With as much traveling as I do, I get to read many newspapers on airplanes. A recent article in USA Today really got my attention. In the early 1980s in one of my first jobs, I was in charge of foundation and corporate fundraising for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. I had just started on the job when we got a request from the newly formed MacArthur Foundation to submit a major grant request. They needed to meet their 5% rule and wanted to support the major cultural organizations in town. I really had to scramble to learn the institution and grantwriting at the same time.
The USA Today article reviewed the new book by Nancy Kriplen Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur — Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. I learned a lot, mostly somewhat shocking, from the review about MacArthur and his business tactics.
“Surviving the Depression, Kriplen writes, was likely due to John MacArthur’s penchant for scamming [insurance] customers, vendors, and investigators.”
“In 1970, 73-year-old John realized his will ‘was a disaster from a tax and estate planning perspective. . . . The federal government would take most of it in taxes.’”
The Eccentric Billionaire tells how the $6 billion MacArthur Foundation formed from a person who cared not a bit about philanthropy, only avoiding taxes.
Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts
Permanent Link: The MacArthur Foundation — The Rest of the Story
http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/03/macarthur-foundation-rest-of-story.html
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