Philanthropy Class: Rob McKay (11/11/2004)

Rob McKay, Executive Director of the McKay Foundation was an unabashed supporter of liberal/progressive causes, and explicitly interested in supporting the means for these causes to build and exercise their power in the political arena. Laura set up the discussion by showing some of the ways that foundations have influenced the political agenda. Although there are restrictions about what foundations can do in terms of lobbying, there is still a lot that a foundation can do to advance a political agenda. She pointed out a number of things that conservative foundations (such as the Bradley Foundation ($580M), Scaife Foundation ($323M), Olin Foundation ($71M) and Koch Foundation ($68M)) do to fund conservative think tanks, leading to the training of a new generation of conservative leaders, as well as production of academic papers and communication pieces presenting conservative stands on issues. Conservatives have been outspending liberals by a factor of 10:1 in media and journals, according to Arrillaga. Some of the activities of the groups come close to the verboten lobbying, such as policy dinners where legislators and government officials are invited to dinners where key contributors and hand-picked experts can address them collectively or one-on-one.

Rob McKay picked up right where she left off, claiming that philanthropists for liberal causes have been much more diffuse, changing interest areas (environment, women's issues, labor, etc) every few years, while in contrast, conservative philanthropists have been pushing the same agenda since 1964. And the conservatives comfort with interlocking boards, and gatekeepers has enabled a consistency of message not matched by the Left who seek consensus after representing everyone at the table. Especially when policy change requires 10, 20, or 30 years of serious work, McKay argued, the conservatives have been recently reaping the rewards of their efforts started years ago, while the liberals have just (within the last couple years) recognized the importance of doing this.

After this intro, Rob answered a number of questions about the Living Wage campaign, the case that we read that "featured" him and his foundation in the successful (though significantly more painful than expected) campaign to pass a Living Wage law in San Francisco. The initiative had come out of the efforts of low-level labor leaders, therefore didn't have the academic air cover nor the media pundits discussions that would have been part of a conservative "launch" for an issue. Fortunately, the issue had wide spread public support so not as much education was required.

McKay Foundation recently did a strategy review, and decided that they would require grantees to explicitly discuss the electoral component to each of the projects, and expect their grantee organizations to either become or already have 501c4 status. The media/communication plan is also a separate part of the grant application now.

Rob spoke about the creation of America Coming Together in July 2003, from liberal groups of various causes, supported by donor activists (many with foundations, though the money came from the individuals rather than the foundations). They intended to (and succeeded, I think) in raising $200M, a war chest for 10-12 battleground states that would determine the election. Although the group did not (could not) coordinate directly with the democratic party, the transparent needs and strategy meant that it was pretty clear how the money should be spent to advance the causes.

Following the Democrats defeat in 2004, Rob urged people to be realistic: they had claimed this was the most important election of their life time, and the democrats had lost. Part of the reason was that the candidate and party had not come through with the strength of message needed to win people over. But he also attributed the Republicans' success to their increased success in adding 950K republican votes in Florida and 450K in Ohio (compared to the 2000 totals) so that even though Democrats met their targets for votes earned in those states, they still were defeated by the unexpectedly high Republican totals. Rob did think that this marks the beginning of long-term funding and development of the ground troops, voter files, and sense of collaboration among different liberal groups that will be necessary to compete with the Republican machine going forward.

One student asked what individuals without financial means (such as an inheritance of millions of dollars from Taco Bell stock) could do to build the progressive infrastructure. Rob suggested helping with content (journals, think tanks, etc) running for office (even at the local level) and considering a career as a community organizer.

Acknowledging that it was not a happy note to end on, Rob said that he felt:

The country has not been more split since the Civil War.