Yale University could offer a firsthand curriculum on the fickle nature of philanthropy.

First, there's the lesson on dirty money. Last week, the Yale Daily News reported that the university agreed to pay $1 million to Industrial Enterprises of America, to settle the company’s complaint that its former CEO, a Yale alumn named John Mazzuto, made ...]]>

Yale University could offer a firsthand curriculum on the fickle nature of philanthropy.

First, there's the lesson on dirty money. Last week, the Yale Daily News reported that the university agreed to pay $1 million to Industrial Enterprises of America, to settle the company’s complaint that its former CEO, a Yale alumn named John Mazzuto, made a $1.7 million donation to Yale in shares of stock that he may have obtained illegally through an option plan meant for company employees. Yale used the gift to build a baseball facility.

Several years ago, Yale taught a different lesson in philanthropy, when it returned a $20 million gift from alumn Lee Bass that would have funded an intensive course in Western civilization. Only catch: Bass had insisted on the right to approve professors. Not to worry, as the Yale Herald, another campus newspaper, assured readers, Lee is "only one of four billionaire Basses who have given millions to Yale in the past."

Meanwhile, Yale boasts America's second-largest university endowment. Ranking behind only Harvard's the Bulldogs' kitty was worth more than $16 billion, even after the crash of 2008.

Only a small fraction of the billions of dollars that foundations grant annually for education goes toward the specific needs of lower-income and vulnerable students, according to a study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog.

The committee's new report Confronting Systemic Inequity in Education calls on foundations to address the ...]]>

Only a small fraction of the billions of dollars that foundations grant annually for education goes toward the specific needs of lower-income and vulnerable students, according to a study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog.

The committee's new report Confronting Systemic Inequity in Education calls on foundations to address the root causes of intergenerational inequality by dedicating a minimum of 50% of education grantmaking toward supporting marginalized communities and 25% toward bringing those communities into the policymaking process.

The study defines "marginalized" students as those who are economically disadvantaged, disabled, racial and ethnic minorities, women and girls, students with AIDS, immigrants and refugees, crime/abuse victims, single parents, LGBTQ students and others from historically underserved communities.

NCRP reports that of the 672 foundations that gave at least $1 million in education grants from 2006 to 2008, only 11% devoted at least half of their philanthropic dollars for the benefit of vulnerable students. In addition, just 2% allocated at least 25% of their grantmaking for systemic change.