Spawn of Soros Funding a New Generation of Think Tanks By Robert Huberty

L ast August the Washington Post re- Clinton called the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” ported that 80 wealthy liberals were each Later in October in Atlanta, a core group of pledging $1 million or more over a five-year the donors also agreed to each raise an period to fund a network of liberal think tanks additional $250,000 from 1000 individuals and advocacy groups. The partnership was over the next five years to fund the new called the Democracy Alliance, and it was the cause. outgrowth of an earlier April meeting of 70 The donors group reportedly has started wealthy donors in Scottsdale, Arizona, who writing checks to two existing groups: David gathered to do some serious soul-searching Brock’s Media Matters for America, the about the meaning of the Bush reelection and watchdog group “correcting conservative Summary: You can’t keep a rich man the future of progressive politics. According misinformation in the U.S. media,” and the down. George Soros, the man who spent to The Hill newspaper, George Soros delivered Center for American Progress (CAP), the almost $24 million to defeat George W. the main talk in Scottsdale. He urged the partici- think tank run by former Clinton chief of staff Bush in 2004, is planning a comeback for pants to stop obsessing about political candi- John Podesta. Both groups received earlier “progressive politics” (the new untainted dates and the next election and focus instead seed funding from Soros—if you can call $3 term for liberalism). He thinks he’s found on building institutions to recapture the Ameri- million to CAP “seed.” A third group, America just the vehicle to drive the progressive can mind for progressive ideas. This would Votes—a soft-money 527 group used to agenda onward—think tanks funded by require lots more left-wing market-savvy policy mobilize the liberal base in 2004—got a $6 mega-rich leftists. Too bad Soros’s big and advocacy groups. By funding these groups million commitment. plans require organization and content. Soros argued that donors could foil what Hillary Continued on page 2 Audience Participation The Activism of Jeffrey Skoll’s Participant Productions By Joseph de Feo Imagery on the Participant Productions Summary: Audiences want to watch the hundreds of films, some amusing, oth- website leaves little doubt about its aims. movies that entertain. Filmmakers want to ers earnest and self-righteous, a few even create cinema that raises serious social entertaining, that the studios have churned March 2006 and political issues. Studios want to make out over the decades. It should come as no money. Has Jeff Skoll found a new surprise that in a time of great political CONTENTS nonprofit formula to square this circle? tension Hollywood is creating a new genera- Spawn of Soros Brokeback Moun- tion of “serious” films: Page 1 tain, The Constant Gardener, Crash, Good H ollywood has always produced so- Night and Good Luck, Munich, North Coun- Audience Participation cially-conscious movies: Mr. Smith Goes to try, and Syriana are among the Oscar-wor- Page 1 Washington (1939), Guess Who’s Coming to thy contenders produced by the U.S. film Dinner (1967), All the President’s Men(1976), industry this year. Philanthropy Notes and The China Syndrome (1979) are among Continued on page 5 Page 8 FoundationWatch

