Understanding Short Term Philanthropic Foundations

Understanding Short Term Philanthropic Foundations

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

When major gifts officers seek mega gifts now and/or legacy gifts through a planned estate gift, a key question of the donor is the importance of perpetuity.

Everyone assumes that all donors want an endowment fund, or a personal foundation to last forever, but for many donors this long-term vision isn't the right one. They want impact now, in the next 10 years, not small doses of help over centuries.

The Beldon Fund, is a good example of this donor viewpoint. An article in The New York Times noted that this fund, started by John Hunter of the Steelcase office furniture family, recently closed its doors after spending its $100 million of assets. The article noted a similar pattern for the now closed John M. Olin Foundation and for a current active foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies.

To learn more about Mr. Hunter's motivations in running a short-term philanthropic foundation, check out the Beldon Fund website by clicking here.

"When I decided in 1998 to spend the Beldon Fund’s $100 million endowment in ten years, the goal was to use these resources to help build public and policy support for environmental protection. The decision reflected my belief in the urgency of this mission and a strong sense that making large investments over a shorter period of time would be more effective than making smaller grants over many years. Looking back on the Beldon Fund’s 10-year arc, and with the benefit of three external evaluations conducted in our last year, I can see that spending out and focusing on policy change had a synergistic effect. By spending out, Beldon was able to concentrate the resources necessary to strengthen environmental advocacy. And by focusing on public policy, the foundation’s programs were able to achieve some concrete results that will last long after our exit. As the Beldon Fund prepares to close its doors, I thought it might be helpful to share with others what we learned from our spend-out experience."

Also see Mr. Hunter's advice to other foundation founders at “Giving While Living: The Beldon Fund Spend-Out Story” on the Beldon Fund website.

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http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/07/understanding-short-term-philanthropic.html