Tax-exempt foundations

Tax-exempt Foundations
Congressional Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations / Reece Committee


 * The following are some comments on the 1958 412-page Foundations: Their Power and Influence by Rene A. Wormser, which was first published by the Devin-Adair Company of New York (Reprinted Covenant House Books, 1993):


 * "In 1952, Congress commissioned the Cox Committee to investigate U.S. foundations. In 1953 it was the Reece Committee, and the author of this book was its general counsel. Wormser concedes that 'the emphasis on a search for organized Communist penetration of foundations absorbed much of the energy of the investigators and detracted somewhat from the efficacy of their general inquiry into subversion.' (page 177). He is more interested in an emerging elite that has control of gigantic financial resources: 'An unparalleled amount of power is concentrated increasingly in the hands of an interlocking and self-perpetuating group. Unlike the power of corporate management, it is unchecked by stockholders; unlike the power of government, it is unchecked by the people; unlike the power of churches, it is unchecked by any firmly established canons of value.' (page viii)


 * "Forty years later, it's clear that Wormser's concerns over foundations were not misplaced; they still wield enormous political and cultural power. It's also clear that Congress should have worried more about the U.S. secret state than about Communism. The connections between intelligence elites, and the international programs funded by major foundations such as Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller, are quite amazing and deserve their own book."


 * Another source addresses the "failure" of the Reece Committee to complete its task: "...Reece Committee hearings in the early 1950s. In this rather misunderstood episode, Congressman B. Carroll Reece (R., Tenn.), assisted by staff member René Wormser and consultant George de Huszar, looked into the grant-making policies of the Carnegie Corporation and the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. In the end, the effort ran aground on accusations of intellectual McCarthyism and the disruptive antics of Congressman Wayne Hays (D., Ohio). Nonetheless, 'the Committee shed light on the big foundations' promotion of empiricism, centralized team research, big universities over small colleges, moral relativism, internationalism, and social engineering. [See Tax-Exempt Foundations: Hearings, 83rd Congress, 2nd Session (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1954).]


 * More comments on the Reece Committee report:


 * "The interlocks between the trustees at RAND, and the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations were so numerous that the Reece Committee, a congressional committee tasked with investigating the foundations, listed them in its report (two each for Carnegie and Rockefeller, and three for Ford). In 1952 alone, when the chairman of the RAND Corporation was also the Ford Foundation president, Ford gave one million dollars to RAND."FN18


 * "Conspicuously absent from The Reece Committee report were the links between the Foundations to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In his book A THOUSAND DAYS(1965), CFR member Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, provides the link. Schlesinger writes 'the American Establishment,' whose 'household deities were Henry L. Stimson and Elihu Root; its present leaders [1965], Robert A. Lovett and John J. McCloy; its front organizations, the Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie Foundations and the Council on Foreign Relations; its organs, the New York Times and Foreign Affairs....'"


 * Another source adds: "During the Eisenhower presidency (1953 - 1961), Congress established the Reece Committee to investigate tax-free foundations (Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie). The committee's report found:


 * "In the international field, foundations, and an interlock among some of them and certain intermediary organizations, have exercised a strong effect upon our foreign policy and upon public education in things international. This has been accomplished by vast propaganda, by supplying executives and advisors to government, and by controlling much research in this area through the power of the purse. The net result of these combined efforts has been to promote 'internationalism' in a particular sense - a form directed toward 'world government' and a derogation of American 'nationalism.'


 * "They observed that the major foundations 'have actively supported attacks upon our social and government system and financed the promotion of socialism and collectivist ideas.' The Reece Committee clearly declared that the CFR was 'in essence an agency of the United States Government' and that its 'productions are not objective but are directed overwhelmingly at promoting a globalist concept.'"

Other Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Funders
 * Globalization
 * Think tanks

General

 * Alan W. Dowd, A Sector in Perpetual Crisis: How government dependence is undermining the nonprofit sector, AlanWDowd.com, April 20, 1998.
 * Dennis McIlnay, Four Moments in Time, Foundation News & Commentary, no date (1999). "Congress has turned its attention to foundations in a major way just four times this century. A review of what was debated on those occasions provides a context for what's being said today about the ideal structure of foundations, and the role of foundations in society."
 * John G. Simon, Private Foundations as a Federally Regulated Industry: Time for a Fresh Look?, New York University Law, no date (1999). [56-page pdf file].
 * Terrance Keenan, The Promise at Hand: Prospects for Foundation Leadership in the 1990s, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, August 10, 2000. [66-page pdf file; see pages 9-10].

Congressional Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations / Reece Committee

 * Reece Committee Hearings
 * Congressman B. Carroll Reece,Tax Exempt Subversion, American Mercury 56-64, (July 1957).
 * An interview with Norman Dodd, Directer of Research, "Reece" Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, 1980.
 * Comment in Dean Rusk (Rockefeller Foundation) Papers, 1952-1962, regarding outcome of Reece Commission.
 * The Hidden Agenda, 1999.
 * America's Shadow Government, Sweet Liberty, March 27, 2003.

Tax-exempt Foundations and Education

 * The Education Bloc.
 * Foundations' Control of Education, Education News, February-March 2001.

Printed Resources

 * Trade paperback reprint: William H. McIlhany, The Tax-Exempt Foundations, Arlington House, 1980. Alleged to be the only complete history of the Reece Committee as told by the late Norman Dodd.
 * New Books on Foundations to Ponder. The Non-Profit Sector Reconsidered, Alternatives in Philanthropy, October 2000.