American Foundations: An investigative history by Mark Dowie

Having staff of a large foundation review this book is a bit like asking turkeys what they think of Christmas dinner. This is particularly true as concerns one of Dowie’s three key recommendations, the ‘Philanthropic Antitrust Act’, which would break up large foundations so that none would have assets over $1 billion. However, although Dowie is frequently critical and sometimes deeply cynical, he is clearly in favour of the institution and has praise for many foundations and foundation leaders.

Dowie’s book attempts to examine how ‘large scale philanthropy has affected the fields of human endeavor they have supported over the last century’. To wit, he explores fields that foundations have targeted and asks how they have fared. The bulk of the book comprises eight chapters, each of which focuses on a different field – public education, science, health, environment, agriculture, energy, art and civility (his term for civil society). Dowie’s second chapter, ‘Knowledge’, for example, focuses on publicly funded elementary and secondary education. Here, he explores the history of several grantmaking initiatives. He also remarks on reasons why, despite significant philanthropic investment, he believes efforts to strengthen America’s public school system have largely failed. An opening section covers the history of America’s foundation community, while closing chapters praise a number of funders and include his recommendations for the field.

Interspersed throughout the book are short vignettes as well as quotes from a broad range of leaders and scholars in the field. He uses these devices to explain the language and practices of foundations, so readers may understand some of the culture of foundation work. For example, he defines such terms as ‘accountability’ and ‘plutocracy’, and he includes extended discussions of terms like ‘leverage’ and ‘risk’.

For the record, Dowie’s other key recommendations include requiring that private foundations expand their boards beyond family members, friends and close professional advisers, and making it mandatory for publicly elected officials to appoint 33 per cent of any foundation’s board members. This last recommendation appears to conflict with one of Dowie’s earlier notions, that excess wealth could be put to work ‘de-corrupting government’. If Dowie believes government is corrupt, it cannot be logical to recommend that government appoint foundation board members.

On reading the volume, several times the reviewers wrote in the margin, ‘Not true’ or ‘This is wrong, how dare he!’ But, to return to the opening analogy, when Christmas approaches the turkeys must be saying the same sort of thing. American Foundations has been widely reviewed, and Alliance readers can seek out reviews that bring a variety of perspectives to the table. James K Galbraith’s review in the New York Times of 12 August, 2001 is one of them, and it is available on the Internet.

Elan Garonzik and Alejandro Amezcua both work at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. They can be contacted at EGaronzik@mott.org and AAmezcua@mott.org, respectively.

American Foundations: An investigative history
Mark Dowie MIT Press $29.95 

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