Good morning.
As a Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance has made no secret of his opposition to progressive foundations with large endowments, calling them “social justice hedge funds” and the Ford and Gates foundations in particular “cancers on American society.”
In 2023, he sponsored legislation to raise the tax on the net investment gains on the endowments of the wealthiest colleges from 1.4 percent to a whopping 35 percent, reports Alex Daniels. And he would like to increase annual foundation payouts from 5 percent of assets to 20 percent.
“We are actively subsidizing the people who are destroying this country, and they call it a charity,” Vance said on Fox News in 2021.
Now that he’s the GOP nominee for vice president, it’s unclear whether these issues will be raised on the campaign trail — or in the White House if former President Donald Trump wins. But if Trump were to retake the presidency and charitable endowments became an issue, Vance’s efforts to require higher payouts from foundations and tax endowments could help push policy related to philanthropy front and center in Washington.
“Every policymaker should consider the implications of restricting generosity and charitable giving vehicles,” Elizabeth McGuigan, a senior vice president at the conservative think tank Philanthropy Roundtable, said in a statement. “Any policy prescription aimed at charitable giving must use a scalpel and not a sledgehammer or we risk hurting millions of Americans who rely on charities.”
Vance’s views are a cause for concern for many in the nonprofit world. “There hasn’t been anyone at this height of American politics and policymaking who has thought as seriously about these things for more than half a century,” Michael Hartmann, senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, a conservative group that monitors philanthropy and political giving, told Alex. “Establishment philanthropy and its lobbyists should have at least a little concern now that he’s the vice presidential nominee.”
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