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Capital Research - MacArthur Foundation
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This is a conservative critique of the MacArthur Foundation's grantmaking from 2005; minimally relevant to AI safety except as background on a major foundation that has since become a funder of technology governance and AI policy initiatives.
Metadata
Importance: 8/100opinion piececommentary
Summary
A 2005 Capital Research Center analysis of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examining how the founder's failure to specify philanthropic goals allowed the foundation to drift toward liberal political causes after a board power struggle. The piece critiques the foundation's funding of left-leaning organizations and highlights that the famous 'genius grants' represent only 7% of total grantmaking.
Key Points
- •John D. MacArthur died in 1978 without instructions on how his fortune should be spent, enabling ideological capture of the foundation.
- •A power struggle led by MacArthur's liberal son ousted conservative board members by 1981, shifting the foundation's ideological direction.
- •The foundation funds organizations including the ACLU, Federation of American Scientists, and Arms Control Association, which the author characterizes as left-leaning.
- •The iconic MacArthur 'genius grants' ($500K over 5 years) represent only ~7% of total grants; the foundation gave $178.4M in 2004.
- •The article is from Capital Research Center, a conservative watchdog group focused on philanthropic accountability.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| MacArthur Foundation | Organization | 65.0 |
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The MacArthur Foundation -Capital Research Center
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# The MacArthur Foundation
#### A donor without a cause spawns a foundation with an agenda
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by [Martin Morse Wooster†](https://capitalresearch.org/person/martin-morse-wooster/)
September 6, 2005
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( _Foundation Watch_, September 2005 [PDF here)](https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/pubs/pdf/FW0905.pdf)
_With assets of nearly $5 billion, annual grants totaling $180 million, extensive name recognition, and global influence, the MacArthur Foundation is nothing if not secure. Perhaps that’s why it can’t recognize its own leftist political leanings._
What do the Federation of American Scientists, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Arms Control Association, the League of Women Voters, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and the National Commission on Energy Policy have in common–aside from solid leftist credentials? Each receives funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
John D. MacArthur was a hardheaded entrepreneur who created Bankers Life and Trust, a pioneering insurance company. But when MacArthur died in 1978 at age 80, he made the worst mistake a donor could possibly make: he left his fortune to charity without instructions on how it should be spent.
In a 1982 interview with Foundation News, MacArthur’s lawyer, William Kirby, said that MacArthur told him, “Bill, I’m going to do what I know best, I’ll make it. But you people, after I’m dead, will have to learn how to spend it.” Kirby said that on several occasions he asked MacArthur “to do something big for charities.” MacArthur explained that he wanted to defer the disposition of his fortune until after his death: “If I was trying to decide who to give the money to right now, I couldn’t sit at this coffee table, because I’d be bothered day and night. They’d all be after me to try and get my money, and I couldn’t lead the life I want to lead. So leave me in peace.”
When the MacArthur Foundation began, conservatives, most notably William
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