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V ICTO R S. NAVASKY
interlocked with the nation's foreign policy-making mechanism. Do we
really want Ford having that much to say about our foreign policy? Do
we want any foundation or group of foundations having that much
potential power? And isn't that power
~he
raison d'etre of the third
sector?
Finally, one suspects there is a Hobbesian assumption which under–
lies
The Big Foundations
--
namely the unspoken idea that men are so
mean, nasty, and brutish that if we took away all of the tax benefits, no–
body would give any money to charity. But maybe a young Ford
(especially one whose ancestors' wealth had not been drained off by
foundations) would decide that what his children -- all children -–
needed was a "Sesame Street"; maybe a Stewart Mott --
regardless of
the lack of tax benef£ts
- -
would finance a legal defense fund for Mexi–
cans or Indians or gays. In fact, maybe the most enlightened and com–
mitted would stay in the philanthropy business and only the tax dodgers,
the "traditionalists," the unimaginative, would head for the exit. More–
over, even if the best of the foundationmen ended up in sectors one and
two, they might well be a force for more corporate and government
social reponsibility and imagination, thus obviating the need for an
additional sector.
Despite all of these questions and reservations, it is perhaps an argu–
ment in Nielsen's favor that nobody
did
commission his worthwhile study
until the Twentieth Century Fund came along. And although he ex–
presses confidence in the consumer movement as one way of keeping
foundations honest (how about a Foundation-Ombudsman, a watchdog
foundation on foundations?) he is too modest to note that books like
this are another way. One hopes he will do the sequel, that it will further
explore some of the questions raised, and one concedes it a second point
in his and the Twentieth Century Fund's favor that it will probably take
another Twentieth Century Fund grant to make it possible.
Victor S. Navasky
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