An essay published on Mar. 30 discusses the ideas of the late scholar Walter Berns and how his work might inform current debates about philanthropy, regulation of nonprofit organizations, and the intersection with art and civic virtue.
The essay raises questions about whether there should be a major shift in how philanthropy is regulated and understood today. It suggests that Berns’s arguments about virtue and decency being essential to civil society could offer a new perspective for philanthropic reform.
The article references past controversies involving taxpayer funding for controversial art through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), including works by Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe. These incidents led to budget cuts for the NEA and new guidelines to prevent government-funded art that offends public sensibilities. The essay points out that while private donors are free to support any form of art, tax-exempt status for nonprofits means that such support can still represent indirect taxpayer backing.
It further discusses concerns over large foundations like the Andrew Mellon Foundation prioritizing social justice in their grantmaking, which some critics argue blurs lines between scholarship and activism in higher education. The author cites left-of-center academic Tyler Austin Harper who wrote: “A multibillion-dollar politicized grant-making entity has a stranglehold over humanities research and teaching, and is using that power to push them in a direction that blurs the boundaries between scholarship and activism, pedagogy and politics.”
Berns’s writings are used as a basis to question whether legal definitions of partisan activity should be expanded or if tax exemptions should be narrowed for certain categories like arts or humanities grants. The essay also reviews Berns’s book Freedom, Virtue, and the First Amendment, highlighting his belief that discussions of freedom must consider virtue as well as law.
In conclusion, while acknowledging practical difficulties with changing regulations around philanthropic giving or censorship standards, the essay suggests Berns would likely support limiting indirect taxpayer support for projects he viewed as undermining civic values.
