Too Close for Comfort? Obama and the Foundations

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Too Close for Comfort? Obama and the Foundations

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.
Hudson Institute - Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center
1015 15th Street, NW - Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005

Event Description  

"It is nice to be able to say that you look forward to working with your own government to make the world a better place – independent of it, surely; at times critical of it – but feeling you have a partner, not an adversary. Maybe demonstration projects we fund in philanthropy that actually demonstrate something will no longer be like the proverbial trees that fall in the forest with no one to hear them." So spoke Atlantic Philanthropies president GARA LAMARCHE shortly after President Obama was sworn in, capturing a widespread feeling that the new administration was opening itself in unprecedented ways to partnership and collaboration with philanthropy, and was prepared at last to "scale up" - with federal dollars - innovative foundation approaches to problems in education, welfare, and health. But as Mr. LaMarche’s statement suggests, we look to philanthropy for more than close partnerships with government. We also expect it occasionally to be a critic and adversary. How is that tension likely to play out in the context of the Obama administration? In the first flush of enthusiasm for a closer foundation/government relationship, is there a danger that the two can become too close for comfort? 

On Tuesday, February 23, Hudson Institute's Bradley Center hosted Mr. LAMARCHE as well as CHESTER FINN of the Thomas Fordham Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust's TERRY MAZANY, and LEWIS FELDSTEIN of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to address these and other questions. Bradley Center Director WILLIAM SCHAMBRA moderated the discussion.

Program and Panel

12:00 p.m.
Welcome by Hudson Institute's WILLIAM SCHAMBRA

12:10
Panel discussion

GARA LAMARCHE, Atlantic Philanthropies
TERRY MAZANY, Chicago Community Trust
LEWIS FELDSTEIN, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation

CHESTER FINN, Thomas Fordham Foundation

1:10
Question-and-answer session 

2:00
Adjournment 

Transcript and Further Information

The event transcript was prepared from an audio recording and edited by Krista Shaffer. To request further information on this event or the Bradley Center, please contact Kristen at (202) 974-2424 or kmcintyre@hudson.org.