The Culture of Elite Philanthropy in the Reagan Years

This study was based on 140 interviews with wealthy philanthropic Americans. Evidence indicates that most of the giving of these multi-millionaires goes to institutions and programs that serve the interests of the upper class, not the needy. Private nonprofit universities, prep schools, and arts and cultural groups receive more support from elite philanthropists than social service or health causes. These findings are of concern due to the extreme concentration of private wealth in the United States and Reagan administration policies emphasizing private over government provision of basic human services. The philanthropy of the American upper class promotes the interests of the rich to a greater extent than it does those of the most needy. In the Reagan years, voluntary organizations supported and directed by wealthy philanthropists increasingly diverted decision making in the arts, culture, education, health, and welfare from public representatives to a private power elite. While many individuals from all classes have always been involved with charitable groups, most organizations are controlled by a few individuals. Furthermore, the vast majority of nonprofit agencies and programs do not primarily serve the needy. Less than one-third of charitable agencies focus on a poor clientele (Salamon, Musselwhite, and De Vita, 1986). Wealthy philanthropists are civic minded and sincere, yet I argue that the system that they help to maintain may actually reduce the extent to which basic human services are provided on a democratic basis. I have identified a nationwide &dquo;culture of philanthropy&dquo; by studying rich people and their charitable endeavors. Not all millionaires in the Note: This article is based in part on themes that are developed in the author’s forthcoming book, The Culture of Philanthropy, to be published next year b