After years of successful grant giving, one of the right’s premier grant-giving entities, the John M. Olin Foundation, is closing its doors. Whereas some foundations only pay out interest, Olin has been drawing down its principal for years. In this way, Olin avoided the risk that future generations might have a different funding philosophy.
A profile in today’s New York Times labels Olin “part Medici, part venture-capitalist,” and notes the foundation was instrumental in the launch of the Federalist Society, supported the growth of law and economics scholarship, and funded seminal work by the likes of Allan Bloom and Charles Murray.
While the Olin Foundation has achieved almost mythical status on the Left, it was never all that big a giver. Even at its height, Olin was never one of the biggest grantmakers, and didn’t make the Foundation Center’s list of the 100 biggest grantgivers. (Note: The F.W. Olin Foundation, listed at 25, is not related.) To this day, conservative and libertarian foundations give far less money to their pet causes than liberal foudnations such as Packard, Ford, Pew or MacArthur.
If the key to Olin’s success wasn’t out-spending its competitors, what was the trick? According to James Piereson, Olin was successful because it focused on funding ideas. Piereson explained his funding philosophy, in Commentary here. Of course, it also helps if some of the ideas are compelling in their own right.
[Disclosure: Several years ago I helped direct a small book project funded by the Olin Foundation.]
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