Duke Sanford School of Public Policy

Under grants from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the AVI CHAI Foundation, Center Faculty Chair Joel L. Fleishman and philanthropy consultant and writer Tony Proscio are documenting the experiences of AVI CHAI and Atlantic as they spend down their endowments. Starting in 2010, Fleishman and Proscio will issue annual updates on the foundations' progress.

Winding Down The Atlantic Philanthropies: 2009-2010: Beginning the Endgame, by Tony Proscio

This is the second in a planned series of reports on the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest endowed institution ever to decide to put all its charitable assets to use in a fixed period of time and then close its doors. The report covers events from late 2009 to early 2011, some five to six years before Atlantic expects to make its last grant commitments.

The report is available at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Winding%20Down%20Atlantic%20Beginning%20Endgame.pdf.

Shifting the Spend-Down into High Gear: A Foundation Begins Implementing Its Strategy: Year Three Report on the Concluding Years of the AVI CHAI Foundation, by Joel L. Fleishman

The preceding two reports on spend-down at the AVI CHAI Foundation reflected soul-searching, painful choices, and some uncertainty among staff, Trustees, and grantees, along with all of the normal thinking, questioning, and planning to be expected in any period of organizational change. This third year of reporting, however, marks a significant change: a period of exciting, promising, and sustained—indeed, reassuring—action and direction. Highlights of the year are summarized region-by-region.

The report is available at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Fleishman%20Third%20Report%202011%20FINAL.pdf.

Gearing Up to Spend Down: A Foundation in the Midst of Paradigm Shifts: Year Two Report on the Concluding Years of the AVI CHAI Foundation, by Joel L. Fleishman

Professor Joel L. Fleishman's second annual report on spend-down at the AVI CHAI Foundation examines the changes brought about by the board's determination to begin governing the institution less from the perspective of individual grants and more with an eye to the sustainability of its overall fields of interests, the likelihood of future funding for these fields, the durability of their leading organizations, and the odds that future philanthropists would see opportunity in, and derive inspiration from, the work that AVI CHAI had set in motion.

The report is available at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Fleishman-Second-Report-2011-FINAL.pdf.

Winding Down The Atlantic Philanthropies: The First Eight Years: 2001-2009, by Tony Proscio

Prepared by philanthropy consultant Tony Proscio, the report addresses the questions raised by the seminal decision made by Atlantic Philanthropies founder Charles F. Feeney to witness the social benefits of his donation during his lifetime: spend how? spend on what? organize how? evaluate what? These questions present new layers of complexity and an assortment of fine-grained operational challenges that are uncommon, or at least take very different forms, in foundations that operate in perpetuity. How Atlantic confronts and resolves those questions is the subject of a series of reports that begins with this submission.

The report is available at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Winding_Down_Atlantic_First_Eight_Years.pdf.

See also Tony Proscio's Intrepid Philanthropist blog post on the topic of spend-down, at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/content/all-out-philanthropy-unique-pressures-giving-everything-away. 

First Annual Report to The AVI CHAI Foundation on the Progress of its Decision to Spend Down, by Joel L. Fleishman

Prepared by Professor Joel L. Fleishman, the report explains why and how the AVI CHAI Foundation decided to spend down its endowment, and documents and assesses the first year of the spend-down process.

The report is availabe at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/content/first-annual-report-avi-chai-foundation-progress-its-decision-spend-down-joel-l-fleishman.

See also Professor Fleishman's Intrepid Philanthropist blog post on the topic of spend-down, at http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/blog/fleishman/report_to_the_avi_chai_foundation.

Video of Proscio and Fleishman FIRG Presentation

On September 21, 2010, Tony and Joel presented before the Center's Foundation Impact Research Group. You can watch a QuickTime video of the event by clicking here.

"Geared Up to Spend Down: Foundation Sunsetting" Video

On January 27, 2011, in an event at the Atlantic Philanthropies, Tony and Joel discussed their ongoing work on foundation spend-down. You can watch a video of the event on ForaTV (note: latest version of Adobe Flash required) by clicking here.

Library of Online Resources Relating to Foundation Spend-Down

As part of the Center's ongoing project on spend-down, we are assembling a Library of Online Resources Relating to Foundation Spend-Down.

List of Spend-Down Foundations

We are also assembling a list of foundations that have spent down or who are known to be actively spending down. Click to go to the list arranged in order of founding date, in order of spend-down date, or alphabetically.