Overview

A young donor invents her own philanthropic structure; her motto is "Get off your assets."

When Carol Newell, then in her 30s, received an inheritance from several family members in 1992, she put together a team, including Joel Solomon, whom she had met through the Threshold Foundation, and Drummond Pike, founder of the US Tides Foundation, to help her think about how to create a foundation that would make the best use of it. "Most of the options seemed to be to lock it up and try to build it," Solomon says. Other ideas, such as community economic development and program-related investing, then in their infancy, were more appealing to Newell, who felt strongly that all her money should go to work at once.

It was the quincentenary of Columbus's discovery of America, "a metaphor for us to think about the next 500 years, and make sure that things we thought were precious might still be around," Solomon says. "There's not much we could do about 500 years, but 50 seemed reasonable." Newell decided to focus her efforts on sustainable economic development and social and environmental justice in a single region, British Columbia, and to use multiple strategies, including charitable giving, investment and real estate development, to accomplish her goals. The inheritance was divided into the Endswell Foundation, a grant-making entity, and Renewal Partners, a venture capital operation that would invest in young, promising for-profit businesses that reflected these values. Solomon headed both.

Newell's original intention was to spend down the foundation part of her operation in ten years, but the booming stock market, which increased her starting stake (non-profit and for-profit combined) from $35 million to $50 million, replenished the money as quickly as it was given out, extending the spend-down period to 20 years. Endswell, distributing about $2 million in grants annually, quickly became the largest locally based private funder in its mission area in Canada, a country with a far less vigorous philanthropic tradition than the US.

With the field wide open, Endswell also took on the role of convener, bringing other funders interested in its goals to the region and providing its grantees with a platform to present their work. In addition, the Endswell team also founded Tides Canada, a national public foundation modeled on the US Tides Foundation, which is focused on gaining funding for social justice and environmental issues. Now in spend-down mode, with about $15 million remaining in assets, Endswell has transferred the administration of its grantmaking to Tides Canada as a donor-advised fund. Other donors have followed suit, and Tides has also become a fiscal agent for Canadian grantmaking by large US foundations in its mission area.

Being able to pursue multiple strategies has been a strength for Endswell/Renewal. For example, when a small non-profit publishing company came to Endswell for a grant, Solomon suggested that, with little grant money available for such activities, it consider "being a business about trying to change the world." The company is now one of the only profitable small publishers in Canada, with titles about sustainability and other related areas. However, Solomon says, Renewal follows the "patient capital" model, and does not push businesses to sell so it can get its money out. "We thought the theory should be building infrastructure, and while accepting capitalism as a framework, practice a kinder, gentler form of it."

Another example involves even more Endswell/Renewal strategies. Pivot Legal Society, an organization that works with the disadvantaged of Vancouver, was supported through grants and invited to a network gathering of the Social Venture Institute at Hollyhock, a retreat center on Cortez Island, supported by the foundation, where it made contact with social entrepreneurs and non-profit resource advisors. Endswell also joined with two other foundations and the local credit union to help Pivot buy a building, in a deal that could eventually give the organization part ownership in the property. Renewal has invested in Pivot's planned subsidiary, a conventional law firm, to capture the business (wills, estates, and the like) of people interested in social justice issues.

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  Resources

• Executive Summary
• Full Report
• Order Print Copies

  Report Contents

• Introduction
• Focus: The Whitaker Foundation and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund
• The Learning Curve: The Beldon Fund
• Retooling for Spend Down: The Atlantic Philanthropies
• Giving While Living: The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation
• Quick Spend Down: The Haigh-Scatena Foundation
• Raising the Payout: Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
• Giving 5.5%: The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• More than Investment Returns: The Needmor Fund
• Ramping Up: The HKH Foundation
• Using All the Models: Endswell Foundation / Renewal Partners
• A Different Strategy: Omidyar Network
• Conclusion
• Selected Bibliography
• Resources
• List of Profiled Foundations
• Acknowledgements

  Upcoming Events

• November 29
  10am - Noon
  NCG Family Philanthropy Exchange and the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society are hosting a discussion of Beyond Five Percent: The New Foundation Pay out Menu. This funders only event is free for members.
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  Supporters of
  “Beyond 5%”

• Beldon Fund
• French American Charitable Trust (FACT)
• Quixote Foundation

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