A Rare Foundation: Spending It All and Closing Down

摘要

In defiance of the natural laws of bureaucratic and personal self-preservation, one of the major philanthropies in biomedical research, the Whitaker Foundation, has voluntarily decided to spend down its now-$400 million endowment and go out of business in a torrent of grants over the next 10 years. The decision, arrived at three years ago, drew little attention then, but the countdown to oblivion is in progress and, according to design, the money is pouring out from Whitaker, which last year ranked 64th in endowment size among American foundations. The plan to terminate the Whitaker Foundation, and the jobs of its 18-member staff, is viewed with puzzlement, if not horror, in the cushy world of big-league tax-exempt, non-profit foundations, where spending, generally at the legal minimum of 5 percent of assets annually, virtually guarantees institutional immortality.