Beyond that, however, the rich liberals reaction to the Bush reelection. In 2004 politi- MoveOn and the other left-leaning 527s en- have little to show for their efforts. Accord- cal operatives from the AFL-CIO, SEIU, Sierra ergized and brought to the polls millions of ing to National Journal’s “Hotline” blog Club, and the pro-choice Emily’s List sold him anti-Bush voters who would have voted (Dec. 7, Jan. 12), donors are growing restive on the idea that non-party political groups against the President anyway. The 527s ut- at the lack of progress. Rob Stein, the De- could energize voters to defeat George Bush. terly failed to influence millions of other vot- mocracy Alliance mastermind, is reputedly Soros gave almost $24 million to America ers in the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas who a poor manager and has stepped down as Coming Together, MoveOn.org and other so- preferred Bush to John Kerry. While it’s executive director. His replacement, Judy called “527” political groups specifically set unclear what role left-wing 527s will play in Wade, a partner at the San Francisco con- up to defeat the President. Soros’s friend, 2006, it’s certain that ACT won’t get Soros’s sulting firm McKinsey & Company, has no Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, help. The capricious and frustrated billionaire prior political experience. A want ad seeking gave $23 million, Hollywood producer Stephen has zeroed out his funding, forcing ACT to job candidates for a Democracy Alliance Bing gave almost $14 million, and the Califor- shut down most of its operations and lay off “Strategy and Investment Principal” ap- nia S&L tycoons Herb and Marion Sandler, staff. peared in the December 5 Chronicle of also Soros friends, gave $13 million. (See Higher Education. The job seeks someone Foundation Watch, February and March 2004 experienced with an “organizational turn- on Soros, June 2005 on Lewis). Soros’s new cause is to around initiative.” That doesn’t sound prom- In 2004 wealthy individual donors gave ising. Meanwhile, America Votes has an- extraordinary amounts of money to 527 spur the creation of a nounced that its well-regarded leader, Cecile groups—and most of it went toward defeat- Richards, daughter of former Texas gover- ing President Bush. A study from the Cam- network of nonprofits, nor Ann Richards, is jumping ship to head paign Finance Institute names 113 wealthy think tanks, media out- up Planned Parenthood. persons who gave at least $250,000 to conser- What new groups will the Democracy vative and liberal 527 groups in 2004. In 2000 lets, and leadership Alliance fund and how much will they get? and 2002—before the McCain-Feingold law There’s the mystery; we still don’t know. banning large contributions to political par- schools—a Vast Left- The Alliance promises a website but has yet ties took effect—these same people had given to produce one. To date no new grants have a total of about $50 million in “soft money” to Wing Conspiracy—to been announced. Apparently big money is political parties. Their party contributions battle the idea mer- in the drawer, but no one is handing it out. skewed Democratic by a 3-to-1 margin. In 2004 they gave four times as much money—$207 chants of the Right Free-Spending Yesterdays million—to 527 groups. This amounted to 81 George Soros’s decision to fund long- percent of the $256 million in $5000+ contribu- term infrastructure building is in part a bitter tions collected by the 527s. Apparently cam- Pulling Out All the Stops paign finance reform actually spurred big- Soros’s new cause is to spur the creation Editor: Joseph de Feo money political giving—talk about unintended of a network of nonprofit think tanks, media Publisher: Terrence Scanlon consequences. (The list of 113 names and outlets and leadership schools—a Vast Left- their contribution amounts is in Table 5.2 in Wing Conspiracy to battle the idea merchants Foundation Watch Steve Weissman and Ruth Hassan, “527 of the Right. He comes by his convictions is published by Capital Research Groups and BCRA,” in The Election After after being tutored by one Rob Stein, a former Center, a non-partisan education and Reform, edited by Michael Malbin [Rowman chief of staff to Clinton Commerce Depart- research organization, classified by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. & Littlefield, 2005] and available at ment Secretary Ron Brown. Stein argues that www.cfinst.org.) think-tank marketing makes all the difference. Address: Soros claimed to support campaign fi- His now–famous but seldom-seen PowerPoint 1513 16th Street, N.W. nance reform, but he had no qualms about demonstration is said to be a collection of Washington, DC 20036-1480 bankrolling the 527s. With money from Soros forty or so slides diagramming “The Conser- Phone: (202) 483-6900 and his friends, America Coming Together vative Message Machine’s Money Matrix.” Long-Distance: (800) 459-3950 (ACT) opened 78 field offices and hired over Mega-wealthy liberals privileged to see 6000 employees for the 2004 campaign. With Stein’s slide show say they are bowled over E-mail Address: its counterpart, the Media Fund (headed by by it. [email protected] Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the News reports suggest that Stein draws on Web Site: Clinton White House), ACT raised over $200 data compiled by such groups as the Media http://www.capitalresearch.org million in what purported to be an indepen- Transparency website and reports from the dent effort uncoordinated with the Demo- National Center for Responsive Philanthropy. Reprints are available for $2.50 cratic Party. In simple and graphic terms he argues that a prepaid to Capital Research Center. It was all for naught; the anti-Bush effort small group of conservative foundations— failed. The bitter truth seems to be that ACT, Olin, Scaife, Bradley and a few dozen oth-

