Charity Governance

A POSSIBLE LESSON FOR CHARITABLE RECIPIENTS OF ILL-GOTTEN GAINS AND ANOTHER FOR ALL CHARITIES

DATELINE:  JULY 13, 2010, Chicago

Last Wednesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer had a fascinating story regarding Malvern Preparatory School, recipient of funds from Joseph S. Forte, a now convicted felon and a former trustee of the school.  Harold Brubaker, A Workout in Court Over Ponzi-Scheme Gift (July 7, 2010).  Forte had pledged $1 million for the construction of an athletic facility for the school.  According to the Inquirer, Forte only paid half the pledge.

Forte is serving his time because he ran...

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE ON THE WEST BANK

DATELINE: July 6, 2010, Chicago

Jim Rutenberg, Mike McIntire, and Ethan Bronner of the New York Times are reporting today on how United States charities fund expansion of Israel settlements on the West Bank.  Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements In West Bank.  The article is lengthy and extremely well written.  It will obviously raise the ire of many once they realize that tax-deductible contributions are being used to finance the expansion that has become a major roadblock to peace in the Middle  East.   Is it purely a coincidence...

SUSTAINABLE?

Sleeping is giving in, so lift those heavy eyelids.

Arcade Fire, Rebellion (Lies) from Funeral

DATELINE: June 30, 2010, Chicago

As regular readers of this column are well aware, the drive to enable benefit corporations in New York has resulted in a flurry of activity...

BEWARE: BENEFIT CORPORATIONS APPEAR TO BE A TROJAN HORSE DESIGNED TO FEED AT THE PUBLIC TROUGH

DATELINE:  June 29, 2010, Chicago

Recall that the New York State Senate recently passed S7855 to enable the creation of benefit corporations.  We decided to take closer look at New York’s existing corporation law to see whether this pending legislation is really necessary.   The legislative history to the bill states:

Currently, socially-minded companies are often left with the catch-22 of either not being able to earn a profit or opening their directors up to possible personal liability for decisions that do not maximize shareholder value or increasingly going to states other than New York that are pursuing this corporate form. This bill solves that dilemma. Without increasing regulation or impacting the state budget, the bill: * Removes legal impediments preventing businesses and investors from making their own decisions to use sustainability and social innovation as a competitive advantage.

We are not at all sure...

TALKING PAST THOSE WHO WERE ABSENT: A PANEL DISCUSSION ABOUT BRANDEIS’S ROSE MUSEUM

DATELINE: May 3, 2009, Chicago

Yesterday we attended Artropolis, the annual international art show, now held at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.  As in past years, we came to see the art, but this year we were intrigued by one of the panel discussions.  Entitled Museums on the Line: Cutbacks, Closures and Opportunities, the panel included (i) Michael Rush, director of the Rose Museum of Art at Brandeis University; (ii) Anthony Hirschel, director of the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago; (iii) Mary Lucier, an American installation and video artist whose works have been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995), the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (1988), Whitney Museum (1986), and many others.  Heather Pesanti, a curator at the Buffalo’s Albert-Knox Art Gallery, was an unscheduled but welcome addition to the panel.

The discussion was both fascinating and enlightening, but the panel’s composition was...

“I’M IN DEBT UP TO MY EYEBALLS:” ARE CHARITIES BECOMING THE NEW STANLEY JOHNSONS?

Dateline, April 15, 2007, Chicago

We were amused by Jennifer Levitz's article in Saturday's Wall Street Journal, Hedge Funds Roil Charity Fundrasing-Raising. The headline characterizes the new involvement of hedge fund managers in philanthropy as "roiling," but we suspect many charities, after reading the article, are already looking for a hedge fund manager or two to sit on their boards. The attire worn at fundraising events may change from black-tie to drag, but the take from the event may jump from $200,000 to $1.8 million, as was the case with one charity mentioned in the article. The article does raise some interesting fundraising questions. Levitz writes about one instance where the new money told the old money that an annual...