Here today, gone tomorrow?
US philanthropists Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have persuaded 40 of America’s high net worth individuals to sign up to the Giving Pledge where the billionaires publicly agree to give away most of their wealth during their lifetime or relatively soon after their deaths.
This approach to philanthropy is quite different from the foundations that spend around 4% or 5% of their wealth in perpetuity and much more like the Gatsby Charitable Foundation set up by the Sainsbury family in 1967.
Lord David Sainsbury has declared his intent to ‘spend down’ the endowment of this foundation during his lifetime.The report, The Power of Now, published by the Institute for Philanthropy in February 20101 found a great level of diversity among spend out among UK trusts and foundations.
To counter the accusation of failing to take into account the needs of future beneficiaries, those that do spend down to invest in long term systematic change say this strategy actually contributes to the ‘elimination of the problems of tomorrow.’
Dawn Austwick OBE, chief executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011 and is not intending to spend down) thinks diversity among funders is very important. She told CFR: ‘If all funders acted in the same way, the market is weaker.
The important thing is for us to recognise what is unique about foundations and retain that.
1. http://www.instituteforphilanthropy.org/cms/pages/documents/The_Power_of%20Now_Spend%20Out_Trusts_in_the_UK.pdf
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