Foundations can outlive their charitable missions – and that’s a problem

Bill Gates, Jensen Huang and many of today’s tech titans have two things in common with Gilded Age robber barons like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. After playing a role in propelling the U.S. economy to new heights, they established massive foundations. The foundations are usually designed to last for eternity. Gates is a rare exception in that he decided in 2025 to empty the coffers of his foundation by 2045. As I have explored in my research about American philanthropy, foundations are typically created and managed so that they might last forever by making sure that their grants and spending equal no more than the growth of their assets over time. But I see a big problem with having foundations outlive the donors that endow them with funds in perpetuity. Society’s needs always change, while many foundations’ missions are intended to satisfy a specific need that’s not eternal. Milton Hershey Perhaps the best example of this problem is the Milton Hershey School Foundation. Milton S. Hershey and his wife, Catherine Elizabeth Sweeney Hershey, established it in 1909, after he made a fortune by mass-marketing chocolate bars and other confections. They endowed the foundation initially with 486 acres (2…

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