Stopping Juvenile Detention:

The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation The real legacy of the Washington Post By Kevin Mooney

Summary: For seven decades, a founda- tion created with money from the Washing- ton Post’s owners has been trying to help push America further to port. You have probably never heard of it, but it continues to exercise signifi cant infl uence in Ameri- ca’s capital city and beyond.

reated in 1944, the low-profi le Eu- gene and Agnes E. Meyer Founda- Ction may not be as large and prolifi c as the Tides Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, or the Ford Foundation, but it funds the same garden-variety left-leaning causes. While it rarely attracts media cover- age, the Meyer Foundation has been cutting a larger fi gure for itself in recent years. Based in the nation’s capital, it concentrates its ef- forts on “improving the lives of low-income people in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region.” Agnes Meyer wrote a six-part report in the Washington Post in 1945 that celebrated Saul Alinsky’s activism in the Chicago slums. So, just how infl uential is the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation? Its small size area real estate developer who founded the belies some high-level connections. Former Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund; Antoi- November 2013 board members include Attorney General nette Cook Bush, executive vice president of Eric Holder, who is making every effort to Fox News’ parent News Corp.; Ginger Lew, CONTENTS take down voter identifi cation laws across former member of President Obama’s White the country while refusing to investigate House National Economic Council (no rela- ACORN and its affi liated and successor tion to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew); fi nan- organizations. Meyer Foundation cier William Dunbar; Barbara J. Krumsiek, Page 1 CEO of Calvert Investments Inc.; James J. The Meyer Foundation’s board of directors is Sandman, president of Legal Services Corp., jam-packed with Washington power players. Philanthropy Notes the single largest funder of civil legal aid for Page 6 Among them are Joshua Bernstein, a D.C.- poor people in the U.S.; Barbara Lang, CEO FoundationWatch of the DC Chamber of Commerce; and Robert whose lawsuits have hurt America’s ability to The foundation’s mission statement is philan- G. Templin Jr., president, Northern Virginia defend itself from terrorist groups. Michael’s thropic boilerplate. According to its website, Community College. sister is PBS commentator turned Fox News the foundation’s mission is to identify and analyst Ellen Ratner. invest “in visionary leaders and effective The family of board member Deborah Ratner community-based nonprofi t organizations Salzberg is connected with some powerful Julie L. Rogers, the Meyer Foundation’s that are working to create lasting improve- Democrats, including President Obama. Rat- CEO for the past 27 years, intends to retire ments in the lives of low-income people in ner family members are big contributors to in June 2014. In mid-October 2013 the the Washington, DC metropolitan region, and the Democratic Party and the president. They foundation announced that its board’s search … strengthen the region’s nonprofi t sector operate Forest City Enterprises, a vast real and transition committee had chosen the as a vital and respected partner in meeting community needs.” estate company based in Cleveland, Ohio. McCormick Group to manage the search Deborah is the daughter of co-chairman for a successor. Radical Roots Albert Ratner. She runs Forest City’s Wash- The Meyer Foundation may behave like a ington, D.C. offi ce. Bruce Ratner, who is a Rogers is a pillar of the left-of-center phil- run-of-the-mill liberal philanthropy, but it has cousin to Albert Ratner, runs the company’s anthropic establishment. From 2002 to some radical roots and occasionally dabbles City subsidiary. 2008, she served on the board of the Council in radical causes. Co-benefactor Agnes E. on Foundations. She also served on the Meyer, the wife of former Washington Post Bruce Ratner bought off local opposition, boards of the Foundation Center, Venture publisher Eugene Meyer and great grand- Philanthropy Partners, and the Forum of including the New York branch of ACORN, mother to the current publisher, Katharine Regional Associations of Grantmakers. to make way for the Atlantic Yards Project in Weymouth, was attracted to the radicalism Her biography on the Meyer website boasts . The massive 22-acre residential of Saul Alinsky, the community organizing that she’s received a multitude of awards, and retail complex includes a stadium for guru and author of Rules for Radicals. including Washingtonian magazine’s “Power the basketball team. 100” and “Washingtonian of the Year.” She Lost in history, but available in archives was named one of Washington Business Another of Albert Ratner’s cousins, Michael of the Washington Post, is a six-part report Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business,” Ratner, is president emeritus of the radical written by Mrs. Meyer and published in and Washingtonian recognized her as one Center for Constitutional Rights, a Green- 1945 that celebrated Alinsky’s activism in of the “100 Most Powerful Women in the wich Village-based public interest law fi rm the Chicago slums. The series, entitled “The DC Region” and one of the “Top 45 Who Orderly Revolution,” is what initially gar- Shaped Washington.” Editor: Matthew Vadum nered national attention for Alinsky, enabling his so-called social justice message to reach Publisher: Terrence Scanlon Before joining the Meyer Foundation in Americans who might otherwise never have 1986, Rogers was staff director of the D.C. Foundation Watch heard of his work. President Harry Truman is published by Capital Research City Council’s human services committee. was so impressed by the policy ramifi cations Center, a non-partisan education and She also taught in the Montgomery County, laced throughout Mrs. Meyer’s report that research organization, classifi ed by Maryland public school system. the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. he ordered 100 reprints made. Address: The foundation that Rogers has run for so 1513 16th Street, N.W. Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer was the many years now has assets worth $183.5 Washington, DC 20036-1480 daughter of German immigrants. She was million, according to its most recent pub- born and raised in . One of Phone: (202) 483-6900 licly available IRS fi ling. It had net invest- Long-Distance: (800) 459-3950 the fi rst women reporters hired by the New ment income of $10.9 million in 2011 and York Sun, she had a long and infl uential E-mail Address: a budget of $8.6 million. It disbursed just career in journalism. In 1909, she married [email protected] under $6 million in the form of 222 grants to Eugene Meyer, a multimillionaire who held various causes in 2011. Foundation Search Web Site: several prestigious fi nancial positions in the http://www.capitalresearch.org ranks the Meyer Foundation 629th among U.S. federal government. U.S. foundations by assets. It garners 18th Organization Trends welcomes let- among foundations by assets in the District ters to the editor. Mr. Meyer served as chairman of the Fed- of Columbia. Reprints are available for $2.50 pre- eral Reserve Board from 1930 to 1933 and paid to Capital Research Center. was later named as the fi rst president of the 2 November 2013 FoundationWatch

