The McKnight Foundation of Minneapolis has announced their third-quarter 2011 grants. A complete list of third-quarter grantees can be found here.
I have collected a few select grant descriptions in this Google Doc. "Sustainable communities" seems to be a theme this quarter.
The McKnight Foundation is a Minnesota-based philanthropy endowed with $1.9 billion of the 3M fortune. This quarter, it continues to spend $ millions on interrelated efforts dealing with sustainability, climate change, and smart growth and funding their favorite media outlets and legislative groups.
One is tempted to say, "Well, it's their money" and leave it at that. Except that it isn't. As a tax-exempt non-profit, McKnight enjoys considerable advantages not available to a for-profit company or to an individual. They answer to no one for their spending, except a hand-picked board of directors.
A public body is answerable, directly or indirectly to the voters. A private fortune has to answer to shareholders or to the tax collector. How is it that a an unelected and untaxed organization can seek to have such influence in public policy, without any accountability?
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