Attached and Interested

Review of For-Profit Philanthropy: Elite Power and the Threat of Limited Liability Companies, Donor-Advised Funds, and Strategic Corporate Giving. By Dana Brackman Reiser & Steven A. Dean. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.

"We're not here to help the less fortunate; we're here to bask in our fortunateness. If we really wanted to make a difference, we'd do the one thing we've spent our lives avoiding—paying our taxes."

In the recent, perhaps romanticized past, it seemed easier to separate those seeking to do good—charitable organizations and their individual, altruistic donors—from those seeking to do well—for-profit businesses and their return-minded investors. The lines between these two essential sectors have become blurred. Wealthy individuals are now conducting substantial charitable activities through for-profit entities, like limited liability companies ("LLCs"), rather than nonprofit corporations or trusts. The rise of commercially-sponsored Donor Advised Funds ("DAFs") has allowed donors to take tax deductions for funds that they continue to control and that charities may not use in their operations for many years. And businesses appear to be more strategic in donating to charity as they increasingly focus on areas like corporate social responsibility ("CSR") and assess performance on environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") metrics. These modern practices have the potential to create win-win scenarios for for-profit and charitable organizations and those they serve. But as the traditional for-profit/nonprofit barriers fall, these practices may undermine trust in our system of elite-led philanthropy.