TPI Managing Partner Leslie Pine Quoted in the Chronicle of Philanthropy
TPI’s Managing Partner Leslie Pine was interviewed by Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Alex Daniels to be featured in a recent headlining story, “After Gates Is Cut Off, Buffett Family Foundations Move to Center Stage.”
Both Buffett and Gates are deeply tied to their philanthropy as larger-than-life business figures and two of the biggest philanthropists of the modern era. Gates, along with his former wife, Melinda French Gates, were both deeply involved in the work of the foundation. Buffett’s decision in 2006 to devote most of his wealth to a mega-foundation already created by one of his billionaire peers was “groundbreaking,” said Leslie Pine, managing partner of the Philanthropic Initiative, a philanthropy consulting firm. And it tied him personally to the foundation and to Bill.
“Philanthropy is such a personal thing,” she said. “Uber high net-worth individuals often really want to create their own foundation or their own vehicle for their philanthropy. “
The only real parallel, Pine said, is a major donor making a huge gift to a single institution like a university. When an outsize gift is made to one place, Pine said, it’s often because donors don’t want to go through the intense work of starting a foundation and have developed a long, trusting relationship with the beneficiary.
But sometimes after a major gift — or a collaboration with another donor — trust begins to break down. “Once there is a rift in a relationship,” Pine said, “there’s not necessarily a clear-cut pathway forward.”