The first-ever White House conference on philanthropy lasted just three hours, but President and Mrs. Clinton, as well as many non-profit officials, hope to insure that the event has longer-lasting effects.
At the conference in the White House’s East Room, the President vowed to ask federal officials to consider “whether we can do more things to generate a more constructive philanthropy.”
But he also urged donors, especially those who have made fortunes from high-technology businesses, to “find ways to bring enterprise and opportunity to hard-working, decent people who live in places that have been totally passed by by this marvelous economic recovery.”
Both he and Mrs. Clinton said they were concerned that philanthropic giving had not been increasing much as a percentage of household income, hovering at around 2 per cent for the past 30 years.
“I am glad that the sheer volume of charitable giving is going off the charts,” said Mr. Clinton. But “I would feel even better if the percentage of our national income devoted to charitable giving had gone up just a little bit.”
Added Hillary Rodham Clinton: “Just imagine what revolutionary progress we could bring to America, how many lives we could change, if every American family increased their giving by just 1 per cent of their income.
“We could offer child care to more than six million children, we could deliver 250 million more meals to the homebound elderly, we could guarantee Head Start to every low-income preschooler in America,” she said. “We could provide shelter to four million people. We could save all the rare books in our libraries -- and still have more than enough money left over to create the equivalent of the Ford Foundation each year.”
In addition to prompting Americans to give more, the Clintons also encouraged better use of donated funds.
The First Lady, for example, called on foundations to “rethink” their reluctance to give to charities money that is not earmarked for a specific project. “Foundations often will not give to operating expenses or to the kind of day-to-day work of delivering services,” she said. But “much of the work that has to be done is drudge work. It is rebuilding communities with that kind of constant attention and technical assistance. It’s not very jazzy and doesn’t attract new attention, but if done over the long run” it can result in major changes in society, she said.
Plans are already under way for a follow-up meeting on the West Coast sometime in the spring. While private groups have been laying the groundwork for such a meeting, organizers expected the White House to participate.
And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, has pledged to help pay for a gathering on youth philanthropy, although it has not said how much it would provide or when a meeting would be held.
Leading the federal government’s follow-up will be a new federal committee appointed by President Clinton. He said his Interagency Task Force on Nonprofits and Government would be charged with strengthening the “philanthropic partnership between the government and non-profit groups and citizens.”
At least in theory, the committee will have a high profile. It will be chaired by top aides to the President and First Lady and include a dozen high-ranking Administration officials.
Mr. Clinton said that the special committee, which will consult regularly with non-profit officials, will report back to him “from time to time” on its findings and suggestions for policy changes.
Mr. Clinton told the conference that he would ask his Council of Economic Advisers to study the role of philanthropy in the American economy -- “and how they believe I can increase it.” He said the council would analyze trends in charitable giving, such as assessing what would happen to philanthropy in the coming years as the baby-boom generation reaches retirement age.
Mr. Clinton said he believes that most people now agree that government and charities have to work more closely together and that neither type of organization can bear the full weight of delivering social services. “We have to have a better partnership, and it will work better if we do,” he said.
In a related move, Mr. Clinton announced that he had directed officials of the Treasury Department to meet with representatives of non-profit organizations this month to discuss federal tax policy and research issues.
While the President did not elaborate on what changes might be considered, charity leaders have many ideas for what they believe should be discussed.
Some hope that the Administration will think about reviving two provisions recently considered by Congress. One would allow older people to shift assets from individual retirement accounts to charity without incurring income taxes. The other would allow people who don’t itemize on their federal income-tax forms to take a charitable deduction for gifts of up to $100 per family.
Arianna Huffington, a political commentator who has been involved in many efforts to promote charitable giving, hopes that the Treasury Department meeting will focus on ways to use the tax code to encourage a “hierarchy of giving.” She thinks the government should offer donors a more-generous tax break for gifts to antipoverty groups than the deductions they can claim for gifts to groups that help people at all income levels.
“If we’re going to close the gap in America between the two nations,” she said, referring to the growing disparity between rich people and poor people, “then we really need to draw a distinction in what kind of giving we use the bully pulpit and the tax code to encourage.”
Some conference participants, however, worried that the meeting focused too much on the way that philanthropy serves the nation’s most vulnerable. One observer who asked not to be named questioned the lack of attention the conference paid to arts organizations, such as symphonies and museums. “I’m concerned that philanthropy got painted as something we do for the down and out,” he said, “when it’s also important for raising the human spirit.”
The afternoon event -- called the White House Conference on Philanthropy: Gifts to the Future -- was moderated by Mrs. Clinton and co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. About 150 donors, charity executives, and others attended, while thousands more watched part of the conference via satellite at sites around the country.
Mrs. Clinton said that she and the President planned the event to try to “magnify and spur the philanthropic spirit of all our citizens in the new millennium.”
To help illustrate the conference’s themes, the White House showed a videotape of “heroes” who have given their time or money to help a cause.
The conference highlighted several new efforts aimed at increasing giving. For example, the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, in Colorado, has created a Millennium Trust to accept contributions from residents who will be urged to donate their last hour’s pay of the year. Mrs. Clinton and other conference participants praised the idea as one that should be copied across the country to encourage people at all income levels to mark the millennium with a charitable gift.
Starting next year, the Girl Scouts of the USA will allow its members to work toward a philanthropy patch called “Sharing our Strength.” The goal of the patch is to encourage girls to learn how to donate and volunteer.
The Clintons and conference participants agreed that other efforts needed to be made to pass on the traditions of giving to future generations.
The First Lady said that “philanthropy must be taught,” adding: “Let us find innovative ways to cultivate the innately generous spirit of our young people. New communities of donors must be asked to participate. We have to find ways to embrace and encourage philanthropists of all races, ethnicities, and colors.”
At a meeting the morning before the White House conference, the Corporation for National Service invited 30 representatives of youth organizations in Washington to recommend ideas for encouraging people ages 14 to 24 to get involved in philanthropy. Among the suggestions presented to the Clintons at the White House conference: Create a Cabinet-level position that oversees programs for young people; establish a U.S. Senate committee on youth service; and make community service a part of every youngster’s education.
President Clinton himself made a strong pitch for schools to impose community-service requirements. “As you go back home, please ask the people in your state to add community service to the curriculum of the public schools,” he said, noting that Maryland is currently the only state to require community service before students can get a high-school diploma. “It is the right thing to do,” he said.
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The South Carolina Educational Television Network, which produced the satellite broadcast and computer cybercast of the conference with $276,800 from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, has a limited number of free videotapes available; call (800) 277-0829. The event may be viewed via computer by following the instructions on the conference’s Web site at http://www.giftstothefuture.gov.