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Tax-Exempt Foundations and Their Influence Within Society

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Tax-Exempt Foundations and Their Influence Within Society TAX-EXEMPT FOUNDATIONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE WITHIN SOCIETY by Ryan James Kapchinsky A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The College of Graduate Studies (Interdisciplinary Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) August 2010 © Ryan James Kapchinsky 2010 ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to outline the history and character of the prominent tax-exempt foundations in the United States, with a particular emphasis on their use by the Rockefeller family to expand both their economic power, and their political influence within society. Furthermore, the paper outlines the motivations for providing philanthropy, the benefits of having tax-exempt foundations, as well as their involvement within education and the funding of the media. This paper also examines the multiple connections between the foundations and certain policy-making institutions. The conclusion of this paper is that certain large tax-exempt foundations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Bertelsmann Foundation exercise significant political influence within society. Their vast ownership of multiple financial institutions, natural resource companies, media outlets, newspapers, and broadcasting companies has given them immense economic power. Moreover, the multifaceted roles played by the foundation trustees, who are often directors and chairmen of various private policy-making institutions has enabled the trustees of these foundations to exercise a great degree of political influence on the development of policy initiatives that are often implemented by the federal government. iii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ..............................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... vi Dedication ................................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... .....................1 1.1 Overview of the topic ...............................................................................................................1 1.2 Brief survey of academic literature that has examined this topic ........................................................1 1.3 Research and investigation of the foundations by non-academic sources .............................................5 1.4 Rationale for the research of this paper .........................................................................................6 1.5 Structure of the paper, and proceeding chapter summaries................................................................7 Chapter 2:Charity and philanthropy within the United States ............................................10 2.1 Philanthropy and social stratification .........................................................................................10 2.2 Using philanthropy for corporate branding and identity .................................................................13 2.3 Goals and motivations for providing charity, and philanthropy ........................................................14 2.4 The use of philanthropy and lobbying for political influence, and control of the market .......................21 2.5 Interaction and mutual dependency between government and business companies ..............................25 Chapter 3: The rise of the 'American Establishment' ...........................................................37 Chapter 4: The tax-exempt foundations .................................................................................43 4.1 Benefits of having foundations, and the history of their development and growth ...............................43 4.2 Current U.S. tax laws that allow tax-exempt status and the narrow limitations on lobbying…………...48 4.3 The taxation of unrelated business activites for all organizations and the Tax Reform Act of 1969 .........52 4.4 The use of Political Action Committees ......................................................................................54 4.5 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 588 U.S. (2010) ...................................................56 4.6 Foundations and wealthy families .............................................................................................57 4.7 Preliminary investigation of the foundations under the Cox Committee ............................................63 4.8 Probing the Rockefeller fortune ................................................................................................69 4.9 Conclusions of the report by Domhoff and Schwartz………………………………………………....76 Chapter 5: Further investigation of the tax-exempt foundations .........................................78 5.1 Ivestigation of the foundations by the Reece Committee ................................................................78 5.2 The attempts to rewrite history, modify education, and the funding of Eugenics .................................86 5.3 The control over the media ......................................................................................................90 5.4 Foundations and the funding of research for intelligence programs ................................................101 Chapter 6: The tax-exempt founddations and their influence within the government ....103 6.1 Foundations and the policy-making institutions .........................................................................103 6.2 The institutions ...................................................................................................................107 iv 6.3 High-level government positions held by foundation trustees, and their representation of big-business .110 6.4 The links between the foundation trustees and the board members of the policy-making institutions ....114 6.5 The powerful influence of the Rockefellers within the government. The "Carter incident" ..................118 Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusions ...............................................................................125 7.1 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................125 7.2 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................126 7.3 Recommendations ................................................................................................................130 7.4 Further Research ..................................................................................................................132 Endnotes...................................................................................................................................133 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................160 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 The growth of the foundations ......................................................................................................... 45 Figure 4.2 The foundations and their growth for each year .............................................................................. 46 Figure 4.3 The foundations and their accumulated increase ............................................................................. 47 Figure 4.4 The total contributions of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1918 ....................................................... 65 Figure 4.5 The contributions to medical education by the Rockefeller Foundation ......................................... 66 Figure 4.6 The total assets of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1929 ................................................................... 67 Figure 4.7 The Mobil Oil shares held within foundations created by the Rockefellers as of 1966……………68 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Piotr Wrzesniewski for the many interesting conversations we have had, and for his advice and assistance that has helped me throughout my Interdisciplinary Studies within the UBC Master’s Program. I also thank Roger Shiner for the many technical philosophical discussions we had in regards to Strict Liability and corporate responsibility, and for allowing me to be one of his research assistants. I thank Kenneth Carlaw for allowing me to present some of my controversial theories and research on cosmic rays, and solar activity within his Economics classes, and for encouraging students to, “think outside the programmed box.” I thank Adam Jones for his political science course on International Norms. I will never forget how fun that course was, and the time when Adam Jones gave all the students some chocolate- covered cookies from South America. I thank Barrie McCullough for his thorough teaching of the CONSTITUTIONAL LAW of Canada, which expanded my understanding to the complexities and overlap of both federal and provincial law. Most of all, I thank my parents for their endless encouragement to never quit. Last but not least, I thank all my lost
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