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Fleishman urges new era of accountability in philanthropy
But the point Fleishman hammers home hardest is that foundations must honor
their tax-exempt status by letting the sun shine on their activities — provide
more documentation about their grants, analyze and call attention to their
failures and conduct public evaluations of both their existing and potential
new programs. A chapter of “not-so-modest proposals,” warns that
given increased Congressional scrutiny, foundations could face retaliatory
legislation if they don't open up voluntarily.
Among his suggestions: Foundations should develop a “transparency and accountability code,” create a board to hear appeals from people who have been denied information from a foundation, pay for a system to publicly rate foundations on how open they are and require foundations above a certain size to employ an ombudsman. Absent such efforts, Fleishman says, a federal Foundation Freedom of Information Act might be needed.
‘Wise Elder’
Fleishman keeps himself strictly in the background in his book. But friends
and colleagues describe him as a Renaissance man (he wrote a monthly wine
column for Vanity Fair magazine for eight years) with a huge network
of friends and associates. While he shuns the limelight, they say Fleishman
has been a major force for greater accountability and effectiveness in
the nonprofit world.
“In other cultures, he would be called a wise elder,” says Peter Karoff, founder of the Philanthropic Initiative, a nonprofit organization in Boston that advises foundations and other donors.
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