Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Winter 2008
Who’s at the Table
The Four Freedoms Fund’s grantmaking budget is determined by donor
contributions every year. As its scope has broadened, the list of funders
has expanded as well, and now also includes the Evelyn and Walter Haas
Jr. Fund, Joyce Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Charles Stewart
Mott Foundation, California Endowment, Akonadi Foundation and the Horace
Hagedorn Foundation, a family foundation located in Port Washington (Long
Island), New York. The Hagedorn case is unique because this local nonprofit
can now play a national role through its association with the Four Freedoms
Fund. “Immigration problems on Long Island have very deep roots,”
executive director Darren Sandow says. “We’re located in the
oldest suburb in the U.S., and there’s a lot of community tension
with concerns about day laborers, overcrowded housing and other hot potatoes.
While we’re worried about the broken federal system, which is the
main cause of our problems, a small private foundation can’t really
expect to have national impact.”
Brought into the Four Freedoms Fund by Taryn Higashi, Sandow was surprised to find himself received as an equal. “People listened,” he says, “and appreciated having a local voice at the table. I was even invited to join the fund’s advisory board, which I’ve done—and that has helped bring resources back to Long Island. We’ve co-hosted a major conference with the county executive, for instance, and launched a massive civic engagement project called “Long Island Wins” (www.longislandwins.com) including commercials on the local cable network, which ended up running during Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Sandow believes his foundation has benefited significantly from its association with the “biggest, smartest foundations in the country.” At the same time, he’s aware that there are advantages to being small. “Sometimes big foundations have restrictions,” he notes, “whereas we can turn around money quickly; we can come in where they can’t. That’s why it’s a real partnership, and we can make a serious contribution.” Being part of the Fund also lets the Hagedorn Foundation fly beneath the radar, as Sandow puts it. “If we openly went national, we could never handle all the requests,” he explains. “But since all our giving goes through the Fund, we can have a national voice.”
At the other end of the spectrum, the newest donor to join the Four Freedoms Fund4 is the country’s largest private foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, giving a $2 million planning grant over two years, with an option to renew. “For us, the Four Freedoms Fund is an incomparable on-the-ground information source,” explains Greg Ratliff, senior program officer for Special Initiatives, U.S. Program. The Gates Foundation’s leaders are seeking an effective entry point into understanding immigrant issues as one of many critical types of transitions that may be funded. They recognize that Four Freedoms offers not just a way to fund, but a way to learn, Ratliff says. He’s deeply concerned about the way immigration seems to be mimicking other wedge issues, such as abortion, in becoming a hot-button topic and he appreciates the collaborative’s ability to “create a safe space for dialog.” Information gleaned from the Fund has already shaped the perspective on the field that Ratliff presents to his foundation’s decision makers. “Immigration is not a stand-alone issue,” he has learned, “it cuts across all other programs: education, health care, even libraries. It needs to be integrated throughout our work.”
4 In December 2007, two additional donors joined the Four Freedoms Fund: The Western Union Foundation and the J.M. Kaplan Fund.