Philanthropy Roundtable

History

The Roundtable was founded in 1987 as a project of the Institute For Educational Affairs. It was founded as an alternative to the Council on Foundations, another nonprofit membership association of donors. For four years the program, known then as the Philanthropic Roundtable, held occasional meetings where representatives of foundations and charities could converse with scholars and journalists about the way professional philanthropy was conducted in the U.S.

It also began publication of a bimonthly newsletter, Philanthropy; offered member organizations a talent bank for hiring young staffers from its list of recent college graduates, and conducted a "project development service" that assisted members "in examining their own programs ... to foster innovative programming." Membership was free "to interested grantmakers," and 140 foundations, charities and nonprofits joined in the Roundtable's first year.

In 1991, The Philanthropy Roundtable became an independent entity, with its own board of directors and staff, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Philanthropy Roundtable is a 501(c)(3) organization. It has been described as conservative and non-partisan.

Leadership

Kimberly Dennis was the organization's first executive director. She served as executive director from 1991 through 1996. John P. Walters assumed administrative leadership of the organization in the newly defined role of president the following year when the organization moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C. Walters remained in that position until resigning in October 2001 in order to accept an appointment by George W. Bush to the cabinet-level position of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The current president of the Roundtable, Adam Meyerson, has held that position since Walters's departure in 2001. Before Meyerson's move to The Philanthropy Roundtable, he was the Heritage Foundation's vice president for educational affairs. Meyerson was previously an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and, in the late 1970s, managing editor of American Spectator. In 2011, former White House domestic policy adviser Karl Zinsmeister joined the Roundtable as vice president of publications.

Projects

Since 2003, The Philanthropy Roundtable has organized issue-specific program areas designed to "help philanthropists connect with like-minded peers in their field of interest to share ideas, leverage resources, and strategically collaborate to create significant change." Each issue group holds regional meetings and offers customized resources to members, including publications and seminars. As of 2015, the Roundtable offers programs in K-12 education, economic opportunity, and veterans. In the past, it has held programs on conservation, national security, and higher education. The concept of blended learning as a method of education reform has been discussed at the group's meetings.

Publications

The Roundtable publishes a quarterly magazine, Philanthropy, that includes coverage of past and ongoing philanthropic efforts and strategies, as well as news stories and commentary relevant to readers who are active in the philanthropic sector.

The Roundtable also produces a series of guidebooks on philanthropic topics, such as education reform, public policy, protecting donor intent, and helping veterans. These guidebooks are intended to help philanthropists become knowledgeable about the various nationwide strategies in a particular philanthropic sector.

Here are several guidebooks that the Roundtable has published:

The Roundtable published the Almanac of American Philanthropy in January 2016. The Almanac, at over 1,000 pages, is a reference book that summarizes the history, purposes, effects, and modern direction of private giving.

Alliance For Charitable Reform

In January 2005, The Philanthropy Roundtable created the Alliance For Charitable Reform (ACR) in response to pending legislation that would have created new statutory regulations and restrictions on the non-profit sector. The ACR website describes its formation "as an emergency self-defense initiative to respond to legislative proposals on Capitol Hill, some of which could adversely affect private foundations and the charities they support." The Alliance opposes legislation that would create accreditation requirements for grant-making foundations, establish a five-year IRS review of tax-exempt status, or restrict the ability of donors to establish family foundations.

In a letter published in The Hill, ACR co-founders Dan Peters and Heather Higgins responded to discussion of legislative regulatory proposals, saying that, "ACR believes that every dollar of tax increases on foundations is to the federal government rather than a dollar to charities, and the ACR is troubled by that notion.... We cannot adopt a one-size-fits-all solution that disadvantages smaller organizations. We must do everything possible to encourage philanthropy and not create barriers to charitable giving."

William E. Simon Prize

Starting in 2007, the William E. Simon Foundation named the Roundtable the administrator of the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership. Recipients of the prize since the Roundtable's administration of it include Bernie Marcus, Eli Broad, Charles G. Koch, Roger Hertog, Philip and Nancy Anschutz, S. Truett Cathy, and Frank Hanna III.

Board of directors