World Bank. It was after the Herbert Hoover “Adopting Common Core national standards School choice proponents have good reason administration ended in 1933 that Meyer and tests surrenders control of the content to be concerned with the education program- purchased the Washington Post, providing his taught in local schools to distant national or- ming on the receiving end of support from the wife with a powerful journalistic platform. ganizations and bureaucrats in Washington. Meyer Foundation. Charter schools, which Her political views became decidedly more It is the antithesis of reform that would put are widely viewed as incubators of reform by progressive during the World War II era, ac- control of education in the hands of those Republican governors and free market think cording to the “Eleanor Roosevelt Papers” closest to the student: local school leaders tanks, are susceptible to federal infl uence via held by the George Washington University. and parents.” the Common Core. Meyer supported Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower in the 1956 election and Principled state leaders still have ample op- Last year, the Meyer Foundation granted switched from the Republican to Democratic portunity to unwind themselves from Com- $160,000 to the E.L. Haynes Public Char- Party in 1960. She was a persistent supporter mon Core obligations and restore educational ter School in Washington, D.C., so it could of the creation of a new federal Department freedom. Burke, for example, suggests that partner with the D.C. public school system of Health, Education, and Welfare. President governors and state lawmakers withhold any to develop “competency based pathways to Lyndon Johnson once said she had more funding that would be used to bring state high school graduation” over two years. Not infl uence on his education policies than any curricula into line with federal dictates. only is the project “creating a new pathway,” other single individual. Meanwhile, the Meyer Foundation is mak- but it is also “being done in such a way that’s ing every effort to ensure that the Common aligned with the Common Core,” Lane has Her federal-centric infl uence continues in the Core becomes fi rmly entrenched within the noted. work of her namesake foundation. As the next few months. Potential grantees know 2013-2014 school year was about to begin, that funding could be withheld unless they The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Founda- Carmen James Lane, a senior program offi cer submit to federal control. tion has also given money to Teach for for the Meyer Foundation, made it clear in America—$40,000 in 2011—the best-known public statements that grant money would “The Common Core informs the questions alternative recruiting organization for aspir- be used to help expand federal control over I ask,” explained Lane, the Meyer senior ing teachers. Groups like Teach for America local educational programming. This will program offi cer, in an interview with Grant- are shaking things up by reforming public be done by supporting the Common Core makers for Education. “It’s changing the schools incrementally and from the inside. State Standards Initiative, which sets national conversation.” Here’s a list of questions They are making inroads for future reform- standards for English and math. Lane asks when she receives education grant ers to build on. While small in staff size applications: and budget, they create opportunities for Using “Race to the Top” grants from the entrepreneurs to change the system. Teach Department of Education for leverage, the *How does the proposal integrate with or for America puts “shock troops on the front Obama administration has successfully in- reinforce existing efforts in schools to imple- lines in the education reform battle, offering duced 46 states into accepting the Common ment the Common Core? Does it take into a new way to bring a different kind of teacher Core. Under this arrangement, Washington, account existing timelines and milestones in into the classroom,” wrote Phil Brand in the D.C. bureaucrats will be well positioned to schools’ implementation plans? February 2008 Organization Trends. dictate school curriculum, warns education policy analyst Lindsey Burke in a recent *Is there compelling evidence that the project The 501(c)(3) nonprofi t was founded more study. strategically addresses a real, high priority than two decades ago by Wendy Kopp, then gap in Common Core implementation? a senior at Princeton, to create a new corps of “The constitutional authority for education teachers who would become future education rests with states and localities, and ultimately *How is the grantee ensuring that activities leaders. “Kopp has since guided more than with parents—not the federal government,” are tightly aligned with Common Core ex- 17,000 college graduates through the TFA Burke explains. “The federal government pectations and meet a high bar for quality? program, which selects top graduates from has crossed this line in the past, but dictating diverse backgrounds and majors (only 2% curriculum content is a major new breach that *Does the proposal include strong leadership major in education),” Brand observed. It represents a critical level of centralization and and buy-in from state or district leaders, “gives them an intensive fi ve-week summer a major setback for parental rights.” school principals, or teachers? training course, and then uses state-approved alternative certifi cation programs to train Burke adds: Not too much wiggle room there to sidestep them while they teach in poor and minority the Common Core. urban and rural school districts.” November 2013 3 FoundationWatch