2 March 2006 FoundationWatch

ers—have created a $300 million network of groups with budgets of $1 million or more Bartley, who is president of the Rockefeller hundreds of policy-driven organizations. could spend only $75 million in 2003. Family Fund, the most left-wing of the There are the national think tanks and more Baloney. The grants of a Scaife or Brad- Rockefeller philanthropies; former Colorado than 40 state-based think tanks; groups for ley are a small fraction of the amounts going State University president Albert C. Yates; conservative to progressive Davidi Gilo, CEO of Silicon Valley-based women (Eagle Fo- causes from Tides, Vyyo, a broadband access equipment sup- rum, the Indepen- Pew, MacArthur and plier; and Hillary Clinton supporters Mark dent Women’s Fo- dozens of other big and Susie Tompkins Buell (she is founder of rum, Clare Boothe left-of-center foun- the Esprit clothing line and ex-wife of Dou- Luce Policy Cen- dations (plus the $7 glas Tompkins, founder of the Foundation ter), lawyers (Fed- billion at Soros’s per- for Deep Ecology—see October 2005 Foun- eralist Society) and sonal disposal). Nor dation Watch). Also involved is Simon college students do those touting the Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat (Intercollegiate conservative net- Network or NDN (www.ndn.org), a combina- Studies Institute work mention the tion think-tank, 527 committee and PAC (po- and Young other resources of the litical action committee). America’s Foun- Left—the universi- dation). There are ties, labor unions, Spawn of Soros leadership training and the already exist- The Democracy Alliance is not the only schools (Leader- ing network of well- group promoting a new model of liberal phi- ship Institute), heeled liberal policy lanthropy. In October 2005 Deborah book publishers and advocacy Rappaport announced a $1 million gift to and magazines, groups from AARP, launch the New Progressive Coalition and groups moni- ACORN and the (www.newprogressivecoalition.com), an- toring foundations ACLU to the other effort to get donors to fund start-up and advocacy Brookings Institu- groups promoting the next generation of groups (Capital tion (and that’s only liberal ideas. Rappaport is the wife of An- Research Center). the first two letters of drew Rappaport, a partner in August Capital, All are interacting the alphabet). One a $1.3 billion venture capital fund headquar- with one another to Deborah Rappaport, pictured with her scholar, Occidental tered in Menlo Park, California. She is active put forward the husband, Andy. In October 2005 she College politics pro- in local philanthropies, serving as president conservative mes- announced a $1 million gift to launch the fessor Peter Drier, of the San Jose Museum of Art and a member New Progressive Coalition. sage, he says. estimates that the of the local Portola Valley school board. In Stein’s argument has been picked up in a annual organizing budget of all progressive 2004 she and her husband contributed al- parade of articles whose authors praise con- Left organizations, including the unions, en- most $5 million to 527 groups to defeat George servative “strategic” philanthropy and urge vironmental, women’s and public interest W. Bush. After the election, “We kind of liberals to replicate it. Former Senator Bill legal and civil liberties groups, is roughly $25 pulled the covers up over our heads for a Bradley, American Prospect editor Robert billion. (See his address at www.acorn.org - while,” she said. Kuttner, Gara LaMarche of Soros’s Open Society Institute and many others claim to admire the dedication of conservative donors When the Democracy Alliance gets its to long-term high-dollar investing in the mar- act together expect a flood of money to keting of public policy. “A mighty Wurlitzer” is how Robert Borosage, director of the left- be released. wing Campaign for America’s Future, de- scribes the conservative network. (See www.commonwealinstitute.org for a compre- “Session one” webcast at a University of The Rappaports are applying the prin- hensive list.) Connecticut conference in December, 2005.) ciples of “venture philanthropy” to funding This high praise is so extravagant that The Left has plenty of money and organiza- grassroots political advocacy groups. Ven- one suspects an ulterior motive: Out-of-power tions. What it lacks are ideas and conviction. ture philanthropy is the idea that donors left-wing policy wonks must want to shame When the Democracy Alliance gets its should act as “investors” in the charities liberal donors or make them so jealous of the act together expect a flood of money to be they support and should demand measur- Right that they open their wallets even wider. released. The Alliance board includes retired able results. Like the Democracy Alliance, Stein also appeals to pity, arguing that con- investment banker Sidney Gluckstern, chair- the New Progressive Coalition (NPC) says it servatives are choking in hundreds of mil- man; Ann S. Bowers, widow of Intel co- will create a network linking donors and left- lions of dollars, but 19 progressive policy founder Robert Noyce; Rockefeller heir Ann wing activists to one another. For a $100

