Vanguard Public Foundation

Last updated
Vanguard Public Foundation
Founded1972 [1]
FounderObie Benz and Peter Stern[ citation needed ]
Dissolved2011 [2]
94-2369262
Focus Social justice
Location
Services Grantmaking
Website www.vanguardsf.org at the Wayback Machine (archived May 13, 2009)

Vanguard Public Foundation was an American social justice foundation focused on providing grants to social justice nonprofits. One of the first of the "rich kid foundations," Vanguard was a model for a new generation's philanthropy. Vanguard rose as a leader among some two dozen new progressive foundations that comprised a network called the Funding Exchange. [1] Vanguard closed down in 2011. [2]

Contents

History

The Vanguard Public Foundation established in 1972 by a group of inheritors of corporate fortunes, including Obie Benz, Peter Stern[ citation needed ], Christine Russell, Maggie Roth, Penny Gerbode, and Daisy Paradis. They were later joined by over a hundred young inheritors who were devoted to supporting a progressive social and political agenda. [1] [2]

Closure

In 2002, Samuel "Mouli" Cohen was introduced to Vanguard CEO Hari Dillon by actor Danny Glover. [2] Mouli said he would help the foundation by allowing Vanguard and its donors with buying shares in the privately owned Ecast, Inc. Dillon and Glover formed general partnerships through which they thought they had purchased several million dollars' worth of Ecast. [1] At least three partnerships with Hari Dillon's Dillon Group, and an additional one with Glover, were used as vehicles to funnel investments from Vanguard Public Foundation donors to a deal with Mouli. [3] The Vanguard donors ultimately put in over $20 million more in philanthropic money and personal investment cash. [1]

Mouli stated that Ecast was to be acquired by Microsoft, which would then generate a significant return on investment, as high as 1000%. The Microsoft acquisition reportedly got delayed over EU rules, which generated a need for more fees to cover transaction costs. It was further delayed when reports that Ecast was considering a competing bid from Google. Ultimately, there was no Microsoft purchase, no Google bid, and the money was fraudulently taken by Cohen. [1] [2] Further, as reported by American Greed, [4] a show on CNBC, Cohen had already been forced out of Ecast and was no longer affiliated with the company by the time he had become involved with Dillon.

Vanguard was forced to close in 2011 as a result of the fraud. [2] Cohen and Dillon were later successfully prosecuted, with Dillon pleading guilty, for their role in the scandal. [2] [3] [5]

Grants

Vanguard's grant making put money into social movement causes, often before they became politically acceptable and often to organizations and actions that were never going to generate mainstream support. [1] The Vanguard Public Foundation oversees four separate grant-making programs.[ citation needed ]

Social Justice Fund

Provided support to community-based organizations seeking to bring about progressive social change. The funding priorities focused on issues such as homelessness, civil rights, cultural activism, criminal justice, environmental justice, economic justice, human rights, immigration, and youth advocacy and leadership.[ citation needed ]

Community Institution Building Program

The Community Institution Building Program supported social justice organizations.[ citation needed ]

Technical Assistance & Capacity Building Program

Provided grant support, access to professional consultants, and skills workshops for community-based organizations that focused on environmental justice and other health-related problems in the Central Valley of California.[ citation needed ]

Social Justice Sabbatical Fund

Provided funding to community activists in order to enable them to take a 2-3 month break from their activities.[ citation needed ]

Grant recipients

Vanguard tended to focus on emerging projects which often went on to become more accepted by the public and therefore more fundable by other foundations. Donors also gave money to specific groups through Vanguard, enabling unincorporated groups to receive donations. [1]

Among the groups that received Vanguard grants: [1] [6]

Criticism of grants

Their focus on projects often before they became politically acceptable attracted negative attention from conservative pundits. Glenn Beck referred to Vanguard as "Marxist foundations of the 'social justice' movement" while Bill O'Reilly referred to the foundation as "pinheads". [1]

Influence on other foundations

In 1977, Vanguard published a book designed to serve a guide to other foundations, Robin Hood Was Right: A Guide to Giving Your Money for Social Change. The book was re-issued by the Funding Exchange in 2002. [1]

Largely modeled on Vanguard are the Haymarket People's Fund in Boston, Massachusetts and the Liberty Hill Foundation in Santa Monica, California. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death of the two founders, the foundation owned 90% of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company. Between 1955 and 1974, the foundation sold its Ford Motor Company holdings and now plays no role in the automobile company.

The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by Charles Koch and David Koch, two sons of Fred C. Koch who own the majority of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, paper, and chemical conglomerate which is the US's second-largest privately held company. Charles' and David's foundations have provided millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including libertarian and conservative think tanks. Areas of funding include think tanks, political advocacy, climate change denial, higher education scholarships, cancer research, arts, and science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tides Foundation</span> American public charity and fiscal sponsor

Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund based in the United States. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976 by Drummond Pike. Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizations, which are often politically progressive. An affiliated group, Tides Advocacy, is a "massive progressive incubator." Tides has received substantial funding from George Soros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fundraising</span> Process of gathering donations

Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gather money for non-profit organizations, it is sometimes used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for for-profit enterprises.

