Follow the money: capitalists selling the rope by which Western civilization will be hung (the Ford Foundation and others)
I noticed a spate of articles recently on wealthy philanthropic foundations funding a host of radical leftist causes. This one focuses on the Ford Foundation. An excerpt:
It’s November 2023, and, following the October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists that killed some 1,400 Israelis and at least 31 Americans, thousands of demonstrators march through New York City, calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” echo through the streets, along with “there is only one solution: intifada revolution.” Among the crowd is the infamous Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour, who warns through a megaphone that a cabal of wily Jews has conspired to place “their little posters” (of kidnapped Israeli civilians) across the city, seeking to entice people to rip them down. While many onlookers might look like “ordinary people,” she says, the Jews have “their little people all around the city,” surveilling others. Sarsour is there to deliver such rhetoric in part because she’s been paid to be there: her nonprofit, MPower Change, has received $300,000 in grant funding from the Ford Foundation “to build grassroots Muslim power.”
“Grassroots Muslim power.” I know that Henry Ford was a not the least bit fond of Jews, but I doubt he’d be into funding Muslims in this country who want to kill them. At any rate, the current leadership is far far to the left of Ford:
It’s May 2023, and protesters have stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to demand that lawmakers not accept spending cuts during negotiations to lift the debt ceiling. Many are so disruptive that the police arrest them and drag them out. These are activists of the Center for Popular Democracy, an extreme left-wing organization that has collected $35.2 million from the Ford Foundation since 2012. Four months later, they will be imitated by 150 youth activists from the “climate revolution” group the Sunrise Movement, 18 of whom will be arrested after occupying the Speaker of the House’s office. The Sunrise Movement also receives Ford Foundation money—$650,000 for “training and organizing.”
The article goes on to say that the Ford Foundation’s average yearly giveaway is a billion dollars, and its mission statement says it is “guided by a vision of social justice.” Its grants are tax-exempt, and most people are unaware of any of this and how influential it is. I had heard about it before, but not in such detail. Please read the whole thing.
Here’s another recent article about the Ford Foundation, this time focusing on the post-10/7 demonstrations. An excerpt:
While the country’s leading universities have been under the microscope since Oct. 7, the nation’s top foundations have largely evaded scrutiny. Both, however, sit atop multibillion-dollar endowments and exert enormous influence on American politics and public policy: The Ford Foundation alone oversees the disbursal of approximately a billion dollars a year.
Where is that money going? A review of grants disbursed by the Ford Foundation’s team overseeing the Middle East and North Africa, led by Cairo-based regional director Saba Almubaslat, shows that several of the foundation’s grants have gone to organizations whose employees, events, and projects celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack and decried the “Zionist entity.” They make little effort to disguise their hostility to Jews and the state of Israel.
And here’s an American Enterprise Institute article on the funding and support, both domestic and foreign, for the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrations. An excerpt:
Begin with National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), which is the parent of more than 250 campus branches of Students for Justice in Palestine; Jewish Voices for Peace (and JVP Action, its political-action committee); and Within Our Lifetime. They, in turn, are funded by George Soros Inc. ($650,000 to JVP), the Kaphan Foundation ($441,000 to JVP), and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (also JVP). SJP, which is a major organizer, trainer, and agitator behind campus protests, has donors that are more suspect.
SJP and National Students for Justice in Palestine are part of American Muslims for Palestine. That group in turn is part of the Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP) and the AJP Educational Fund, which is represented on Capitol Hill by the AJP Action Fund. Their founder is Hatem Bazian, best known as a fundraiser for KindHearts, an Islamist nonprofit that in 2012 settled with the U.S. Treasury Department over claims it had raised funds for Hamas (though it admitted no wrongdoing).
This is all very important stuff. There is an enormous amount of money flowing to leftist organizations and most Americans are unaware of it or of its horrible influence. The goal is not just to undermine Israel; it is to undermine the US and Western civilization and values. And at the moment its doing very well in that endeavor.
Here us an excerpt from Henry Ford II letter of resignation from the Ford Foundation.