March 2006 3 FoundationWatch

entry fee donors and activists join the Coa- Paul Hackett in the recent special People for the American Way pro- lition, take seminars to learn how to build House race in Ohio. vides youth leadership training in organizations, and submit grant proposals YearlyKos wants to mobilize policy event planning and coalition-build- that members review at the NPC website. One experts· online. Copying the name of ing with its program called Young unusual feature: NPC members are encour- the popular leftist website DailyKos, People For (YP4), featured in the aged to rate each other’s grant proposals so the group is planning a Las Vegas January 27 Nation magazine.) that potential donors can go to the database convention in June. · Drinking Liberally is a Democratic to see what others think. CrossLeft (www.crossleft.org) is a drinking club with 117 chapters in NPC seems to be carrying out its promise clearinghouse· and event organizer for forty states (“promoting democracy to support a new generation of start-up the Christian Left. one pint at a time”). groups, including the following: · Hollywood Hill (www.hhill.org) will These days left-wing circles are abuzz Progressive Legislative Action Net- partner with the DC-based New with talk about the importance of building work· (PLAN), which aims to mobilize America Foundation to organize infrastructure and networking. It’s under- left-wing state legislators and act as policy-related activities for up-and standable. The Left has lost the presidency a foil to the conservative American coming entertainment industry pro- and congressional majorities in the last four Legislative Exchange Council fessionals (“With most of the town’s elections, and it’s preoccupied with net- (ALEC). PLAN also gets support from leading social activists now over 60, working and strategizing over “the battle of MoveOn.org, SEIU and the United it’s time for our generation”—take ideas.” But observers of all political stripes Steelworkers. In May, Random House that, Barbra Streisand!) are skeptical that progressives will know a will publish PLAN founder David The student-run Roosevelt Institu- political idea or strategy if they see one. Sirota’s book, Hostile Takeover: How tion· is organizing a network of stu- National Journal reporter Eliza Carney and Big Business Bought our Govern- dent think tanks at 35 universities so National Review reporter Byron York both ment and How We Can Take It Back. far. (Podesta’s Center for American note that groups like Podesta’s Center for BlogPac.org is a political action Progress runs a complementary ef- American Progress treat policy debate as a committee· formed to coordinate the fort to support liberal student news- spin zone of talking points rather than a activities of left-wing Internet papers. Its $1.25 million program is source for data and analysis. Interviewed by bloggers and raise money for candi- called Campus Progress Salon.com, former Olin Foundation presi- dates. It gave $80,000 for Democrat (www.campusprogress.org). And dent James Piereson said, “I think the prob- lem is one of ideas. What is the end? Where are they going?” Says Jeff Krehely, deputy For frequent updates on environmental groups, director of the liberal National Center for Responsive Philanthropy, “They’re just nonprofits, foundations, and labor unions, check out the adopting the strategies of the Right. They’re CRC-Greenwatch Blog at not doing the big-picture thinking….” 2006 will be a year to watch the philan- www.capitalresearch.org/blog thropists of the activist Left. Long-term plan- ning or short-term victories, think tanks or candidates, that is their question. Of course, campaign fundraising isn’t slowing down. Even Soros has been pulled back into the fray, gathering 60 of his friends to his Man- hattan townhouse last fall for a fundraiser that pulled in $250,000 for Senate Democrats. The latest reports for 2005 show the Demo- cratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $44 million (Senate Republicans raised $35.5 million); in the House the Democratic Con- gressional Campaign Commitee raised $42.7 million (House Republicans $65 million); and the Democratic National Committee raised $51.5 million (RNC $105.4 million).

Robert Huberty is Executive Vice President and Director of Research for the Capital Research Center.

