Donor Intent Resource Library

• Practical Guidance

• Case Studies

• Spend Down vs. Perpetuity

• Public Policy

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Practical Guidance

Protecting Donor Intent: How to Define and Safeguard Your Philanthropic Principles by Jeffrey J. Cain

The Philanthropy Roundtable published this guidebook for successful individuals who want to ensure that their intent is followed within the grantmaking organizations they found. It covers every major practical consideration and highlights the best strategies for securing donor intent. Using real-life examples, topics include deciding on a timeframe, defining a mission, choosing philanthropic vehicles, selecting board members, and instituting safeguards, both internally and externally, that will help reinforce donor intent.

Starting a Private Foundation: Carrying Out the Donor’s Intent 
by Paul K. Rhoads and Stephanie H. Denby

A classic guide to the nitty-gritty of establishing a foundation that will respect its donor’s intent. Details the benefits and drawbacks of the conventional foundation, tax considerations, choice of location, and many other practical issues. Walks donors through the planning stage, initial funding, and opening meetings, as well as explaining the basics of record-keeping, grant guidelines, and more.

“Letter to an Aspiring Philanthropist: Advice On Starting a Foundation From One Who Has Been There” by Randy Richardson

A 70-something philanthropist looks back on what he’s learned, starting with his wobbly beginnings at the family foundation in his 20s. He casts a skeptical eye on perpetuity and warns, “If you don’t have well-thought-through ideas about the focus of your foundation, don’t create it.”

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Case Studies

“The Carnegie Corporation Turns 100” by Leslie Lenkowsky

Andrew Carnegie believed that America’s political and economic system makes philanthropy possible; he also argued that philanthropy was best when it enabled others to benefit from the nation’s opportunities. A century later, would he approve of his largest philanthropic endowment?

“Outsmarting Albert Barnes” by James Panero

Albert Barnes knew he was creating something unique in the annals of American art. He also predicted that outsiders would try to alter his project after his death. What he never anticipated was that the very defenses he put in place to preserve his collection would eventually contribute to its undoing.

“Back to Bill” by Evan Sparks

Within a few years of Bill Daniels’ death, his friends knew something was wrong at his foundation. Sparks reports on how the board reined in the Daniels Fund, restored Daniels’ intent, and established practices to ensure donor intent into the far future.

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Spend Down vs. Perpetuity

List of Spend-Down Foundations, compiled by Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy

As part of a project on spend-down, the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society has assembled this list of foundations that have spent down or who are known to be actively spending down.

“The Insider’s Guide to Spend Down: Switching Off the Lights at the Olin Foundation” by James Piereson

The long-time executive director of the John M. Olin Foundation discusses both the practical aspects of sunsetting the Olin Foundation and also the foundation’s achievements in its mission to show “what can be accomplished in the world of ideas with relatively modest sums of money.”

“Julius Rosenwald’s Crusade” by Peter M. Ascoli

Julius Rosenwald’s grandson recounts his ancestor’s campaign to persuade other donors to term-limit their foundations. Although his funds were spent down 16 years after his death, Rosenwald’s legacy of aid to minority schools, the rural poor, and others, still endures.

What Your Money Means: And How to Use It Well by Frank Hanna

A contemporary donor offers his own update of Andrew Carnegie’s argument in “The Gospel of Wealth” to give while you live. Read George Weigel’s review of the book for Philanthropy.

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Public Policy

Philanthropic Choice and Donor Intent: Freedom, Responsibility and Public Interest by Curtis W. Meadows Jr.

A public policy argument for allowing donors to have the greatest freedom possible for their philanthropic choice, through the widest range possible of eligible nonprofit organizations, and with governmental respect for the donor’s choice.

How Public Is Private Philanthropy? Separating Reality from Myth
by Evelyn Brody and John Tyler

This Philanthropy Roundtable monograph rebuts recent theories that threaten donor intent, including the claim that donors’ wishes may be set aside if the government decides it doesn’t like what has been funded, and the claim that tax exemptions turn private giving into government “subsidies” that may be re-directed as the government sees fit.

American Philanthropic Diversity: What It Means, Why It Matters
by Naomi Schaefer Riley

American philanthropy is extraordinarily diverse—but not just in terms of demographics. America’s robust tradition of philanthropic freedom means that donors are able to—and do—pursue a wide range of activities and interests.

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