“The foundation exists and thrives on the fruits of our economic system. The: dividends of competitive enterprise make it all possible. A significant portion of the abundance created by U.S. business enables the foundation and like institutions to carry on their work In effect, the foundation is a creature of capitalism—a statement that, I’m sure, would be shocking to many professional staff people in the field of philanthropy. It is hard to discern recognition of this fact in anything the. foundation does. It is even more difficult to find an understanding of this in many of the institutions, particularly the universities, that are the beneficiaries of the foundation’s grant programs.” Here is a link to full NYT article from back in 1977.
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/12/archives/excerpts-from-henry-ford-letter.html
Paging Robert Conquest. Your Second and Third Laws of Politics are calling.
What timing. It wasn’t that long ago an article was posted calling the non profit sector the new robber barons.
https://unherd.com/2024/05/meet-americas-new-robber-barons/
Re: Part of the problem
In 1970 I got a Ford Foundation grant to attend a radical experimental college. 🙂
A byproduct of our budget deficits and the Fed’s quantitative easing is that there are huge amounts of dollars sloshing around. Here is the M2 money supply
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL
As recently as 2020 it was about $14 trillion but it’s now about $22 trillion.
This leads to inflation of the things we buy, but much more to inflation of financial assets, like stocks and bonds. Since that is where the endowments of these foundations are invested, they are rolling in money. But I think they have limited effectiveness since people aren’t buying the leftist garbage they’re selling.
A similar effect is in the funding of the Biden and Trump campaigns. See this article about how the huge amount of money that Trump raised after the bogus conviction has evened up the two campaigns. They are limited now, not by money, but by the number of people they can hire and deploy effectively.
https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2024/06/21/trumps-fundraising-haul-is-reshaping-the-race-n4930044
I hate NGOs! Always.
It is a matter of some curiosity, whether the Ford Foundation and others funding the efforts to end Western Civilization, actually imagine that they will survive in the aftermath of a civilizational collapse? That degree of willful blindness is arguably, pathological.
“hanged” or “hung”? I’ve seen both, but I go with “hanged” for the method of execution (as opposed to hanging clothes or a framed picture), following Samuel Pepys:
On the other hand, the world would have been poorer without Blazing Saddles:
https://youtu.be/ZAZhtT-dUyo?si=ULE1ebMTJdX7R4MK
Anybody recognize the short little fat guy?
Avery Schreiber.
Yes, Mr. Dorito
People are hanged, dead meat is hung. So first he was hanged and then he was hung.
The Ford Foundation has been funding radical causes since at least the 1960s. Ford and the Carnegie Corp. funded radical educators such as Herb Kohl and Allen Kaprow; Kohl’s experimental school in Berkeley then became part of a federal Dept. of Ed. Experimental Schools Program that ran for five years in Berkeley, Minneapolis, and a few other cities. In Berkeley, at least some of the ESP schools were for black and Latino students who were not happy with the district’s recently integrated schools. One was called Black House, the other was Casa de la Raza. These ethnically based schools were eventually found to violate Title VI, I think. It goes to show how circular and at cross-purposes funding for “social progress” can be. That’s not to mention the outrageous and unethical behavior that went on at some of these schools.
The Olin foundation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Olin_Foundation
founded by John Olin, a conservative businessman, had a stipulation – an expiration date. It was included because Olin noted the “mission drift”, to the left of course, and it worked as he wished.
I think the Federal Government should institute expiration dates on all such foundations, both existing and future ones. The funds in these foundations need to be disbursed to the people fully and quickly.
huxley on June 21, 2024 at 6:51 pm said:
Re: Part of the problem
In 1970 I got a Ford Foundation grant to attend a radical experimental college. ?
Given your extensive and responsible commenting here, it appears that radical experiment did not “take”. Maybe you should give that grant money back — with interest!! 🙂
Either “hanged” or “hung” is proper here. However, although either may be used for a person being executed, “hanged” can never be used for an inanimate object.
Among Heather Mac Donald’s myriad of classic articles, one that stands out for me is from 1996, “The Billions of Dollars That Made Things Worse”: https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-billions-of-dollars-that-made-things-worse
Lead-in: “Philanthropic foundations once used their vast might to cure disease, promote art, and advance education. In the sixties, they decided to reform society. Result: catastrophe.”