4 March 2006 FoundationWatch

Audience Participation came financially solvent” he would begin his Hussock in the Manhattan Institute’s Winter activist career. He told the magazine: 2006 City Journal, is a case of “talking Left, Continued from page 1 “By the time I was about 13 or 14, acting Right.” Hussock is right in the sense I had formed a worldview…. There that social entrepreneurs tend to emphasize But something is changing in filmmaking, were all these trends in the world, individual responsibility over entitlement pro- and this year it has become more apparent. overpopulation and terrible new grams or direct aid. But philanthropists like Typically, most studios are corporate-owned weapons and diseases. I really Jeff Skoll aren’t necessarily closet conserva- and they are focused on profits. No matter wanted to do something about it. tives; they are just smart enough to realize that how “visionary” and “revolutionary” the … I really thought that what I the philanthropic strategies of the Great Soci- film, studio executives are prepared to rein in wanted to do was to write stories ety era have failed miserably, and that market any excesses that have the potential to alien- and influence people to get edu- forces and an emphasis on individual respon- ate an audience—and reduce the take at the cated on these issues and then sibility are proven, practical means to their box office. take an active involvement to ends. make a better world for every- For example, look at the Skoll Foundation’s one.” establishment in 2003 of the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University’s Said In 1999, Skoll began to make up for lost Business School. The program funds a lec- time; he established the Skoll Foundation to tureship, a director, visiting fellows, and five address the worldview he formed in puberty. scholarships for graduate students interested According to its 2003-2004 annual report in applying entrepreneurial techniques to (the latest available), the Skoll Foundation achieve social change. Members of the inter- and its supporting organization, the Skoll national activist community get to hobnob at Fund, have combined assets of over $381 the Centre’s annual conferences. But don’t million. They disbursed over $25 million in suppose that a center located in a business grants in the twelve months ending in June school aims to demonstrate the worthiness of 2004. the free market. Not quite. At the end of this Business Week has described Skoll as month the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Business Week has described Jeffrey Skoll emblematic of a new, more activist crop of as emblematic of a new, more activist crop of philanthropists. philanthropists. They deliberately tackle large issues, they donate strategically just You can probe the However, one company has adopted a as they would in business, and they demand backgrounds of many of the new model of movie production. Its motto is results from their grantees, in whose projects organizations profiled in “Changing the world, one story at a time” and they sometimes actively take part. This new Foundation Watch its name—Participant Productions—imparts breed of philanthropists has one important its goal of motivating an audience to political progenitor: George Soros. His grand by visiting our and social activism. Political slogans not- schemes, global ambitions, direct involve- online database at withstanding, most production companies, ment in creating organizations to meet his especially new upstarts, have to be inter- goals have set a new standard for activist www.capitalresearch.org ested in the bottom line. Not so Participant. philanthropists. The combination of ven- Founded by Canadian-born billionaire ture capitalist techniques and charitable ends You can also retrieve past issues Jeff Skoll, Participant doesn’t care about has been dubbed “venture philanthropy.” of CRC newsletters, including money. It doesn’t have to. Skoll is the 41 year- According to Stanford Business Maga- old co-founder of Ebay, the enormously suc- zine, Skoll is “at the forefront of the social Organization Trends cessful online auctioneer and retail market- entrepreneurship movement, a growing Foundation Watch place that lets you buy anything anywhere. trend among professionals who don’t just Labor Watch Skoll commented to the Washington Post on donate to philanthropic interests—they set Compassion and Culture his priorities at Participant Productions: “If I out to develop new, potentially more sus- came into this business to make money, that tainable solutions to social problems using Past issues may be ordered for would be the wrong reason.” With an atti- their own money.” This mission is admirable $2.50 each. Orders must be prepaid. tude like that, it’s a wonder that he is a in many respects. For social entrepreneurs it For information or credit card orders, successful entrepreneur—but that is exactly is less important to fund a charity that will call (800) 459-3950. the point. Skoll sees his adventures in money- provide direct aid to those in need than it is Or mail your check to: making as merely a means to an end, where to provide those in need with tools to be- Capital Research Center, the end is changing the world. The Stanford come self-sufficient. This is a good descrip- 1513 16th Street, N.W. Business Magazine reported in February that tion of many Skoll Foundation initiatives. Washington, D.C. 20036 Skoll decided years ago that “once he be- Such social entrepreneurship, writes Howard

