logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Moral Court for Charity

Rick Cohen
January 2, 2008
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

In June of 2004, the Senate Finance Committee prepared a table for a long panel of witnesses to testify on charitable accountability, a diverse group including national trade associations, national nonprofit ratings entities, and specific issue and interest representatives of the nonprofit sector. At the end of the table sat Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard University, though participating on the panel to speak about the problems of The Nature Conservancy and the solutions he and his colleagues on the TNC board had wrought. A young committee staffer placed a chair next to Bok as my seat at the table. Bok glowered at me as an imposter, probably a superannuated committee usher usurping a seat where I didn’t belong. I explained that I was scheduled to testify as well, and I actually suspect that he viewed me as the nonprofit equivalent of literary writer George Plimpton trying his hand at quarterbacking the Detroit Lions or goaltending for the Boston Bruins.

I doubt I accomplished much through my rapid testimony next to Bok, and the legislation certainly didn’t measure up to some of the tough problems, particularly on philanthropy (like payout, trustee fees, corporate foundation disclosure, donor-advised fund disclosure, etc.). In the wake of the 2006 elections, some observers thought that Congressional attention to nonprofit accountability would wane. But that’s not the case.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the House Ways and Means Committee under New York City Congressman Charles Rangel’s leadership is planning hearings this very month. As of this instant, there is nothing specific listed on the Ways and Means website, but that doesn’t mean the hearings won’t happen sooner or later. When they do, one can expect the kind of turnout that greeted Senator Grassley’s hearings in 2004, drawing a crowd of onlookers filling an auditorium hall and spilling over to another room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building plus a bevy of K Street lobbyists.

What might the Congressman who has represented New York City’s Harlem neighborhood for three decades ask of the foundations that will dutifully show up to testify? We offer our thoughts on what might be going through Rangel’s mind, especially in light of the responsiveness of foundations to Max Baucus’s expression of concern about rural philanthropy at last May’s Council on Foundations meeting. Good luck to Congressman Rangel and the Ways and Means Committee for their efforts to raise important issues about who benefits from charity and philanthropy. Despite hearings, there are other issues of philanthropy such as these three items on corporate philanthropy — grantmaking shenanigans, Fannie Mae, and Sallie Mae that merit the attention of regulators and all of us to monitor.

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: OpinionPhilanthropyThe Cohen Report

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Arab American Philanthropy
Tamara El-Khoury
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation between Cyndi Suarez and Claire Dunning
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez
Sankofa Philanthropy: Hip Hop’s Sixth Element
Jason Terrell
Why Social Change Films Matter
Cyndi Suarez and Saphia Suarez
Philanthropy Must Move from Charity to Solidarity
Son Chau

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Brown-skinned Arabic woman wearing a bowler hat and looking into the camera. She is standing in front of a bougainvillea plant.
Arab American Philanthropy
Tamara El-Khoury
The book "Nonprofit Neighborhoods" leaning against a wall
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation...
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.