It should be a hanging offense for humans to create Laws – Hang ‘Em High and leave them
hangedhung as a warning to other wannabe Law creators…The Ford Foundation is Exhibit A for several provisions being written into corporate law in every state.
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A. Making grants and donations to other corporate bodies is bar in specified circumstances a franchise limited to a class of corporations called ‘foundations’. (political parties and contribution bundlers may donate to campaign committees; charitable and religious corporations may provide for individual persons and households, but not other corporations).
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B. ‘Foundations’ are prohibited from engaging in any activity other than grant distributions.
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C. All foundations must liquidate under the supervision of a surrogate’s court within 60 years of their incorporation.
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D. The assets of the foundation must be distributed according to principles incorporated in its charter as constrained by subsequent amendments to statutory law. Absent that, the capital must be apportioned among donors according to formulae incorporated into statutory law. Under no circumstances may any portion of the capital be distributed to other foundations.
The dodd committee investigated this in the 50s thats where non dare call ot treason findings came from it produced more evidence than say the huac ones
I do not understand why NGOs are not indicted under RICO laws.
They fund and support (with money, equipment, food, etc) illegal immigration.
And who supplied all the $$$$ to buy all those tents (and scarves) for all those “college” pro-Hamas / Einstazgruppen supporters??
A good first target would be to indict George Soros. When you see what he has done, it would be no different than if he was acting on behalf of the Russian KGB.
Cycle Cyril beat me to it. Here is the intro paragraph from Wikipedia on the Olin foundation.
The current non profit system in this country is basically a legalized money laundering system. We should completely do away with it. Nothing less will eliminate the problems noted.
The question is why non-profits are allowed to funnel tax-free money into political groups and causes. Yes, it’s legalized money-laundering. Closer scrutiny on whether the grants are actually non-political is called for — but this is the same IRS which let Lois Lerner mismanage its non-profit sector for political purposes.
I’m generally conservative, but would look favorably on confiscatory taxes and fines against endowments, foundations and trust funds.
I’m generally conservative, but would look favorably on confiscatory taxes and fines against endowments, foundations and trust funds.
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The lawyers here will have to correct me, but if I’m not mistaken state law generally requires trusts be dissolved after two generations. I think you’d have to scrounge to locate people with trust-fund income who are influential.
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Endowment income finances institutional operations. The primary problem in those cases is the character of the institution.
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In re foundations, I suspect it would be sufficient to debar them from activities other than grant-making and, like a trust fund, be compelled to dissolve after two generations with their capital scattered to the winds.
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IMO, philanthropy by business corporations is a social problem and ought to be debarred by law.
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And, while we’re at it, the spigot on the grant money pipeline emanating from the public treasury needs to be closed.
Closer scrutiny on whether the grants are actually non-political is called for — but this is the same IRS which let Lois Lerner mismanage its non-profit sector for political purposes.
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Not necessary.
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1. End the income tax preferences for donors to philanthropies. No deductions.
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2. End any exemption philanthropies enjoy in re sales or value-added taxes and in re payroll taxes.
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3. Impose corporation taxes on philanthropies, calculated according to a formula which includes as arguments the compensation per employee of said philanthropy, the compensation of its senior employees (most handsomely compensated 12% or most handsomely compensated 50, which ever is the smaller number), the number of employees, and the employee-compensation-per-worker in the economy at large. Philanthropies can avoid corporation tax liability by keeping their executive compensation modest.
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4. Debar corporations in general from making grants, with some specified exceptions which are not granted to business corporations, not granted to government corporations, and not granted to most subtypes of philanthropic corporation.
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5. End government grants to philanthropies except in emergency situations (e.g. disaster relief).
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6. Debar philanthropies which employ people in the United States from accepting grants from inter-governmental agencies.
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7. Require any abiding philanthropy have a board elected by legally defined stakeholders in a postal ballot supervised by the board of elections in the state which issued the charter of their parent company. Self-regenerating boards should be provisional and ‘nominating committees’ should not exist. All boards should have between 4 and 20 corporal members.