By Jane D. Schwartz
Executive Director, Paul Rapoport Foundation
In August of 2009, Anita Nager, the former Executive Director of the Beldon Fund, began a discussion on this blog regarding “spend out” versus “in perpetuity.” At the time Anita was blogging, the Paul Rapoport Foundation had already made the decision to follow Beldon down the spend-out path and disburse our assets in five years, closing our doors completely in 2015. Yes, our decreasing assets played a major role in the board’s decision to adopt this course of action, but in fact, increasing or maintaining our assets was never the driving force in our grantmaking strategy. Rather, how we could best support our grantees always took—and continues to take—precedence. Our concern for our grantees’ current precarious economic situation was the ultimate prod that moved us to the decision to spend out.
We have taken to heart much of the wisdom offered in Beldon’s Giving While Living publication. For example, we are further narrowing our funding foci for our last grantmaking years, but we are especially mindful of one of the other major points made by Beldon: the need to find additional funding sources for our grantees after we spend out. That is my concern as I write today.
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