Did you know that there were some 68,000 charity foundations in the U.S. in 2005, controlling assets in the range of $500 billion and making some $34 billion in annual grants? I came across a book called The foundation where it talks about the ineffectiveness of these charity group. The author writes how big grants are being signed off without ever asking anyone- grantees or members of their own staff- precisely how a given program or grant is supposed to achieve its goal and without measuring, later , whether it has succeeded. wow! $34 billion is a lot of money. To put it in perspective,the regular budget of the UN is some $1.3 billion per year, and the administrative budget of the 15-country European Community amounts to some 4.5 billion.
1.17.2007
Power of Charity
Did you know that there were some 68,000 charity foundations in the U.S. in 2005, controlling assets in the range of $500 billion and making some $34 billion in annual grants? I came across a book called The foundation where it talks about the ineffectiveness of these charity group. The author writes how big grants are being signed off without ever asking anyone- grantees or members of their own staff- precisely how a given program or grant is supposed to achieve its goal and without measuring, later , whether it has succeeded. wow! $34 billion is a lot of money. To put it in perspective,the regular budget of the UN is some $1.3 billion per year, and the administrative budget of the 15-country European Community amounts to some 4.5 billion.