March 2006 5 FoundationWatch

will host the Skoll World Forum on Social major funder of the PBS program “The New as a project of the leftist Lawyers Committee Entrepreneurship. Among the speakers are Heroes.” Narrated by Robert Redford, each for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), former vice president Al Gore and Noreena of the series’s twelve episodes highlights the the Brooklyn-based group says it will use the Hertz, author of The Silent Takeover: Global work of a “social entrepreneur.” However, it money “to undertake an ambitious series of Capitalism and the Death of Democracy. would be a mistake to conclude that the new initiatives, including a new program Skoll doesn’t say much about his own shows are as left-wing as their narrator. The entitled Seeding Video Advocacy, which will political opinions. He has called himself “neu- “heroes” include doctors who have set up provide short-term tactical training and skills- tral” and told the Stanford Business Maga- eye clinics in India, a Thai opponent of sex sharing to more than two hundred social zine, “I’m Canadian, so I’m very centrist in my trafficking who created a woman’s education justice organizations worldwide each year.” view of the world”—a puzzling non sequitur. and job-training program, and the Grameen Hussock’s notion of philanthropy that “Talks Records show that he donated $25,000 each Bank financier Muhammad Yunus, creator of Left, Acts Right” also seems to be in play to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Com- the concept of micro-loans for the world’s here. In its defense, WITNESS has done mittee and the Democratic Congressional poor (see CRC’s November Compassion & good work. For instance, it is bringing atten- Campaign Committee between 2001 and 2002. Culture). tion to the plight of child soldiers in the He gave $1000 in 1999 to Al Gore’s presiden- Then there is the Skoll Foundation’s high- Democratic Republic of Congo and forced tial campaign and $2000 in 2003 to General minded Gandhi Project. It acquired the rights contraception in Mexico. Wesley Clark’s campaign for president. to translate and dub the 1982 film Gandhi into However, the same cannot be said for Skoll’s taste in politics can be seen in his Arabic and screen the film before Palestinian Participant Productions. Skoll, not his foun- friends and their projects. One is environ- audiences. The goal, according to the project’s dation, funds this program directly. And, mentalist Laurie David, wife of Seinfeld cre- website, is to provide a new model of action unlike the foundation-funded projects, Par- ator Larry David, who recently formed a pro- “to give the struggle of Palestinian individu- ticipant productions are far more political. duction team to turn Al Gore’s now-famous als and communities a voice to communicate Moreover, Participant’s films—An Inconve- environmental slide show into a movie. Jef- the inhumane conditions they live under.” nient Fact, Syriana, North Country and frey Skoll is one of her partners along with The project seeks “to promote peaceful resis- Good Night and Good Luck—seem to be, by Kill Bill producer Lawrence Bender, whom W tance as an alternative strategy of defying many standards, a quantifiable success. magazine once called “Hollywood’s next big injustice.” Unfortunately, the victory of Consider Participant’s commercial re- liberal power broker.” The film, An Inconve- Hamas in the recent Palestinian parliamen- sults. When this issue went to press, Syriana, nient Truth, premiered at January’s Sundance tary elections suggests that Ben Kingsley’s an indictment of the US oil industry, had all Film Festival, and the two are now searching performance as the great advocate of non- but recouped its $50 million production bud- for a distributor. According to the Washing- violence was insufficiently moving. get, which isn’t bad for a tilted and compli- ton Post, Skoll personally picked up the en- In 2005 the Skoll Foundation gave a cated political thriller. The self-righteous civ- tire tab for the movie. $615,000 grant to WITNESS, a group that ics lesson Good Night and Good Luck earned Gore’s slide show wasn’t Skoll’s first use aims “to empower human rights defenders to over $28 million, or four times its modest of mass media to promote a pet issue. On the use video for human rights advocacy.” production budget. (George Clooney has small screen, the Skoll Foundation was a Founded in 1992 by rock singer Peter Gabriel three Academy Award nominations this year:

On participate.net, the online center of activism for Participant Productions, web users can access the campaigns associated with each Participant film.

The site also features fre- quently updated blogs, where actors, activists, and even web users can post on issues related to participate.net campaigns.

