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| Opportunities & Exposures: Philanthropy |
Technical Difficulties
Sanford J. Ungar
09/01/2005
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A better way to insure the VOA’s survival would
be to establish an independent foundation that would channel both private and
public funds in its direction. One model is the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for
the Advancement of Military Medicine, named for the late senator from Washington
state. The foundation was established in 1983 to support medical research and
education in the U.S. military and to improve public health. The foundation now
manages some 60 endowments and 800 education funds and coordinates cutting-edge
research programs on HIV/AIDS, breast and prostate cancer and other medical
issues. Because it can operate outside the regular federal appropriations
process and accept private gifts, it has been a principal funder of the
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and ensures a steady stream
of qualified physicians to the military.
Other examples abound. One of the
best known is the National Trust for Historic Preservation, established during
the Truman administration and weaned from its partial federal funding only seven
years ago. The National Park Foundation was created by Congress in 1967 as a
vehicle to privately support perennially underfunded national parks. Many
so-called hybrid organizations, such as the Smithsonian Institution and Fannie
Mae, achieve a public purpose with a combination of funding sources.
Creative
efforts to do the same for the VOA—and to protect it from political mischief—are
urgently needed, lest this vital instrument of diplomacy disappear
entirely. | Sanford J. Ungar, president of Goucher College in Baltimore, was
director of Voice of America from 1999 to 2001. |
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