Former Editor Continues Pursuit of Excellence – in Philanthropy

As an editor of The Wall Street Journal, Adam Meyerson was dedicated

to telling company managers how they could succeed in business.

Today, Mr. Meyerson, 48, is a manager himself as the newly appointed president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, a national association of almost 700 grant makers located in Washington. While the focus of his attention has changed — from the commercial to the nonprofit field — the goal remains the same: to discover well-managed programs and help organizations reproduce them.

As a first step, Mr. Meyerson plans to help the Philanthropy Roundtable’s members, which consist of individual donors, foundation staff members, employees of corporate-giving programs, and trust and estate officers, grapple with the problems caused by terrorism. That will be one of the topics addressed at his organization’s annual conference, to be held in New Orleans, November 1 to 3.

Mr. Meyerson also hopes to help members provide support for a cause that is close to his heart: education. Before joining the Roundtable, Mr. Meyerson worked as the Heritage Foundation’s vice president for educational affairs, starting the think tank’s “No Excuses” campaign, which publicized the achievements of schools that produced high academic performance by students who lived in poor neighborhoods.

Mr. Meyerson is replacing John P. Walters, whom President Bush nominated to be director of national drug-control policy. Mr. Walters oversaw a 75-percent increase in membership at the philanthropic network, which was started by free-market proponents as an alternative to the Council on Foundations during the late 1970s. Under Mr. Walters’s leadership, the organization attracted many donors of a wide array of political persuasions, and Mr. Meyerson says he wants to continue that inclusiveness, though he does plan to maintain the group’s conservative values. But more important than politics, says Mr. Meyerson, is finding the private programs that are improving people’s lives, and making sure grant makers know about them. Soon after Mr. Meyerson’s appointment was announced, he talked to The Chronicle about his new position. Following are excerpts of the conversation.

How will you educate donors who want to help in the war effort?

The extraordinary outpouring of generosity to the victims and their families [of the terrorist attacks] represents America at its best. But as wonderful as victim relief is, that’s not all that donors should be focusing on in the war on terrorism. It’s also important to think through strategically how to use contributions to make sure those dastardly attacks never happen again. That means funding of national-security research, building the institutions where scholars interested in national security can trade ideas and research, and contributions to public health and other kinds of emergency preparedness in the case of terrorist attacks. There’s also a very important role for donors in helping support freedom-loving organizations in the Islamic world.

What are the biggest challenges facing philanthropy today?

The landscape of philanthropy is going to be transformed over the next decade by the infusion of new money from the new entrepreneurs. One of the most important questions is how philanthropy will be changed by these new donors with new agendas, many of them thinking about their philanthropy in very entrepreneurial ways.

A second issue that’s on the minds of all serious philanthropists is evaluation. How do we evaluate the effectiveness of our giving? And how do we create the accounting systems for social services that can distinguish between effective programs and ineffective programs?

A third issue is can philanthropy correct some of its errors of the past generation and provide more opportunity for racial minorities and low-income families than it currently is doing? We’re beginning to see some progress. There are extraordinary opportunities in philanthropy over the next decade. If philanthropy is done intelligently it can find solutions for some of our most tragic cultural crises. One crisis is the failure of most public schools to provide a good education to low-income children. That’s an area where intelligent donors can probably do more than policy makers in Washington. Another area in which intelligent donors can probably do more than policy makers is restoring the most nurturing safety net any child can have, and that’s a mom and dad united in loving marriage. Unless the family can be put together again, there are limits to what either philanthropy or government can do to provide genuine opportunity for children.

What part of your new job appeals to you most?

I’ve devoted my lifetime to the study of excellence. When I was at The Wall Street Journal, I was interested in studying excellent companies, and I was strongly influenced by the book In Search of Excellence. I’ve taken that approach to schools, trying to study schools serving low-income children where academic achievement is the rule rather than the exception, and to study those schools, to celebrate them, and to figure out how to replicate them. So what I’m really looking forward to most is the opportunity to study and celebrate excellence in philanthropy and spread the good news about what really works. I want to capture the imagination of donors and prospective donors [and show them] that they can really make a difference in solving our country’s greatest problems if they think strategically and entrepreneurially about their contributions.

What will you take from your experience as a journalist in your new position?

Aristotle said you can demonstrate what is possible by studying the actual. Journalism does this every day. The stories give models of how to be effective. I learned not only as a journalist but as a student at Harvard Business School that you learn effective management by studying the people who are best at it. That’s what we want to do here. We’ll be telling a lot of stories of what’s really working and how to replicate that.

How would you describe your management style?

I hire the very best people I can and help them bring out their talents. I want everyone that works for me to believe this is the best job they could possibly have and to do the very best work they possibly can. In the case of our associates, my goal will be to get to know each of them personally, to learn what their greatest strengths are, to celebrate and communicate their achievements to others, and to encourage each of them to think through how they can make the greatest difference in solving the most serious problems of our country.

ABOUT ADAM MEYERSON, PRESIDENT OF PHILANTHROPY ROUNDTABLE

EDUCATION: Earned a B.A. in history with a focus on Western civilization and graduated summa cum laude from Yale University in 1974. He attended Harvard Business School and has completed all the requirements to receive a doctorate in international business except for his dissertation.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT: Mr. Meyerson has worked as the managing editor of The American Spectator, an editor and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal, and vice president of educational affairs for the Heritage Foundation, where he was editor-in-chief of the organization’s Policy Review Magazine.

CHARITABLE INTERESTS: Mr. Meyerson donates money to his synagogue, and has helped raise money for educational programs in Washington, such as the Fishing School, an after-school program for poor children.

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE: His first volunteer experience was teaching English to Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. Today he volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America and other activities with his children. He also serves on the boards of the Political Economy Research Center, a think tank in Montana that advocates free-market solutions to environmental problems, and the American Institute for Public Service, a nonprofit group in Delaware that gives public-service awards to Americans.