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05/31/2008: "The 'Diversity' Threat to California Charity"

A bill purporting to encourage diversity among nonprofits has passed the California Assembly and faces a key vote in the state senate in early June. While little attention has been paid to this bill, it poses an enormous threat to private philanthropy in this country.

The Foundation Diversity and Transparency Act requires California foundations with $250 million in assets to report the composition by ethnicity and gender orientation of their boards and staffs, the boards and staffs of the charities they support, and the degree to which they are run by or support certain minorities.

The "diversity" bill, if enacted into law, would be just the beginning. Already contemplated is legislation to cover all foundations, and all grant recipients, not just in California, but nationally; and to broaden reporting requirements to include the aged or the disabled. Ultimately, this all leads in one direction: to politically determine how private charities manage and deploy their resources.

The state senate should understand what a disincentive - and an injustice - it would be for the government to micromanage private charity to favor a preferred political agenda, thereby turning private funds into public funds by diktat.

[ Effectively it makes giving to charity into a kind of voluntary taxation, where the government still has some control over where it is spent. ]

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB121210971023331419-lMyQjAxMDI4MTMyMDEzMDA5Wj.html