The Golden Rule: Who has the gold rules.
Private foundations have taken substantial control of the environmental movement in America.
But don't call it plutocracy (the rule of wealth) because that will end your credibility among the plutocrats. And don't call those who rule by wealth an oligarchy (rule by the elite few) because that will end your credibility with the elite few.
So we're reduced to calling them rich guys who give the money and the marching orders. And we call them the ecoligarchy. Smile, it's a joke. You know, a story with a humorous ending? Or a an unexpected juxtaposition of two disparate planes of thought that produces a sudden insight?
Only the products of the plutocracy and their ecoligarchy are not funny to the people whose lives they ruin.
Many liberal foundations have become prescriptive, that is, they design their own programs for leftward social change and then pressure a highly orchestrated network of environmental groups to perform their projects.
Some foundations no longer accept applications, but only fund pre-selected groups.
Case in point: The former W. Alton Jones Foundation's policy statement once advised applicants:
The foundation works principally through foundation-defined initiatives addressing its priority issues. These initiatives usually take the form of coordinated grants to multiple institutions, each of which focuses on one or more components of an overall campaign defined by the foundation’s mission. Proposals for participation in these initiatives are invited by the foundation.
Numerous foundations have some version of this exclusionary policy.
"Prescriptive" also means pressuring applicants from the open application process into programs they would not have originated themselves.
The Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) is an unincorporated group of more than 200 foundations with important environmental programs. The EGA foundations meet in closed sessions to plan strategy in shutting down every economic action that affects the environment.
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