This Spin Won’t Wash
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November marks the tenth anniversary of Professor Ray Madoff’s New York Times op-ed calling for new rules that would accelerate grantmaking from donor-advised funds. Over the years since, as the…
Read More Vested Interests
[Note: This post was co-published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on March 3, 2020.] Over the past few months, a fierce legislative battle has arisen in California over the mildest of…
Read More A New Cool-Sounding Measurement That Doesn’t Add Up
[Note: This article was published as an opinion piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on September 11, 2019.] Donor-advised funds are the fastest-growing segment of philanthropy, and that’s attracted a lot of…
Read More Phony and Corrupt
There is so much that is good about the charitable world. But simply calling something “charitable” does not make it worthy. Which brings me to two troubling and destabilizing trends:…
Read More Charity, Incorporated
It seems that every time I set out to write about topics other than donor-advised funds, fresh news explodes on the scene that requires my attention, and yours. This week…
Read More Strange Math
[A version of this piece appeared in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on July 13, 2017.] Here’s the world’s simplest math problem. My wife Pat and I often meet a pair of friends…
Read More Partial Score
The late comedian George Carlin had a shtick back in the 1970s where he played a television sports anchor. With mock seriousness, he’d stare at the camera and say, “Here’s…
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