Matching funds are funds that are set to be paid in proportion to funds available from other sources. Matching fund payments usually arise in situations of charity or public good. The terms cost sharing, in-kind, and matching can be used interchangeably but refer to different types of donations.

In the United States, a donor-advised fund is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals. To participate in a donor-advised fund, a donating individual or organization opens an account in the fund and deposits cash, securities, or other financial instruments. They surrender ownership of anything they put in the fund, but retain advisory privileges over how their account is invested, and how it distributes money to charities.

Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global phenomenon with 1700 existing around the world, of which over 700 are in the United States. Private foundations are typically endowed by an individual or a single family.

The New York Community Trust is the community foundation for New York City, with divisions in Westchester and Long Island. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States and one of the largest funders of New York City's nonprofits.

Richard William "Ric" Weiland was a software developer, programmer and philanthropist. He was the second employee at Microsoft Corporation, joining the company during his final year at Stanford University. At 35, he left Microsoft to focus his time on investment management and philanthropy, becoming a quiet but well-respected donor to the LGBTQ social justice movement, the environment, health and human services, and education. After his death, the Chronicle of Philanthropy called Weiland's bequest the 11th largest charitable gift in the nation with more than $165 million distributed between 20 nonprofit beneficiaries.

Philanthrocapitalism or philanthropic capitalism is a way of doing philanthropy, which mirrors the way that business is done in the for-profit world. It may involve venture philanthropy that actively invests in social programs to pursue specific philanthropic goals that would yield return on investment over the long term, or in a more passive form whereby "social investors" benefit from investing in socially-responsible programs.

A foundation in the United States is a type of charitable organization. However, the Internal Revenue Code distinguishes between private foundations and public charities. Private foundations have more restrictions and fewer tax benefits than public charities like community foundations.

Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations. It is the product of the February 2019 merger of GuideStar with Foundation Center.

Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an alignment of an investor's beliefs and values with the allocation of capital to address social and/or environmental issues.

National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) is an American independent public charity that provides philanthropic expertise to donors, foundations and financial institutions. NPT ranks among the largest grantmaking institutions in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Policy Network</span> US civil policy advocacy organization

The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for conservative and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advises its member think tanks on fundraising, running a nonprofit, and communicating ideas. Founded in 1992, it is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with member groups located in all fifty states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political activities of the Koch brothers</span> Charles G. and David H. Koch and their activities in US politics

Charles G. and David H. Koch (1940–2019), sometimes referred to as the Koch brothers, have become famous for their financial and political influence in United States politics with a libertarian, more so, right-libertarian or American-style libertarian political stance. From around 2004 to 2019, with "foresight and perseverance", the brothers organized like-minded wealthy libertarian-oriented conservatives, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to build an "integrated" and "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, "grassroots" movements, academic programs, advocacy and legal groups to "destroy the prevalent statist paradigm" reshape public opinion to favor minimal government. As of mid 2018, the media has been encouraged to refer to the "Koch network" rather than the "Koch brothers".

UK Community Foundations (UKCF) is a registered charity that leads a movement of community foundations committed to positive social change in the UK through the development of “community philanthropy”. Community philanthropy involves people from all parts of a community working together locally to use the financial and other resources available to them to improve others’ lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Media and Democracy</span> Non-profit organization in the US

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel "Mouli" Cohen</span>

Samuel "Mouli" Cohen is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and convicted fraudster who claimed to have held the positions of president, chairman, and CEO of several public and private video game companies which, according to Cohen, "have generated over $3 Billion in shareholder value". The companies Cohen has been involved in since the 1980s include: Playnet Technologies, Voltage Capital, LAMIA, Aristo International and Ecast. In April 2012, Cohen was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for a conviction on 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering and three counts of tax evasion. He is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecast, Inc.</span>

Ecast, Inc. was a privately held, venture capital–backed place-based interactive media company that offered advertising, digital music, games, entertainment, and information to bars and nightclubs in the United States. The company was founded in 1999 and was headquartered in San Francisco, California. Ecast, Inc. ceased operations when it closed its Jukebox network on March 1, 2012.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Cohen, Rick (August 2010). "Decline and Fall of the Vanguard Foundation". Blue Avocado.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Walter, Shoshana (November 21, 2012). "Vanguard Foundation - idealists' collapse". SFGate. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Cohen, Rick (October 2010). "Vanguard Foundation Update: With Leader Pleading Guilty, "Truth and Reconciliation"?". Blue Avocado.
  4. ↑ "Dealing in Deceit". American Greed. CNBC. Retrieved 2014-08-23.
  5. ↑ "Former President and Executive Director of Vanguard Public Foundation Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison for Fraud and Money Laundering" (Press release). Federal Bureau of Investigation. January 29, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Vanguard Public Information - GuideStar Organization Report". GuideStar. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.