In Defense of Perpetuity

"The executive directors of most major private foundations, endowments, and other nonprofit institutions are dedicated, first and foremost, to preserving the resources and reputations of the institutions they run," he wrote in a 2015 Wall Street Journal essay. Fleishman-who I should note played a key role as a funder and then board member in establishing the organization I lead, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)-challenges the central arguments for limiting the life of foundations. The storming out "manifestly never happened," Fleishman writes. [...]the historical record, according to Fleishman, suggests that donor intent was not very clear at the foundation's founding, and that Henry Ford II, once he took over early in the foundation's life, actually was "the dominant force in shaping the Ford Foundation's first 33 years of existence."