6 March 2006 FoundationWatch

for supporting actor in Syriana and for di- all advertising materials, including online a telling leap of logic—participate.net implies recting and writing the screenplay of Good ads.” In other words, anyone watching a that the profit motive and “corporate enti- Night and Good Luck.) And the feminist Participant movie, viewing its ad, or even just ties” are threats to free speech. The website North Country made $18 million, which, visiting the Warner Brothers website is di- user is urged to sign an online petition de- though not enough to cover its $35 million rected toward Participant’s activist hub. manding “accurate and impartial reporting.” budget, is more than one might expect of a film Like MoveOn.org, Participate.net seeks A major partner organization for this Partici- that critics have called “heavy-handed” and to motivate political action. For instance, the pant Production is the ACLU. A link from “an overlong, overblown soap opera,” with movie Syriana has a link to a website called participate.net encourages web users to an “obvious message… without a shred of “Oil Change,” described as “a campaign to “JOIN NOW and become a card-carrying nuance or subtlety.” Participant stepped in reduce our dependence on oil.” Users can member of the ACLU!” to fund the film, already in development, click to demand that their representatives in What can we expect in the future? Partici- when its production was halted over fears Congress act to reduce US oil consumption. pant Productions is currently completing a that even star Charlize Theron couldn’t re- They can join a Virtual March to Stop Global film called Fast Food Nation, based on Eric coup its costs. Warming. Participate.net also has established Schlosser’s best-selling book of the same Skoll has said from the outset that what’s partnerships with major left-wing environ- name. Schlosser used what the Wall Street important isn’t the money. What counts is Journal called a “cavalier manipulation of the influence his films can project. Skoll told data” to make the argument that our enemy is the Washington Post that he wanted to pro- Skoll has said from not so much fast food as the big corporations mote a “social campaign alongside each film that sell it. To be released this year, the film with our social-sector partners, like the Na- the outset that what’s will no doubt be accompanied by a media tional Organization for Women.” Skoll then important isn’t the campaign for state and federal legislation explained an approach to filmmaking that has against corporate-induced obesity as well as nothing to do with the box office or with money. What counts an attack on tort reform efforts to limit frivo- artistic considerations. Referring to NOW lous fast-food lawsuits. feminists, he observed, “We reach out to is the influence his Time magazine called 2005 “the year of their members and alert them to a movie like films can project. charitainment,” noting that celebrities can ‘North Country’ that’s in their interest. Once command attention, the most valuable asset they’ve seen the film, they’re able to be in in an era of constant information bombard- touch directly via our Web site mental advocacy groups, including the Natu- ment. Jeffrey Skoll has come up with what www.participate.net, a hub for campaigns ral Resources Defense Council and the Sierra seems like the perfect solution to activist or separate from our corporate Web site. With Club (whose president, Carl Pope, contrib- donor apathy—he uses big-name stars like each film we’re building a community.” utes to the Oil Change weblog). According to George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Charlize Participate.net links the movie North the Sierra Club, the role of Participant’s non- Theron to lure audiences into theatres where Country to a campaign against sexual ha- profit partners is to provide policy expertise they will watch two-hour public-service-an- rassment sponsored by the National Organi- and strategy for activist web users. nouncements and issues-ads that tug first at zation for Women called “Stand Up.” The link The campaign associated with Good heart strings and then at purse strings. But directs participate.net users to join and do- Night and Good Luck is called “Report It soliciting donations is hardly Skoll’s main nate to NOW. The Family Violence Preven- Now.” However, the website’s focus is not objective. His production company uses the tion Fund is another featured partner linked on opposition to something as old-fashioned same words that George Soros does to de- to the film. as McCarthyite anti-communism. Instead, scribe its goal: “raising awareness.” Skoll Skoll’s thinking would have baffled old- Participant cautions that “television and print and Soros are interested in immediate politi- time movie moguls like Samuel Goldman and news organizations have drifted away from cal results, but they have set their sights on Louis B. Mayer. But it also departs from hard news and toward entertainment de- more lasting—sustainable, if you will—cul- previous makers of “socially conscious” films. signed to turn a profit with little accountabil- tural and political change. Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg are largely ity to the public interest.” The site further When it was announced that Participant content to create movies as stand-alone so- warns that “most news outlets are now owned Production’s films had garnered eleven Acad- cial commentaries. But the founder of Ebay by one of just a handful of corporate enti- emy Award nominations, Al Gore sent the has created a website, participate.net, as a ties”—as though the Internet news and company’s Beverly Hills office a cake and a web-based activist center for social and po- blogging revolution never happened. The bottle of champagne. He wasn’t celebrating litical issues highlighted by his Participant website observes, “In our current climate of its artistic achievement. FW films. Participant has promoted the website fear, stifled dissent, homogenized newscasts, with clever marketing. The Hollywood Re- and a cowed press, it has become ever more Joseph de Feo is editor of Capital Re- porter noted in January, “The site took off crucial to engage in critical debate and truth- search Center publications Foundation quickly, because when Participant partners seeking. The First Amendment and free Watch and Organization Trends. He co- with a studio like Warner Bros. Pictures on speech rights are absolute and should be hosts CRC’s monthly radio show, “Organi- ‘Syriana,’ it places the participate.net URL on defended at all times and at all costs.” What zation Watch.”

