For those of you who have the stomach to spend time in the right-wing blogosphere, I am certain that you have come across the demonization of Mr. Soros. His name has been picked up by the public at large, but there hasn't been any real investigation into the backgrounds of the public policy foundations of the right-wing and its directors. It is time for that to change. For those of you who are interested in further background into the funding of the right-wing I invite you to check-out
http://www.mediatransparency.org/ .
We begin with the Scaife Foundations. The Scaife Foundations are divided into three separate organizations, the Allegheny Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. From
The Scaife Foundation Website, "The Allegheny Foundation concentrates its giving in the Western Pennsylvania area and confines most of its grant awards to programs for historic preservation, civic development and education. The Foundation does not make grants to individuals. Proposals for the following are usually declined: event sponsorships, endowments, capital campaigns, renovations or government agencies." The Allegheny Foundation lists only two officers on its most recent annual report
2004 Annual Report(.pdf), Richard M. Scaife (Chairman) and Matthew A. Groll (Executive Director). The Foundation lists over $43,000,000 in total assets and presented grants in excess of $1,500,000 in 2004.
The Allegheny Foundation's policy statement would seem to indicate a non-partisan historical focus, yet in 2004 some of the notable recipients of grants include the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy a recipient of a $50,000 grant which in its mission statement calls itself,
"a non-profit research and education organization. Our mission is to defend the interests of taxpayers, citizens and businesses against an increasingly burdensome and intrusive government. To that end, we will formulate and advocate public policies that roll back the size and scope of local government as well as create a more accountable government. Our efforts will be guided by the principles of free enterprise, property rights, civil society and individual freedom that are the bedrock upon which this nation was founded."
The fact that this seems to fall outside the historical raison d'être of Allegheny loses its importance when one studies the list of Board Members of the Allegheny Institute. Prominently listed are Michael Gleba Executive Vice President of the Sarah Scaife Foundation as a Member of the Board of Trustees, and we find on the Board of Advisors Mr. Matthew Groll, the aforementioned Executive Director of the Allegheny Foundation.
Additional grants totaling $35,000 went to the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) a right-wing organization which writes legislation making its way throughout legislatures across the country. A $225,000 grant to proven
hack and liar David Horowitz and his
Center for the Study of Popular Culture. The new cool right-wing eugenics program Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity (C.R.A.C.K.), the program which pays drug-addicted women to become sterilized but offers no drug-treatment per se, was a recipient of $50,000 from the Allegheny Foundation, further information on CRACK is available
here. Another aside on CRACK is that its a California based "charity" (I use that term very loosly when attached to this organization) far outside the range of Western Penn, but I digress...
Addtional monies were given to the publisher of that incredible read "It Takes a Family," by Sen. Rick "Man-Dog" Santorum (R-PA), the
Intercollegiate Studies Institute. In all fairness, it's entirely plausible that we wouldn't be blessed with such an interesting read without the help of the ISI.
In conclusion, the Allegheny Foundation, like many Scaife foundations, as readers of the forthcoming diaries will see, plays fast and loose with its own mission statement by giving to causes outside of its stated purpose.
Forthcoming
Part 2 The Carthage Foundation
Part 3 The Sarah Scaife Foundation
Part 4 Richard Mellon Scaife, The Man Behind the Curtain