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Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

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Back to Bill

In Articles on October 1, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Bill Daniels was never one to back down from a fight. As a scrappy, undisciplined youth, he may have even picked a few of those fights. In high school, as a Golden Gloves state boxing champion, he learned how to fight fair and square. And later in his life—after years spent as a naval combat pilot, a cable television pioneer in an industry that battled many times for its survival, and as a political candidate bloodied more than once by the process—Daniels proved that he knew what it meant to fight for a cause he believed in.

Perhaps no fight was as important to Daniels as the cause of freedom. Twice he put his life on the line in defense of freedom, first against fascism, then against communism, in the Second World War and again in the Korean conflict. Read the rest of this entry »

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Illuminated Giving

In Articles on July 1, 2011 at 10:26 pm

Oklahoma City
“It’s been banned; it’s been burned,” says Steve Green. “It’s been loved and hated. It’s the best-selling book of all time, the most-translated book of all time, and, I think, the most important book of all time.” He is referring, of course, to the Bible.

Green is president of Hobby Lobby, a nationwide chain of arts-and-crafts stores founded by his father, David. The Good Book informs his family’s business and inspires their philanthropy. It is also the centerpiece of their latest charitable project: the creation of the country’s first museum devoted to telling the story of how the Bible came to be, recounting its effects on the world, and relating its message. Read the rest of this entry »

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Intellectual Capital

In Articles on May 6, 2011 at 3:28 pm

New York City
“Scary,” says Marilyn Fedak. She looks out the window from her corner office. Outside, a winter storm is raging. Whirling snow obscures the view of the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center from her 39th-floor windows. In a few hours, the heavy snowfall will snarl travel and down power lines from D.C. to Boston. She pauses for a moment.

“It was so scary,” Fedak explains. “It’s not like I haven’t been through bear markets before. But this one was different. I don’t think people realize how close we came to the system breaking down. I felt like everything I had learned about the markets and investing over 40 years wasn’t working as it should.” Read the rest of this entry »

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High-Flying Philanthropy

In Articles on March 18, 2011 at 8:52 am

Gretchen Reed loves to fly. She owns not one, not two, but eighteen restored, antique aircraft—many of which are still flown. She’s especially fond of her Aeronca Champion, a classic, two-seat, single-engine, fixed-gear airplane, flown from her own, private airport in northeastern Ohio.

Reed is not only an avid aviatrix. With the gift of her airport and collection to Lake Erie College in Ohio, she has proven herself an avid philanthropist. Read the rest of this entry »

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Duke of Carolina

In Articles on February 1, 2011 at 2:48 pm

As a cardinal flies, it’s only three miles from a modest tobacco farm near Ellerbe Creek to the campus of Duke University. Today, a traveler can cover the distance in about 10 minutes, entirely within the city limits of Durham, North Carolina.

That otherwise unremarkable distance marks the journey of James B. Duke. Born on a small homestead, and interred in the chapel of the university that bears his name, Duke was a man of the Carolinas.

No matter what else he became, James B. Duke remained a man of the Carolinas. Read the rest of this entry »

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Liberty Fund

In Articles on July 1, 2010 at 9:06 pm

It was always a mistake to tell Pierre F. Goodrich you were too busy to read. “What are you doing,” he would reply, “between midnight and 2:00 a.m.?”

Goodrich himself spent the wee hours buried deep in books, engrossed in philosophy. When he had an idea or was intrigued by a passage, he would pick up the phone and call a friend, no matter the hour.

“Pierre Goodrich was not an easy person to understand,” says T. Alan Russell, who worked closely with him. Goodrich had an intense devotion to the life of the mind, going so far as to bring along a suitcase full of books on his honeymoon. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Old College Try

In Articles on April 1, 2010 at 10:00 pm

Forty-three. That’s the percentage of college freshmen who will drop out of school before getting a bachelor’s degree. Community colleges—even worse. There, over 69 percent of students will drop out before receiving a credential. That means only 57 percent of college freshmen—and a mere 31 percent of first-years in junior college—will earn the degree they ostensibly set out to obtain. By any measure, that’s a failing grade.

Bill Gates is a college drop-out—but he knows he’s the exception that proves the rule. That’s why he has committed his foundation to doubling the number of low-income people who earn a post-secondary credential by age 26. Read the rest of this entry »

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Does It Have To Be College?

In Articles on April 1, 2010 at 9:41 pm

This article is a sidebar to “The Old College Try,” Philanthropy, spring 2010.

The weight of philanthropic (and elite) opinion rests on the idea that college is necessary for success in modern American life—and for many, college means a four-year degree. The dialogue is changing somewhat—see, for example, the rise of the more inclusive goal of a “high-quality post-secondary credential” and more support for community colleges—but not enough for some. Critics of this ideal include Charles Murray (in his widely discussed Real Education) and Matthew Crawford (in his best-selling Shop Class as Soulcraft). Moreover, some donors are frustrated at the lingering bias toward four-year degrees and against vocational or career-focused training.

Andrew Grove, the former CEO of Intel, argues that to make the four-year degree the standard is to erect a “ladder to the sun,” when many people would be happy with “a ladder to a middle-class existence.”

Grove conducted an informal survey of philanthropic higher ed initiatives in the San Francisco Bay area. “Every single program . . . emphasizes four-year college,” he says. He took a different approach. Read the rest of this entry »

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Two Big Foundations, Two Big Goals

In Articles on April 1, 2010 at 9:32 pm

This article is a sidebar to “The Old College Try,” Philanthropy, spring 2010.

After Warren Buffett pledged the lion’s share of his fortune (the gift was valued at $37 billion at the time) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006, the foundation had an opportunity to expand its portfolio. “After tons of research and meeting with policy experts, practitioners, and other foundations, we came back to what has been the foundation’s domestic focus for the past eight years . . . because the evidence spoke clearly,” said Hilary Pennington, the Gates Foundation’s director of education, post-secondary success, and special initiatives, in 2008. “The highest-leverage investment we can make—education. This time, post-secondary education. And even more specifically, post-secondary success.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Something Wiki This Way Comes

In Articles on January 1, 2010 at 2:57 pm

Web 2.0: It’s a fast-paced, interactive free-for-all. On Web 2.0 platforms, Internet users generate their own content. They create massive virtual communities around shared interests. And it’s growing by leaps and bounds.

Many people have embraced Web 2.0. Many have not. But whatever they think of Web 2.0, donors should be aware of how social media affects their public image. And few things affect public image as much as Wikipedia, the free, online, interactive encyclopedia. Read the rest of this entry »

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