Philanthropy Roundtable

The Philanthropy Roundtable was established by the Bradley Foundation in 1987 as a 501(c)(3) organization to help facilitate conservative grant-making. The organization describes itself as "America’s leading network of charitable donors working to strengthen our free society, uphold donor intent, and protect the freedom to give." The foundation has connections to many well-known right-wing organizations. In 2010, Philanthropy Roundtable recorded an annual revenue of $6,224,554, with $5,735,588 in grants received while issuing $250,000 in grants.

About the Roundtable
From the Philanthropy Roundtable website:
 * "The Philanthropy Roundtable is a national association of more than 600 conservative individual donors, corporate giving representatives, foundation staff and trustees, and trust and estate officers. Its Associates include donors who are involved in philanthropy on a professional basis, as well as individual donors for whom giving is a serious avocation.
 * "The Roundtable is founded on the principle that voluntary private action offers the best means of addressing many of society's needs, and that a vibrant private sector is critical to generating the wealth that makes philanthropy possible. Its work is motivated by the belief that philanthropy is most likely to succeed when it focuses not on grand social designs, but on individual achievement, and where it rewards not dependence, but personal initiative, self-reliance, and private enterprise - in other words, they have very explicit ties to groups like The American Enterprise Institute (board member Kimberly Dennis) and the Council on Foreign Relations (Vice Chairman Heather Richardson Higgins). They even have a board member who co-authored a book with William J. Bennett, the former Education Secretary under Reagan and Bush.
 * "The Roundtable attracts independent-minded donors who understand that philanthropy is difficult to do well. In addition to offering expert advice and counsel, the Roundtable puts donors in touch with conservatives who share similar concerns and interests. Roundtable Associates thereby gain access to the full range of ideas and approaches to giving and information on what works and what doesn't.
 * "The Roundtable is strongly committed to donor intent, and to helping conservatives ensure that their intentions will be adhered to in the long-term administration of their foundations and trusts. As an organization dedicated to serving donors' needs, the Roundtable represents a unique resource for those who want to make the most of their giving."

According to Media Matters:

The Philanthropy Roundtable "is a bastion of the conservative philanthropy world. While open to all, the group is largely composed of and funded by conservative philanthropies and groups, mainly for its belief that philanthropy is most likely to succeed when it focuses not on grand social designs, but on individual achievement, and where it rewards not dependence, but personal initiative, self-reliance, and private enterprise.""

It also is outspoken in its opposition to transparency. "The Philanthropy Foundation fights what it considers the increasingly growing public view that foundations should be accountable to the public. The group is opposed to more efforts at transparency, believing that "foundations are private organizations that should be free to make their own governance and grantmaking decisions so long as they operate with integrity and use their assets for genuinely charitable purposes.""

History
According to the Institute for Policy Studies, "The Philanthropy Roundtable arose as part of a strategy to build a rightwing funding base to contest the power of the "liberal establishment." The organization was initially financed by the Institute for Education Affairs, founded in 1978 by Irving Kristol and former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Olin Foundation president William Simon, two key figures in shaping the strategies of corporate and rightwing philanthropy. Under their direction, the IEA aimed to funnel millions of dollars into the "war of ideas" with what they called the "adversary culture"—meaning liberals, progressives, and secularists.

Each year the Roundtable convenes an annual conference drawing together presenters from conservative advocates, media commentators - such as David Brooks from the New York Times - and mainstream non-government organizations. Its November 2004 annual conference at Palm Beach, Florida, USA included a special pre conference environmental meeting. The after dinner speaker was Danish climate change denier Bjorn Lomborg while other feature sessions were on oceans and aquaculture policy, the fate of the Amazon forests, environmental education and water policy in Florida.

A feature session of the main conference agenda was a discussion on what to do about teachers unions. .

In an interview with the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the President of the Philanthropy Roundatble, Adam Meyerson, indicated that education 'reform' was one of the key priorities for the organisation during George W. Bush's second term, "President Bush has the potential to be the most important president in the history of American education -- the president who finally solves our crisis in the education of low-income children. But he cannot achieve this breakthrough simply through the federal No Child Left Behind law, the focus of his first term. Reform of education is going to come primarily from the ground up -- from state and local government, and from philanthropists and social entrepreneurs," he said.

O'Dwyers PR Daily reported that lobbying disclosure forms indicated that on February 2005 the Philanthropy Roundtable hired Venn Strategies, LLC "regarding proposed charitable taxation legislation that would affect private foundations' powers and duties, tax exempt status and possible existence". 

Links to Neoconservatives
According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the Roundtable has well-established links to prominent neoconservatives:

"Philanthropy Roundtable directors have included Leslie Lenkwosky and John Waters, both of whom served in the George W. Bush administration, as well as Kim Dennis, now executive director of the Searle Freedom Trust. Adam Meyerson, a former vice president of the Heritage Foundation, has been the director since 2001. Meyerson is co-editor of the Wall Street Journal on Management, former editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, former managing editor of the American Spectator, and the spouse of Nina Shea, the director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute and a long-standing neoconservative activist."

