Foundations
Philanthr(q)y Journal of North Carolina
Super salaries
The average salary for U.S.
foundation chief executives is
$97,400, according to a snrvey by
The Councii on Foundations.
October 1993
Scrutinizing sources
ACLU
flap raises
issue of
tobacco
taint
The American Civil Liberties
Union’s acceptance of $500,000 in
donations from Philip Morris
USA has revived questions on
whether tobacco industry contri
butions irrfluence the agenda of
nonprofits. Heads of North
Carolina foimdations created by
tobacco fortunes say the issue
has seldom been raised by their
grantees, but many foundation
heads are sensitive to public per
ceptions about tobacco money.
By Barbara Solow
he American Civil Liberties
I Union is fending off criti-
I cism that more than
$500,000 in gifts froRi Philip Morris
USA has influenced its nonprofit lob
bying agenda.
A report published in July by the
Advocacy Institute in Washington
claims that the cigarette company’s
donations to the ACLU led to the
organization’s lobbying in favor of
tobacco advertising and smokers’
rights.
The claim has resurrected ques
tions about whether there is a taint
to tobacco money.
In North Carolina - the center of
the tobacco industry and of founda
tions built on tobacco fortunes - the
answer is mixed.
ETHICS
While leaders of Tar Heel founda
tions with historic ties to tobacco say
they have experienced few if any
questions about the source of their
grants, some tobacco company dona
tions have caused controversy.
Morton Mintz, author of the
report on the ACLU for the nonprofit
Advocacy Institute, says that in tak
ing tobacco money, “the ACLU is not
motivated by financial impropriety,
of which there is no trace, but by
absolutism” about defending corpo
rate speech.
Local and national ACLU leaders
say that tobacco industry donations
have not affected the organization’s
lobbying activities.
“Our position on tobacco adver
tising long preceded any contrlbu-
Look for TOBACCO, page 23
M
Degree program
in philanthropy
The Indiana University Center
on Philanthropy is launching
the nation's first master's
degree program devoted to
the study of philanthropy. The
new graduate program will
be offered at Indiana
University-Purdue University
Indianapolis beginning this
fall.
"Heavenly design"
for anonymous donors
After more than two decades at
Duke University, the last 10
heading its huge capital cam
paign, Joel Fleishman has a
new job. As president of
Atlantic Philanthropic Service
Co. in New York, he’ll be advis
ing a group of anonymous
donors who together give away
an estimated $50 million a year.
The new job marks the culmina
tion of a career that has includ
ed university teaching, fund-
raising and administration, as
weil as foimdation and for-profit
board work.
By Todd Cohen
A Jl aimonides, the 10th
|l /j century Jewish phi-
# IXI lospher, believed a-
f r I nonymous giving to be
one of the hipest forms of charity.
Ten centuries later, Joel
Fleishman is getting a chance to pnt
Maimonides’ philosophy into prac
tice.
Fleishman, who for 22 years at
Duke University has tau^t, been an
administrator and raised hundreds
of millions of dollars for endow
ments, last month embarked on a
new job that is a culmination of his
career in philanthropy.
Fleishman is the new president of
Atlantic Philanthropic Service Co. in
New York. The for-profit consuiting
firm advises anonymous clients on
how to give away their money.
Fleishman will have a big say in how
an estimated $50 million or so is
given away each year - the equiva
lent of what some of the biggest foun
dations give away - but without the
institutional duties that a foundation
president has.
“It is a heavenly design,” he says.
It was the anonymity of APS that
helped Fleishman decide to take his
new job.
Fleishman, a Fayetteville native,
has worn many hats in his career -
inciuding writing a wine column for
Vanity Fair magazine - and has been
described as Duke’s “franchise”
player.
He has been considered in the
past for the top job at numerous uni
versities. He Mce declined the presi
dency of Brandeis University, for
example, and was a finalist for the
job of chancellor at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
And he recently was considered
for the presidency of two universities
at the same time he was talking with
APS.
The APS job, he says, was attrac
tive for a variety of reasons. First, he
will spend his time scouting for the
best targets for his clients’ dollars
without being burdened with the sig
nificant duties that go with running a
large institution.
Second, he will be able to contin
ue teaching at Duke. He’ll teach one
course once a week each spring.
Next spring, he’ll teach a course in
philanthropy and voluntarism.
Third, he’ll be free
from having to raise
money for the first
time in a decade.
“I was getting into
a fund-raising rnt,” he
says. “It was really
getting to the point
where friends of mine
were sort of nervous
every time I called
them up. I was sort of
tired of that. I want to
have some friends
left.”