The Meyer Foundation also provided initial, and advocacy groups and coalitions that worker centers was recently doused with critical support to the Community Develop- propose and advocate for policies aimed at gasoline during its opening week.” Immi- ment Support Collaborative (CDSC) in part- reducing poverty and strengthening the safety grants are subjected to intense mistreatment, nership with the Fannie Mae Foundation. The net in the region. Key issue areas include Torres claims. “It is really hard to see the CDSC grew out of the Washington Regional creating and preserving affordable housing, way some people treat my community,” he Association of Grantmakers, which was set ensuring access to high-quality health care, says. “It breaks my heart.” up to help improve the quality of life in the securing home rule and voting rights for the D.C. area. The CDSC was closed in 2011. District of Columbia, and improving access Torres is described as a “former journalist” “For 18 years, the CDSC brought together to public benefi ts (such as TANF [Tempo- and “a fearless activist” who started out “as key players in the District’s foundation and rary Assistance for Needy Families], food a student and union leader in his native Co- banking communities and made us true part- stamps, unemployment insurance, disability lombia.” His CASA organization’s 2008 May ners in strengthening low income neighbor- benefi ts, and the EITC [Earned Income Tax Day of Action for Immigrant Rights included hoods and the non-profi ts that serve them,” Credit].)” the Communist Party USA among its offi cial Julie Rogers, the foundation’s outgoing participants, and he has ties to other radical president, has said. “The CDSC’s long life As Congress wrestles with “comprehensive groups such as the FMLN in El Salvador. is a testament to the power and effectiveness immigration reform,” Meyer is doing its part CASA has been funded by George Soros and of collaboration.” to fund advocacy groups that provide new the deceased Venezuelan strongman Hugo arrivals from Latin America with support Chavez. (For more on Torres and CASA, see While Meyer has understandably backed services. The $20,000 grant awarded to the the Sept. 2012 Organization Trends.) away from advertising its relationship with Legal Aid Justice Center in 2013 will be used Fannie, it remains open and receptive to col- “to support the Immigrant Advocacy Program The current U.S. Secretary of Labor, Thomas laborative efforts aimed at expanding social in Northern Virginia.” The organization’s Perez, previously served on the board of welfare programs in 2013. “Immigration Advocacy Program,” which CASA. Perez, a leftist lawyer known for operates out of offi ces in Charlottesville his in-your-face tactics, was also an assistant Meyer Grants Fuel Liberal Activism and Northern Virginia, has secured over $2 attorney general at the Department of Justice In May, the foundation’s board of direc- million in wages for “migrant farmworkers, and a top aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy tors approved 76 grants totaling more than day laborers, and other low-wage immigrant (D-Mass.). At the Justice Department, Perez $2.8 million and focusing on four areas of workers that were earned but never paid,” the led the Obama Administration’s assault on interest; namely, Education, Healthy Com- Center claims in its literature. The group’s voter ID laws. As a member of the Mont- munities, Economic Security, and a Strong attorneys also make every effort to keep their gomery County, Maryland Council in 2003 Nonprofi t Sector. Meyer has a particular clients involved in public policy debates that he tried to force governments to accept fraud- interest in supporting “Multi-issue research affect immigration policy. prone matricula consular ID cards issued by Mexican consular offi ces. The Legal Aid Justice Center has received $20,000 from Meyer every year since 2009. Maryland has 98,000 immigrants who are Please consider gifting With elites in both major parties pushing legal and eligible for citizenship, according appreciated stock to the for some form of amnesty for illegal aliens, to CASA. Since 2008, the group has received Capital Research Center. Meyer knows how to drum up sympathy for $185,000 from the Meyer Foundation. new arrivals from Latin America. That’s why You will receive a full the activities of CASA de Maryland, another Local Issues with National deduction for the stock’s grant recipient, are heavily publicized and Ramifications value, and you won’t have promoted by the foundation. Here’s a snippet Since the foundation remains focused on the to pay taxes on the capital from a section of the website that highlights capital city, some of the causes it supports gains. grantee stories: seem limited and parochial in scope. But that’s only true on the surface. In reality, “For Gustavo Torres, the anti-immigrant the grant money is attached to policy pro- To learn more, please contact fervor that’s taken hold in the United States posals that could have signifi cant national development director cuts him like a knife. In Maryland, where implications. Gordon Cummings he serves as executive director of CASA de at (202) 483-6900. Maryland, the largest Latino and immigrant Anyone who supports statehood for Wash- organization in the state, one of CASA’s day ington, D.C., for instance, can