Board of Directors

 * Daniel S. Peters, Chairman, Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation
 * Heather Richardson Higgins, Vice Chairman, Randolph Foundation
 * Joseph S. Dolan, Treasurer and Secretary, Achelis and Bodman Foundations
 * Kimberly O. Dennis, D & D Foundation
 * Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
 * Michael W. Grebe, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
 * James Piereson, John M. Olin Foundation

2011 Finances and Donations
In 2011, Philanthropy Roundtable funded the following right-wing organizations that comprise the State Policy Network (SPN): :


 * The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: $10000
 * The Roe Foundation: $2500
 * Donors Capital Fund:$455,165
 * DonorsTrust: $11100

Other major right-wing organizations that received grants from the Philanthropy Roundtable in 2011 include:
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $260000
 * Challenge Foundation: $25000
 * Scaife Family Foundation: $20000
 * Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation: $1000
 * Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation: $25000
 * Castle Rock Foundation: $75000
 * Searle Freedom Trust: $100,000
 * Allegheny Foundation: $15000
 * Lillian S. Wells Foundation: $50000
 * Deramus Foundation: $5000
 * Randolph Foundation: $15000
 * George Edward Durell Foundation: $5000
 * Jaquelin Hume Foundation: $40000
 * Philip M. McKenna Foundation: $500
 * Diana Davis Spencer Foundation: $15000
 * Colcom Foundation: $5000
 * Weiler Foundation: $5000

2010 Finances and Donations
In 2010, Philanthropy Roundtable funded the following right-wing organizations that comprise the State Policy Network (SPN): :


 * DonorsTrust: $23100
 * Roe Foundation: $2500
 * Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: $10000
 * Donors Capital Fund: $248,400

Other major right-wing organizations that received grants from the Philanthropy Roundtable in 2011 include:
 * Diana Davis Spencer Foundation: $10000
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $260,000
 * Scaife Family Foundation: $20000
 * Gilder Foundation: $10000
 * Earhart Foundation: $10000
 * William E. Simon Foundation: $55500
 * Challenge Foundation: $50000
 * Earhart Foundation: $15000
 * Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation: $5000
 * William E. Simon Foundation: $360,000
 * JM Foundation: $25000
 * Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation; $25000
 * Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation: $1000
 * Jaquelin Hume Foundation: $25000
 * Deramus Foundation: $5000
 * Castle Rock Foundation: $60000
 * Allegheny Foundation: $15000
 * Lillian S. Wells Foundation: $50000
 * Philip M. McKenna Foundation: $500
 * Vernon K. Krieble Foundation: $2500
 * Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation : $10000
 * Walton Family Foundation: $150,000:Colcom Foundation: $5000
 * Searle Freedom Trust: $100,000

Between 1993 and 2010, the Roundtable received donations from all of the following organizations:


 * Allegheny Foundation
 * Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation
 * Brady Education Foundation
 * Castle Rock Foundation
 * Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
 * Claude R. Lamb Charitable Foundation
 * Dick and Besty Devos Foundation
 * Earhart Foundation
 * F.M. Kirby Foundation
 * Gilder Foundation
 * Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation
 * JM Foundation
 * John Templeton Foundation
 * John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
 * Between 2001 and 2010, Philanthropy Roundtable received $2.33 million from the conservative Bradley Foundation.
 * Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
 * Randolph Foundation
 * Roe Foundation
 * Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation
 * Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
 * Scaife Foundations
 * Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation
 * Smith Richardson Foundation
 * Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
 * Walton Family Foundation
 * William E. Simon Foundation
 * William H. Donner Foundation

Connection to Koch
In October 2011 the Roundtable awarded Charles G. Koch the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership. The award gives $250,000 to a charity of the prize recipient's choice, and is intended to "honor living philanthropists who have shown exemplary leadership through their own charitable giving, either directly or through foundations they have created." In its explanation for why Koch was the recipient, the Roundtable claimed that "For more than 40 years, he has been at the forefront of strategic investment in ideas, think tanks, and academic research." Not surprisingly, Koch has maintained a longstanding financial relationship with the foundation. Between 1993 and 2005, the Philanthropy Roundtable received $94,500 in donations from Koch's own philanthropic organization, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. Koch contributed $125,000 more to the Roundtable between 2006-2009, bringing his total contributions since 1993 to $219,500.

Koch has a long history of involvement at the Roundtable's annual meetings. A 1997 report by the National Committee on Response Philanthropy documented the participation of the Koch Brothers in the 1995 conference:

"In a presentation at the Philanthropy Roundtable's 1995 annual conference, Richard Fink, president of the Charles G. Koch and Claude R. Lambe charitable foundations, made good use of market metaphors to outline how foundations can exert the greatest impact on public policy. Adapting laissez-faire economist Friedreich Hayek's model of the production process to social change grant-making, Fink argued that the translation of ideas into action requires the development of intellectual raw materials, their conversion into specific policy products, and the marketing and distribution of these products to citizen-consumers.

Grantmakers, Fink argued, would do well to invest in change along the entire production continuum, funding scholars and university programs where the intellectual framework for social transformation is developed, think tanks where scholarly ideas get translated into specific policy proposals, and implementation groups to bring these proposals into the political marketplace and eventually to consumers."

Charles Koch will be a presenter at the 2011 annual Philanthropy Roundtable conference.

Contact
1150 17th Street, NW Suite 503 Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 822-8333 Fax:(202) 822-8325 Web: http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/

Projects

 * Team Schiavo, funding the fight over Terri Schiavo

SourceWatch Resources

 * Venn Strategies, LLC