“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...