Author: Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs

Publication Year: 1974

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Report of the Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. The Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs was established in November, 1973, as a privately initiated, privately funded citizens' panel.

Abstract:

Report of the Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. The Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs was established in November, 1973, as a privately initiated, privately funded citizens' panel with two broad objectives:

• To study the role of both philanthropic giving in the and that area through which giving is principally channeled, the voluntary, third sector of American society.
• To make recommendations to the voluntary sector, to Congress and to the American public at large concerning ways in which the sector and the practice of private giving can be strengthened and made more effective.

The Commission's objectives reflect a conviction that giving and voluntary, public-oriented activity - the components of philanthropy as broadly defined - play a central role in American life but that the continuation of this role cannot be taken for granted. For the sector's economic durability has been brought into question by the mounting financial difficulties of many voluntary organizations and nonprofit institutions. At the same time, two of the main institutional underpinnings of philanthropic giving - private foundations and charitable tax deductions - have been politically challenged. Congressional hearings leading up to the Tax Reform Act of 1969 as well as the act itself showed that these underpinnings had become fair targets of criticism and of legislative change.

CONTENTS
Preface.
Introduction and summary.

Part I. Giving and the third sector - Findings of the Commission.

Chapter 1. The third sector:
                      The world of philanthropy.
                      Dimensions of the nonprofit sector.
                      Ultimate beneficiaries.
                      Government and voluntary association.
                      Americans are forever forming Associations.
                      Evolutions within the third sector.
                      Underlying functions of voluntary groups.
                      Initiating new ideas and processes.
                      Developing public policy.
                      Supporting minority or local interests.
                      Providing services that the government is constitutionally
                      barred from providing.
                      Overseeing government.
                      Overseeing the market place.
                      Bringing the sectors together. 
                      Giving aid abroad.
                      Furthering active citizenship and altruism.
                      New frontiers and an ageless rationale.
                      Sources for chapter 1.

Chapter 2. Private giving for public purposes:
                      Sizes, sources and destinations of giving.
                      Other giving.
                      Changing motivations.
                      The institutionalization of philanthropy.
                      The importance of private giving.
                      Philanthropy and the powerless.
                      Not keeping pace.
                      Reasons for the decline. 
                      Sources for chapter 2.

Chapter 3. The hard economics of nonprofit activity: 
                      Financial crisis.
                      Rising costs.
                      The cost of being labor intensive. 
                      The costs of complexity.
                      The more successful, the greater the deficit.
                      Sources for chapter 3.

Chapter 4. The state as a major philanthropist: 
                      From private beneficence to public obligation.
                      Government financial assistance.
                      Dilemma over control and finances.
                      Seeking a balance.
                      Sources for chapter 4.

Chapter 5. Taxes and non-taxes:
                      The spread of non-taxation.
                      Countermovements.
                      Challenging the charitable deduction.
                      Philosophical challenge.
                      Pragmatic doubts.
                      Standard deduction vs. [versus] charitable deduction;
                      Sources for Chapter 5.

Part 2. Toward a stronger voluntary sector - Conclusions and recommendations of the
           Commission.

Introduction.

Chapter 6. Broadening the base of philanthropy:
                      Objectives.
                      Three approaches.

                 Continuing the deduction:
                      Giving should not be taxed,
                      A proven mechanism,
                      An efficient inducement, 
                      Insulation from government,
                      Allocation effects,
                      Reflecting the progressive income tax,
                      Leadership effect.

                 Extending and amplifying the deduction: Recommendations. 
                 Extending the charitable deduction. 
                 A new incentive for low- and middle-income contributors. 
                 A supplementary credit. 
                 The double deduction.                 
                 Minimum tax: Recommendation.
                 Appreciated property: Recommendation. 

                 Charitable bequests:
                      Equity.
                      Allocation effects.
                      Percentage limits.
                      Recommendation. 

                 Corporate giving: Recommendation.
                 Sources for chapter 6.

Chapter 7. Improving the philanthropic process: 
                      Accountability: Recommendations.
                      Accessibility: Recommendations.
                      Minimizing personal or institutional self-benefitting:
                      Recommendations.
                      Influencing legislation -- Recommendations. 
                      Sources for chapter 7.

Chapter 8. A permanent commission:
                      Part of a larger process;
                      The British model; 
                      Quasi-governmental status.
                      Recommendation. 
                      Sources for Chapter 8.
                      Comments and dissents.

Appendix:
     1. Commission studies.
     2. Members of the Commission.
     3. Commission consultants and advisors. [Bibliography in sources section at end of
         chapters].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Fundraising