November 17, 2011
For the past three years, I have been chronicling the ongoing process of spend-down at AVI CHAI, a foundation located in Jerusalem and New York with programs in Israel, North America, and the former Soviet Union. The
Category: Time Limited Philanthropy
March 8, 2011
“Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” —Samuel Johnson, as reported by James Boswell in Life of Johnson.
With the publication of
July 6, 2010
It has never been easy to explain the practice of philanthropy to the uninitiated. Confusing philanthropy with charity, many people tend to wonder what can be so hard about giving money away. (Most of us have made
May 18, 2010
It wasn’t too long ago that very few philanthropic foundations were designed, or would come to decide, to spend down their endowments and go out of business.
The one great exception was the Julius Rosenwald Fund, whose
April 7, 2010
Seattle-based Quixote Foundation recently announced its intention to “spend up” its endowment over the next seven years.
Founded by the late Arthur Stuart Hanisch and named in honor of the idealistic Knight of La Mancha, Quixote funds
December 23, 2009
Many philanthropic foundations are created with relatively modest time horizons. These are the foundations that have spent down, that are in the process of spending down, or that have declared they will spend down at