Life Spans of Charitable Foundations: Arguments for and Against an Assumption of Perpetuity

Francie Ostrower and Buzz Schmidt

April 1, 2009

The Urban Institute has posted audio from the Nonprofit Quarterly co-sponsored “Life Spans of Charitable Foundations: Arguments for and Against an Assumption of Perpetuity.” Click here to visit the Urban Institute’s page and download the audio file.

Speakers:
Dr. Francie Ostrower, University of Texas at Austin
“Limited Life Foundations: Motivations, Experiences and Strategies” draws on survey data on over 800 private foundations with varied longevity plans, and in-depth interviews with 31 foundations that have considered or plan termination.
http://www.urban.org/publications/411836.html.

Arthur “Buzz” Schmidt, GuideStar / F.B. Heron Foundation
Escaping the Perpetuity Mindset Trap, argues that an assumption of perpetuity may blind many charitable foundations from achieving optimal social impact. Schmidt makes a number of arguments about deployment strategies for foundation assets that may potentially have more impact over the long term.

Discussants:

• Virginia Esposito, President
National Center for Family Philanthropy

• Adam Meyerson, President
Philanthropy Roundtable

About the authors

Francie Ostrower

Francie Ostrower, PhD, is Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is also Senior Fellow at the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, and Director of the Portfolio Program in Arts and Cultural Management and Entrepreneurship. She is a past president of ARNOVA.

Buzz Schmidt, Chairman of the F.B. Heron Foundation, leads Retreat Farm, Ltd., a nonprofit that is conserving an historic institutional farm in Vermont and repurposing it to support sustainable lands-based enterprise. He founded and led GuideStar USA and subsequently GuideStar International over a twenty-year period. These organizations report the work of the world’s nonprofit organizations at online repositories in several countries. Today, he also serves on the boards of the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children and the Vermont Council on Rural Development.

More about: Philanthropy

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