanthropy has given the world’s unfortunate the opportunity to attain a better life.
It has also given government a whopping excuse.
As foundations ramp up their splendid work, the federal government should not recede from its responsibilities to Americans and people all over the world. The government should persist with its schedule of domestic programs and foreign aid regardless of private donations, and let the foundations mete out additional funds to urgent projects and underfunded areas.
The Bush administration has recently taken the position that if the private sector is committing money to a cause, the government has a green light to withdraw support. For example, The New York Times reported Aug. 13 that the administration’s fiscal year 2007 budget eliminates a $93.5 million program to underwrite the development of smaller schools, citing the increase in support for those schools from “nonfederal funds” from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation.
This is clearly wrongheaded. If the Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation commit significant new funds to smaller schools, it is because they have deemed the development of such schools to be a high-need area—even with the existing $93.5 million federal commitment. For the Bush administration to withdraw that money leaves an already vulnerable area further exposed and increases the burden on foundations. It essentially creates more of a need where one already exists; it is the equivalent of dropping a drowning person back in the water because someone else has come over to help.
The government is abandoning its responsibilities to Americans and the world, using private philanthropy as an excuse. This should not be tolerated. The private sector should be free to operate according to need and the desires of donors, not forced to fill in the gaps of an increasingly deadbeat government.
Ironically, despite the Bush administration’s constant rhetoric about free enterprise in philanthropy, it has actually bound private organizations to the whims of government to a degree never before seen in American history. By stripping federal dollars from certain causes—with the expectation that private organizations will fill in the gaps—the administration has exerted a classic “big government” overreach and now essentially controls a considerable portion of these organization’s budgets. The Bush administration is backhandedly treating private foundations as if they were US agencies; this is both ill advised and completely contrary to conservative ideals.
Foundations like Gates, Carnegie, and countless smaller organizations should be released from the dictates of government and allowed to move with the agility and critical analysis that distinguish them from the sometimes lugubrious federal government. Private organizations should not fill in lines in the federal budget, but rather swiftly analyze situations and apolitically allot funds to causes that need them most. The government can then distribute its aid along a generally consistent schedule, bowing, of course, to immediate exigencies like the AIDS crisis in Africa and Asia and disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
The private sector can and should be the vital “extra” that fills one of three roles: 1) money for a problem to which the government is too slow and/or unwieldy to respond; 2) a well researched “big picture” contribution for a cause not quite identified by government; 3) a concentrated boost to solve, not just alleviate, a problem; or 4) funding for a cause the government cannot approach for political reasons.
This state of affairs—the status quo for most of American history—gives the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and others the freedom to function as capitalist enterprises, addressing vital needs that the government cannot quite reach. It frees these organizations from inappropriate governmental restrictions, and ceases the backhanded provision of resources to the Bush administration for its rancid policies. Where the Bush administration sees “money for the taking,” wise philanthropists like Bill Gates see opportunities to help major world problems. Gates’s money should be his to spend.
If President Bush needs money to alleviate his record budget deficit, I can suggest one place to start: withdraw the tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. Don’t patch up your sinking ship by exploiting the generous people who know what the hell’s going on and have the means and know-how to make a difference.
posted by Andrew Collins at 6:00 AM
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