Charities may be billions richer if new Congress bill passes
From Mon 6/2/2003 10:02 AM
Charities will benefit significantly if Congress approves a new bill that would require foundations to give away the current 5% minimum but now exclude administrative expenses from it according to this San Jose Mercury News story on a new report coming out today:
The report maintains that the changes would not threaten the long-term financial well-being of private foundations, but would make them more efficient ``by ensuring that overhead is not disguised as charitable spending,'' said Sloan Wiesen, spokesman for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the study's author. Foundation executives say the bill would threaten the long-term health of their organizations by, in effect, increasing the 5 percent payout requirement.
``It's the most significant and frightening challenge to responsible, responsive, effective grant-making'' in many years, said Dorothy Ridings, president of the Council on Foundations in Washington.