thank Meyer 4 November 2013 FoundationWatch for keeping the effort afl oat with generous from Meyer since 2007. (For more on PEC, to cook ($220,000 since 2000); Computer contributions to the DC Appleseed Center for see Cheryl K. Chumley’s profi le of the group CORE, which gives young people computer Law and Justice. Since 2008, the foundation in Organization Trends, April 2007.) skills and teaches English-as-a-second-lan- has donated $290,000 to the organization, guage ($196,000 since 2003); and Jubilee including $45,000 this year. Most conserva- The original idea behind the easement regime Housing, a nonprofi t that provides low-cost tives are cool to the idea of making the Dis- was to allow fi nancially stressed landowners housing and support services to the poor in trict of Columbia the 51st state because D.C. to receive tax breaks in exchange for entering Washington’s Adams Morgan neighborhood residents are the most reliable Democratic into a conservation agreement that would ($480,000 since 1999). constituency in America. President Obama lock away parts of their land from future received 91 percent of the vote in the District development. Critics charge that what began Conclusion in 2012, down from 93 percent in 2008. In as a benign program has been converted into Although the Meyer Foundation funds 2004 John Kerry garnered 89 percent. government land grab schemes, with groups many plain-vanilla nonprofi ts and lacks the like PEC leading the charge. monetary heft of a Ford Foundation, its deep Walter Smith, the DC Appleseed executive roots in radicalism and its infl uence in the director, co-authored a Washington Post PEC board members include Margaret nation’s capital make it a signifi cant player op-ed with Paul Strauss, the D.C. shadow “Peggy” Richardson, who served as the in left-wing philanthropy. It deserves more senator, criticizing the D.C. City Council IRS Commissioner under President Bill attention than it has received so far. for delaying a referendum that could convert Clinton. After a Virginia farmer named the attorney general position into an elected Martha Boneta received an IRS audit in the Kevin Mooney is a national investigative position; this would be a huge step forward mail that followed on the heels of a dispute reporter based in Washington, D.C., who for the proponents of statehood. between her and PEC over the terms of her writes for the Daily Caller, the American easement, suspicion fell on Richardson. In Spectator, and TheBlaze. DC Appleseed is also a strong proponent of media interviews, the Clinton-era offi cial gun control legislation. Even in the aftermath denied any involvement with the audit. FW of the landmark 2007 Supreme Court ruling which affi rmed that the Second Amendment Not All Its Giving Is Political guarantees an individual right to bear arms The Meyer Foundation funds a lot of pro- (Heller v. District of Columbia), the group grams that aren’t aimed advancing the goals has made it clear it will fi ght tooth-and-nail of the Left. For example, the foundation to preserve the District’s continuing restric- has given $283,000 in grants since 2003 tions on gun ownership. to Martha’s Table. This Washington, D.C. soup kitchen is the nonprofi t that President Meyer has donated $260,000 to D.C. Obama volunteered at in a widely covered Vote, which describes itself as “dedicated photo opportunity on Oct. 14, during the to securing full voting representation in recent government shutdown. Congress and full democracy for the more than half a million residents of the District Meyer has also donated $715,000 since 2001 of Columbia.” to World Arts Focus in Mt. Rainier, Md. The nonprofi t runs Joe’s Movement Emporium, a Since 2008, the foundation has directed 20,000 square foot community center. The $55,000 to the Virginia Interfaith Center for foundation has provided $245,000 since Please consider contributing to the Capital Public Policy, which regards the implementa- 2002 to the Alexandria Seaport Foundation Research Center. tion of Obamacare as a major priority. in Virginia. That group takes troubled young We need your help in the current diffi cult men ages 17 to 21 and points them in a new economic climate to continue our important The Meyer Foundation also funds what direction by giving them apprenticeships. research. is arguably the most politically powerful It also provides on-site academic classes in Your contribution to advance our watchdog special interest group in Virginia, the Pied- GED preparation. work is deeply appreciated. mont Environmental Council (PEC), which Many thanks. maintains control of conservation easements Other local, Washington, D.C., organizations throughout the state. The nonprofi t, based in to benefi t from Meyer Foundation grants are Terrence Scanlon President Warrenton, Virginia, has taken in $132,000 Brainfood, which teaches area students how November 2013 5 FoundationWatch PhilanthropyNotes Despite the rotten economy, many private foundations are bouncing back fi nancially. Overall, foundations experienced a 12 percent gain in their endowments last year, the Wall Street Journal reports. A study by the Council on Foundations and the Commonfund Institute examined the fi nances of 140 private foundations with a total of $78.7 billion in assets. The 12 percent jump compared favorably to a decline of 0.7 percent in 2011.

