Signed by sixty-six scholars and cosponsored by eight leading think tanks, For a New Thrift describes the growing polarization in today’s financial landscape between two very different kinds of institutions.  Pro-thrift institutions serve well-off Americans and provide a broad array of tax-advantaged savings plans and financial services.  Anti-thrift institutions serve Americans who are stuggling to live paycheck to paycheck with short-term loan at usurious interest rates.  For a New Thrift calls for efforts to rebuild broadly democratic, pro-thrift institutions that will serve and reward the “small saver.”

The Commission on Thrift is a project of the Institute for American Values in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, New America Foundation, Public Agenda, Demos, the Consumer Federation of America, and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.

Return to Charity?: Philanthropy and the Welfare State, by Martin Morse Wooster, clearly explains how the Victorian idea of charity for the poor was replaced by twentieth century social concepts of poverty and social welfare, which culminated in the “Great Society” welfare entitlement programs of the 196os. Wooster also identifies modern American conservatives who rediscovered the older idea of charity and who favor “faith-based” social service programs. Court cases permitting government assistance to faith-based groups are discussed.

Martin Morse Wooster, a Senior Fellow at Capital Research Center, received his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy from Beloit College.  He is a contributing editor of Philanthropy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He has been an associate editor of The American Enterprise, Washington editor of Reason, an associate editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is also the author of The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent,” Return to Charity?, The Foundation Builders, and By Their Bootstraps. He has also contributed articles on the history of philanthropy to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, The Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, and Notable American Philanthropists.

A companion to The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent,” author Martin Morse Wooster considers whether the legal life of foundations should be limited to prevent successor trustees from ignoring the donor’s intent. This volume surveys past congressional attempts to limit foundation perpetuity and offers case studies of donors who have put legal limits on their own foundations, setting a termination date and requiring the foundation to pay out all its assets.

Martin Morse Wooster, a Senior Fellow at Capital Research Center, received his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy from Beloit College.  He is a contributing editor of Philanthropy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He has been an associate editor of The American Enterprise, Washington editor of Reason, an associate editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is also the author of The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent,” Return to Charity?, The Foundation Builders, and By Their Bootstraps. He has also contributed articles on the history of philanthropy to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, The Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, and Notable American Philanthropists.

What They Are Saying:

“If a man has wealth, he has to make a choice, because there is the money heaping up. He can keep it together in a bunch, and then leave it for others to administer after he is dead. Or he can get it into action and have fun, while he is still alive. I prefer getting it into action and adapting it to human needs, and making the plan work.”–George Eastman, Eastman Kodak

“I think it is inevitable that as trustees and officers of perpetuities grow old they become more concerned to conserve the funds in their care than to wring from those funds the greatest possible usefulness. That tendency is evident already in some of the foundations, and as time goes on it will not lessen but increase. The cure for this disease is a radical operation. If the funds must exhaust themselves within a generation, no bureaucracy is likely to develop around them.”–Julius Rosenwald, Sears, Roebuck

“I believe that, after the first generation, inherited wealth loses the spirit and the values of the people who earned that wealth. There comes a disconnection between the funds and the source of the funds…. The culture of those in charge becomes not too dissimilar from the culture of the government bureaucracies who dispense funds confiscated from the taxpayers.”–Joseph J. Jacobs, Jacobs Engineering Group

The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent” is a must-have book for anyone working in the philanthropic sector–especially anyone planning to establish a grantmaking foundation. Wooster provides fascinating case studies of influential entrepreneurs and philanthropists–including Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and the Pew family–who established foundations that strayed from the ideals and intentions of their benefactors. He contrasts their foundations with foundations that have stayed true to their donors’ intentions, such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Duke Endowment, and Conrad Hilton Foundation. Wooster surveys precedent-setting legal cases, including the recent and much publicized case of the Robertson family vs. Princeton University, that have upheld, compromised, or overturned donor intentions, and he explains what donors can do to make sure their intentions are honored by those who administer their requests.

Martin Morse Wooster, a Senior Fellow at Capital Research Center, received his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy from Beloit College.  He is a contributing editor of Philanthropy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He has been an associate editor of The American Enterprise, Washington editor of Reason, an associate editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is also the author of Should Foundations Live Forever?: The Question of Perpetuity, Return to Charity?, The Foundation Builders, and By Their Bootstraps. He has also contributed articles on the history of philanthropy to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, The Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, and Notable American Philanthropists.

American philanthropists long have been generous in their support of colleges and universities. But donors do not always find the results they envisioned for their generosity and good intentions. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has responded by publishing The Intelligent Donor’s Guide to College Giving. The guide provides step-by-step instructions for donors on how to target their giving, with profiles of successful gifts. Find out how to ensure, in the words of investor and philanthropist Stephen Friess, “that philanthropic dollars are investments in the values of American and its future.”

Anne D. Neal co-founded the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and has been president since 2003.  For over 15 years, Ms. Neal has been a prominent national player in higher education reform, publishing widely and appearing frequently on radio and television, including Fox Business News, CNN, Fox News, WGN, and NPR. She has authored or co-authored numerous ACTA studies on historical illiteracy, federal accreditation, governance, intellectual pluralism and cost, and contributed chapters to Reforming the Politically Correct University (AEI Press, 2009) and Accountability in American Higher Education (Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming). She has also convened higher education conferences under the auspices of the Philanthropy Roundtable. In 2007, and then again in 2010, Ms. Neal was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity which advises the U.S. Secretary of Education on federal accreditation.

Ms. Neal has provided expert testimony before the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the U.S. Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee, the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Commission, the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and in many state capitals, and presented at conferences sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the University of Notre Dame, the Foreign Policy Association, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Montana State University, the American Association of University Professors and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Prior to joining ACTA, Ms. Neal served as General Counsel and Congressional Liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also worked as a First Amendment and communications lawyer for Rogers & Wells and Wiley, Rein & Fielding.  Ms. Neal graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in American history and literature. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School where she was president of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. She has served on the boards of many cultural and civic organizations, and currently is a director of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, and Casey Trees.

Michael B. Poliakoff became part of the ACTA team in March 2010. He oversees ACTA’s programming and publications and works directly with constituents on behalf of higher education reform. He previously served as vice president for academic affairs and research at the University of Colorado and in senior roles at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Council on Teacher Quality, the American Academy for Liberal Education, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

He has taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Hillsdale College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wellesley College. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and went on to study at Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in classical studies. He has been a junior fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, and his research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and the Alexander Von Humboldt Siftung. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles in classical studies and education policy, including Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture (Yale University Press). He has also received the American Philological Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Distinguished Service to Education Award.