Nielsen explores the 36 largest of the 22,000 currently active philanthropic foundations in the USA, exploring their staff, leaders, policies, and performance.
From the most famous, like Ford and MacArthur, to the most obscure, such as Mabee and Moody, the author presents 36 fiefdoms, each of which controls a minimum $250 million.
Their influence is substantial as they encourage medical research, support cultural and artistic endeavours, and not least, buttress immensely expensive educational institutions.
Which of the great foundations in recent years have been spectacular successes and which are failures? And how is this defined and by whom?
Are foundations seedbeds or killing grounds of new social and political ideas? And what is the federal government, and a variety of administrations, doing to help or harm this new economy?
Nielsen provides many surprising and some startling answers for the millions of Americans whose lives the “golden donors” directly or indirectly affect.
When Golden Donors first appeared, A. Bartlett Giamatti praised it as an historical guide, a shrewd critique, and an impassioned warning.
Kingman Brewster saw the book as “a revealing mirror held up to the faces of big philanthropy…a must book for foundation creators and leaders.”
Thornton F. Bradshaw said:
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