One of America’s largest foundations has set aside its history of
building hospitals, libraries, and schools in order to pour millions
into liberal political causes.
The Kresge Foundation, established with a $1.6 million endowment from K-Mart founder Sebastian Spering Kresge in 1924, has morphed into a $3 billion behemoth. Ideological giving has grown along with the foundation’s fortunes under the stewardship of former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Rip Rapson.
The group gave approximately $9 million to Washington, D.C., organizations between 2003 and 2006 with nearly half that money going to the American Red Cross. Rapson took over in July 2006; between 2007 and 2011 Kresge gave $52 million to 68 organizations based in Washington, D.C. Nearly all of that money has gone to liberal groups, including lavish grants to the Center for American Progress, Tides Foundation, Sierra Club, and Progressive America Fund.
None of these political groups received funding from Kresge prior to 2007.
“We’re proud of those and many other grantees,” Kresge spokeswoman Judy McGovern said. “I would be hard-pressed to look at those grants and call them political.”
Kresge is only the latest foundation to substitute political giving for charity, critics say.
“Foundations fall into this progressivism and they never think to confess their ideology,” said Bill Schambra, director of the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. “They see themselves as objective, driven by social sciences and expertise.”
Kresge created the foundation with a $1.6 million endowment in order to “promote human progress,” a prerogative that resulted in hundreds of hospitals, schools, universities, and libraries over the first 80 years of its existence.
Read more: http://freebeacon.com/perverting-charity/
The Kresge Foundation, established with a $1.6 million endowment from K-Mart founder Sebastian Spering Kresge in 1924, has morphed into a $3 billion behemoth. Ideological giving has grown along with the foundation’s fortunes under the stewardship of former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Rip Rapson.
The group gave approximately $9 million to Washington, D.C., organizations between 2003 and 2006 with nearly half that money going to the American Red Cross. Rapson took over in July 2006; between 2007 and 2011 Kresge gave $52 million to 68 organizations based in Washington, D.C. Nearly all of that money has gone to liberal groups, including lavish grants to the Center for American Progress, Tides Foundation, Sierra Club, and Progressive America Fund.
None of these political groups received funding from Kresge prior to 2007.
“We’re proud of those and many other grantees,” Kresge spokeswoman Judy McGovern said. “I would be hard-pressed to look at those grants and call them political.”
Kresge is only the latest foundation to substitute political giving for charity, critics say.
“Foundations fall into this progressivism and they never think to confess their ideology,” said Bill Schambra, director of the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. “They see themselves as objective, driven by social sciences and expertise.”
Kresge created the foundation with a $1.6 million endowment in order to “promote human progress,” a prerogative that resulted in hundreds of hospitals, schools, universities, and libraries over the first 80 years of its existence.
Read more: http://freebeacon.com/perverting-charity/
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