by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, Fall 2011
“The best money we ever spent.” That’s how Irving Kristol describes the original funding for the Federalist Society, the now three-decade-old organization for law students and lawyers. Today, donors are working to create three new organizations—in medicine, business, and national security—based on the same model.
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, Summer 2011
How does an entire city become an art gallery? John Miller visited Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Rick DeVos’ ArtPrize is helping artists and patrons to share and experience art in a new, accessible way. Learn how DeVos brought the arts to his hometown and created a new model in prize philanthropy.
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, July / August 2002
“There is no frigate like a book,” says Leslie Lenkowsky, quoting the poet Emily Dickinson. A small group of philanthropists have made a specialty of supporting public policy books—and in...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, September / October 2002
Joanne Beyer was a member of the school board in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where she found herself ensnared in the longest teacher strike in state history-and the second longest as well....
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, May / June 2003
“It is a great honor and privilege for me to be here tonight,” said Milton Friedman when he won the 1976 Nobel prize for economics. He marveled at the attention heaped upon Nobel...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, May / June 2006
“Philanthropy seems to me to have become simply the refuge of people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures,” complains Mrs. Cheveley in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play “An Ideal Husband.” In...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, July / August 2006
On June 10, businessman and philanthropist Philip Merrill boarded his sailboat on the Chesapeake Bay and set off. That evening, the boat was discovered miles from home, adrift and...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, September / October 2006
A few months after the 2004 presidential election, former Democratic senator Bill Bradley took to the pages of the New York Times to explain why his party had lost. The problem, he said,...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, March / April 2006
Shortly after Michael S. Joyce died in February at the age of 63, tributes started pouring in from the conservative grantees who had benefited from his work as executive director of the...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, September / October 2005
The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive Science of Thermonuclear War by Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi Harvard University Press, 2005 387 pp., $26.95 In 1959, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, July / August 2005
When Peter H. Diamandis needed the inspiration to finish earning his pilot’s license, a friend gave him a copy of The Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh’s memoir about flying across the...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, September / October 2007
“I don’t like to use that hokey phrase ‘compassionate conservative,’” says Leslie Lenkowsky, a former director of research at the Smith Richardson Foundation. “But that’s who Jerry Milbank...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, July / August 2007
On the same day nearly two years ago, Harvard and Georgetown announced their delight at receiving separate $20 million gifts from Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. The prince said...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, September / October 2007
“Talk radio is running America,” snapped Senator Trent Lott, a Republican of Mississippi, during the debate over immigration reform a few months ago. “We have to deal with that problem.”...
by John J. Miller
From Philanthropy magazine, Summer 2008
Late in life, Sir John Templeton thought about taking up golf. He wanted the exercise, so he borrowed a set of clubs and played a round. When he was finished, he reflected on the experience...