March 2006 7 FoundationWatch PhilanthropyNotes

A recent poll of citizens of Tblisi, Georgia, found that 90 percent of that capital city’s residents view George Soros as an “enemy of Georgia.” The Russian Rosbalt News Agency reported that 80.3 percent of the public firmly believe that the billionaire, considered a major force behind the country’s 2003 “Rose Revolution,” cur- rently finances the country’s ruling party, United National Movement. Looks like his PR problems extend all the way to the Caucasus.

At the end of January, George Soros’s Open Society Institute announced its response to Hurricane Katrina: the Katrina Media Fellowships and Grants. OSI will fund fifteen journalism fellowships, supporting in-depth reporting and “help foster a national conversation on race and class inequalities.” We’re sure that displaced and needy Gulf families will be very grateful to hear that a few more journalists won’t starve.

In early February U.S. Customs detained radical French farmer-activist Jose Bove, famous for, among other things, having destroyed a French McDonald’s restaurant in 1999 and a seed production facility in 1997; he has also led raids of Monsanto plantations in Brazil. He was en route to a conference on global corporations and labor at Cornell University. Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor research at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, criticized the detainment. “This is sponsored by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, which is not a subversive group,” she said—without a trace of irony.

In February the Wall Street Journal reported a new development in the case of Robertson v. Princeton. The family suing the university produced a document alleging $207 million in misdirected funds since the reception of Charles and Marie Robinson’s 1961 gift. Among the more damning revelations: an e-mail suggesting that $750,000 in extraneous expenditures not be disclosed to the Robertsons. Not a reason to cheer for Old Nassau.

Sundance Institute founder and president Robert Redford recently complained to Newsweek that the Sundance Film Festival “is close to being out of control.” He said, “To the outside world, it’s a big fat market where you have people like Paris Hilton going to parties. Now, she doesn’t have anything to do with anything.” Yes, that’s true. But there are other reasons to scorn Sundance. Its Soros-sponsored Documentary Fund has supported a few doozies in the recent past, including one called “The Women of Hizbollah,” which, according to the Sundance website, retraces “the personal experiences of two women and highlighting the personal, social, and political factors that led them to become Hizbollah activists” (emphasis added). Redford has worse problems on his hands than Paris Hilton.

Steve Case, the chairman of the Case Foundation and co-founder of AOL, spoke at the Council on Founda- tions Family Foundations Conference in Honolulu on January 30. He said, “Milton Friedman’s famous view that the ‘business of business is business’ makes no sense in the modern world.” He then said businesses should engage in philanthropy in order to develop an educated work force, prosperous customers, and an “attractive” image for shareholders. In other words, corporations should engage in philanthropy…because it’s good for business. So how, exactly, is Friedman wrong?

Just as this issue went to press, Paramount Pictures announced that it would distribute the Participant Productions film An Inconvenient Truth, which is based on former vice president Al Gore’s environmentalist slide show. It opens May 26. If it’s as exciting as Al Gore, theaters might have to sell pep pills in the lobby.

8 March 2006