Chapter Five
Foundations as Activists: How Political Ideology and Influence Affect Grant Decisions
The major indictment against philanthropy is that it has ignored the opportunities democracy offers for reforms from within. It has distracted our minds and attention from community responsibility for the removal of social defects. It has encouraged us to leave reforms to the activity of self-appointed groups. Its reforms have tended to be superficial, because it has everywhere selected for its leaders those interested in philanthropy, but not in democracy.
CORNELIA J. CANNON,
ATLANTIC MONTHLY ( 1921, P. 294)
Many people think that foundations support social movements to form or change public policy. But this belief is more myth than reality; ...
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