“By my analysis of information from the U.S. Foundation Center and the tax filings of American charitable foundations, McKibben’s campaigns have received more than 100 grants since 2005 for a total of US$10-million from 50 charitable foundations. Six of those grants were for roughly US$1-million each.”
The problem is that these foundations tend to (eventually) get taken over by left-leaning trustees and the original trust documents directives generally allow the trustee to follow their own judgment on grants. Further, the courts have tended to outright ignore the instructions given by the estate/trust creating the foundation.
A perfect example is the Buck Trust of Marin County (California). This trust instructed that its assets be used to help “the needy” in Marin County (or other nonprofit charitable, religious or educational purposes in the county). The trust was founded mostly with Getty Oil Company stock — which due to corporate merger activities ballooned from about $9 million in value to over $300 million. Marin County, one of the most affluent in the country (several times in the top ten), simply did not have $300 million worth of “needy” to help. The “or” became very operative, and now the trust spends vast sums providing support to other nonprofit/charitable organizations in Marin County (the court required that the “in Marin County” aspect of the trust remains in force). Many of these other organizations likely are not at all what the grantor had in mind when the trust was established.
It confounds me that Foundations set up by Capitalists are the worst violators of the beliefs of these Capitalists.