August 16, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Richard Marker, an adviser to donors and a professor at New York University’s Center on Philanthropy, sees lessons for philanthropy in the furor over the Islamic center and mosque slated to be built two blocks from the former World Trade Center site.
Mr. Marker says that misunderstandings about the project have fueled its unpopularity. And just because the center seems to be unpopular with many Americans, he says, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be built.
Philanthropy, too, needs to be careful about caring too much about what’s popular or what the majority thinks, he says. Efforts to push private philanthropy away from being so “private,” by creating consensus measurements around societal needs, could be harmful, says Mr. Marker.
It might not seem very controversial to suggest that supporting soup kitchens is more important than supporting rich institutions such as Harvard University. But if not Harvard, says Mr. Marker, what about a community college or a charter school? He says there’s no easy way to draw a line.
Philanthropic fads shouldn’t dictate where money goes, either, he notes. And if philanthropy has to meet some external standard, then why not raise taxes and let politicians decide how to spend this money?
“History teaches us that xenophobia, or less dramatically, socially unpopular reasons, are not very good or responsible ways to set public policy,” Mr. Marker writes. “And in philanthropy, that is why we have private philanthropy—so that it can fund those things which some may perceive to be in the long-term public interest, even if not necessarily consistent with the short-term majority as reflected in opinion polls.”
What do you think? Do all charity leaders have some stake in the debate over the Islamic center project?