Fourth, he’ll have
time to write again. In
fact, he spent the past
year finishing a book
he actually began 10
years ago. His work on
the book came to a vir
tual halt when he was
named to head Duke’s
capital campaign. 'Two
publishers have ex
pressed interested in
publishing the book,
which examines ethics in politics,
both for officeholders and for citi
zens.
Finally, he’ll be able to practice
philanthropy anonymously, and
enjoy charity for its own sake.
“It’s pure, 100 percent unadulter
ated fun.”
Fleishman will be missed at
Duke, where he’s worn several big
hats.
After earning a bachelor’s degree
in history, a master’s degree in
Citing Maimonides, Joel Fleishman says anony
mous giving is one of the highest forms of charity.
Photo by Rob Cross
drama and a law degree at UNC-
Chapel Hill, Fleishman earned a
master’s of law at Yale Law School
and worked there briefly before
becoming legal assistant to then-Gov.
Terry Sanford.
After Sanford left office in 1965,
Fleishman returned to Yale, where
he taught and worked as an adminis
trator, mcluding a job as assistant to
then-President Kingman Brewster.
Look for FLEISHMAN, page 7
Advising deep pockets
New York consulting firm operates anonymously
American Philanthropic Service
Co. advises 11 clients on how to
give away their money. While
aimual giving by those clients is
believed to be in the range of
$50 million, their identities are
not known, and very little is
known about APS.
By Todd Cohen
7 he biggest U.S. foundations
dispense the fruits of the
titans of American industry,
sowing dollars earned by the likes of
Ford, Kellogg, Lilly, Rockefeller,
Mellon and Duke.
And their largesse is huge.
Grants made by the Ford Founda
tion, which is the biggest foundation,
totalled $240.9 million in 1991. The
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the sec
ond-largest, gave away $153.9 mil
lion. And the $1.2 bilhon-asset Duke
Endowment in Charlotte, the 13th-
largest foundation, gave away $48.3
million, according to Foundation
Giving, the annual yearbook of The
Foundation Center in New York..
Not mentioned in the yearbook is
an organization that’s believed to
give away in the range of $50 milhon
a year. It’s not an oversight: The
source of that charity simply is not
known. 'The benefactors prefer it that
way. They want to be anonymous.
The anonoymous donors are
clients of American Philanthropic
Service Co. in New York. The 11-
year-old, for-
profit fundrais
ing consulting
company, which
is known as
APS, advises 11
cheats on giving
away their
money. The
gifts are made
anonymously,
through checks
drawn on the
cheats’ banks.
And the gifts
are huge, al-
thou^ APS and
Joel Fleishman,
the consulting
company’s new
w.
pride our
selves on
being ener
getic, listening,
going around
.. and really
casting a very
broad net.
JOEL
FLEISHMAN
APS President
president, won’t disclose details.
“We don’t consider unsolicited
proposals and we reaUy don’t want
people out of the blue to come in with
proposals” Fleishman says. “We
pride ourselves on being energetic,
listening, going around...and reahy
casting a very broad net. What we
don’t want to do is to violate the con
fidentiality of our relationship with
our donors. It makes it extremely dif
ficult for us to operate in an anony
mous fashion if there’s a figure float
ing around.”
Beyond the lack of public infor
mation about the magnitude of giving
by APS, precious httle else is known
about the company. Virtuahy nothing
Look for FOUNDATION, page 7
Edward James Olmos
Conference focuses
on LA riots
Riot-related problems in Los
Angeles will be the focus of a
conference this month for
U.S. community foundations.
More than 500 are expected
to attend The Fall
Conference for Community
Foundations Oct. 6-8 in Los
Angeles, including actor
Edward James Olmos.
Player family
gives to college
The Richard L. Player family
of Fayetteville pledged
$100,000 to Methodist
College for construction of a
golf and tennis learning cen
ter. The new building will
honor Richard S. Player, Sr.,
a real estate developer and
golf enthusiast.
Reynolds Trust
awards grant
Life Plan Trust in Raleigh
received a $100,000 three-
year grant from the Kate B.
Reynolds Charitable Trust for
programs to help families
caring for members with
mental illnesses and disabili
ties. The grant will support
staff and free seminars for
Winston-Salem residents.
Gala honors
foundation leader
Cynthia Dole, founder of the
Foundation of Greater
Greensboro, was honored
last month by the Greater
Greensboro Builders
Association at a gala evening
on the shore of Lake
Jeannette. Proceeds from the
event will go to the founda
tion's Housing Fund.