The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking: How Foundations Find, Fund, and Manage Effective Programs

Threats on the Horizon

The possible influx of untrained staff and trustees is far from the only threat facing foundation philanthropy. Foundations exist by the grace of God, Congress, and the Internal Revenue Code, and as some jaded foundation executives remark, not necessarily in that order. Congress can, at any given moment, create a threat to foundations by means of legislation; and federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, can do the same by issuing regulations. Only rarely in history have regulatory agencies or Congress deliberately drawn a bead on foundations, but in the course of aiming “silver bullets” at unrelated problems, members of Congress and regulators often discover that the bullet passes through its target and maims ...