The “Charity” of Elon Musk
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Nobody who has followed Elon Musk’s rampage through the world of business, social media, and politics would be surprised to learn that his approach to charitable giving has been a…
Read More The Who-bodies Blocking Donor-Advised Fund Reform
Our grandson Jack is a few weeks shy of turning three, but he’s extremely verbal and bright – or at least this doting grandfather thinks so. During our July family…
Read More This Spin Won’t Wash
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 Boom! MacKenzie Scott Brilliantly Disrupts the Philanthropic Status Quo
If you’re looking for one good thing to come out of 2020, I would nominate the remarkable philanthropy of MacKenzie Scott. Scott, a novelist, philanthropist, and former wife of Amazon…
Read More Smoke and Mirrors
[Note: This post was co-published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on July 22, 2020.] A great magician relies on diversion. The eyes of the audience go where the magician is drawing…
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 Loopholes, Manipulations, and Abuses
Larry Page, co-founder of Google, is a very rich guy – in fact, he’s the sixth-richest person in the United States, according to those who count such things. Befitting his…
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 What’s Behind the Curtain? We Still Don’t Know.
[Note: This article was co-published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on March 12, 2018.] The most dramatic phenomenon in American charity in the last decade is the rise of donor-advised funds.…
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