A separate WSJ article notes that fi ve years after a major fi nancial crisis rocked Wall Street, major fi gures as- sociated with the dramatic downturn are opening up their wallets for charity. Former Countrywide Financial Corp. CEO Angelo Mozilo’s foundation gave $2 million for a pediatric intensive-care unit in Tarzana, Calif. Former Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis donated $100,000 to a group that runs a foster-care home in Charlotte, N.C. There is no such thing as dirty money, according to Sean Dobson of the National Commit- tee for Responsive Philanthropy. “As the leader of a nonprofi t, you’re typically hard-pressed for resources,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to turn down money.”

The National Organization for Marriage is suing the IRS in federal court seeking damages over the illegal re- lease of its donor list from the confi dential part of its 2008 IRS fi ling. The list went to the group’s arch-enemies at Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which harassed the donors. HRC’s president, Joseph Solmonese, was then a national co-chairman for President Obama’s re-election campaign. “This is a federal crime,” says NOM president Brian Brown. One of NOM’s lawyers is Cleta Mitchell, of counsel to ActRight Legal Foundation.

While President Obama’s politicized IRS was busy harassing conservative groups, it was also advising black nonprofi ts on how far they could legally go in campaigning for Obama and other Democratic candidates, writes Hoover Institution media fellow Paul E. Sperry in Investor’s Business Daily. In 2012 the IRS “audited big GOP donors and blocked Tea Party groups trying to obtain tax-exempt status as part of what House investi- gators suspect was an effort to re-elect the president,” he says. At the same time top administration offi cials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, “met in Washington with several dozen prominent black church minis- ters representing millions of voters to brief them on how to get their fl ocks out to vote.” The “summit” to mo- bilize religious African-Americans voters was hosted by the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus in May 2012.

A former employee is suing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, claiming she was wrongfully terminated because she refused to alter the results of her investigation into mega-bank Goldman Sachs. Carmen Segarra’s federal lawsuit says the New York Fed pressured her to modify her report about Goldman’s legal and compliance divisions. She says she refused in May 2012, and was then unceremoniously canned a few days later. “Segarra’s fi nding led the New York Fed’s Legal and Compliance risk team to approve down- grading Goldman’s annual rating pertaining to policies and procedures, the lawsuit said,” according to a news report.

6 November 2013