BLOOMBERG IS QUIETLY ENDING A CHARITABLE PROGRAM
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is quietly pulling the plug on an unusual program that has poured nearly $200 million of his fortune into nonprofit groups across the five boroughs, in a sign of major change under way in his charitable giving plans, reports Michael Barbaro and Jo Craven McGinty for the New York Times.
His decision, which is not yet public, has set off alarm in the city’s arts and social services worlds, which depend heavily on his largesse and are grappling with deep budget cuts and a brutal fund-raising climate. Since he was first elected mayor in 2001, Bloomberg has provided money to hundreds of mostly small neighborhood, arts and cultural groups through the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic trust, in a process that was remarkably informal and closely coordinated with City Hall.
The gifts reflect the often blurred roles Bloomberg plays in the city as mayor, tycoon, and philanthropist. And while the donations earned him praise from grateful recipients, who regarded him as an enlightened billionaire, they also drew rebukes from elected leaders who argued that he bought political acquiescence with his checkbook. That tension was heightened during the mayor’s 2008 push to rewrite the city’s term limits law. His aides asked several groups that had received Carnegie grants to lobby for the change publicly, which allowed him to remain in office for four more years.
The full impact of Bloomberg’s decision to end the program was not immediately clear. He is increasingly focusing on his charitable efforts at his family foundation, where he has expanded hiring and operations in recent months as he prepares to put greater emphasis on needs in the United States.
The mayor and his aides declined to be interviewed. Asked if there were specific plans to replace the Carnegie gifts, which have helped support some 600 theaters, dance troupes, museums, and other groups, Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie’s president, said he did not know of any.
