| abstract
| - Three foundations that Richard Mellon Scaife long guided are heading into a season of leadership changes, reorganizations and dramatic expansions three months after the filing of the late billionaire’s will. Nearly doubling in size is the Sarah Scaife Foundation, which Mr. Scaife, son of the philanthropy’s namesake, turned into a national force in funding the development of conservative thought. That foundation is expected to absorb the smaller, similarly focused Carthage Foundation. Growing to an even larger degree is the Allegheny Foundation, which has traditionally done about two-thirds of its charity work in Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Scaife’s executor, H. Yale Gutnick, said the foundations “will reassess everything when the transfer [from the estate] is completed. … We have to deliberately consider everything. That’s the way Mr. Scaife operated.” These developments increase the prominence and power of Michael W. Gleba, president and acting chairman of the Sarah Scaife Foundation and Carthage Foundation, who, with an 11-member board, will oversee the disposition of the funds. Mr. Scaife, the Tribune-Review publisher who died July 4, had assets estimated at $1.4 billion. Early this month, his estate made a $100 million down payment on the state inheritance tax due. His will described trusts with unspecified assets and split control of those trusts between the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Allegheny Foundation. The 54-year-old Sarah Scaife Foundation, which Mr. Scaife’s mother founded, is “directed toward public policy programs that address major domestic and international issues,” according to its filings with the IRS. Mr. Scaife was its chairman and was among 11 trustees who approved grants, which totaled $12.3 million last year. The Allegheny Foundation, which Mr. Scaife created, gives about two-thirds of its annual grants to Western Pennsylvania organizations and focuses on “historic preservation, civic development and education,” according to its IRS filings. Mr Scaife, a longtime chairman of it, and its seven-member board approved $2.1 million in grants last year. He “was the commander-in-chief. He had that kind of personality,” said Doris O’Donnell, an Allegheny Foundation board member. The Sarah Scaife Foundation is expected to grow to have assets of about $800 million, and the Allegheny Foundation will have about half that amount. Mr. Gutnick would not detail the growth of the foundations, saying he has “a much more precise understanding, but I’m not going to talk about that right now.” IRS rules demand that foundations give away at least 5 percent of the rolling average of their assets annually, so the infusion into the Scaife Foundations should push their total giving from about $16 million in 2013 to nearly $60 million in coming years. Neither executive director Matthew A. Groll of the Allegheny Foundation nor Mr. Gleba could be reached this week. With the changes, the Sarah Scaife Foundation would be “the fourth- or fifth-biggest foundation that focuses on conservative issues,” said Richard Mittenthal, president and CEO of TCC Group, a New York-based consultant to philanthropies. “It certainly puts them in the big leagues, but it doesn’t put them in the top of the big leagues,” said Richard Marker, a professor of philanthropy at New York University and co-principal at the consulting firm Wise Philanthropy. The Sarah Scaife Foundation would still have just one-quarter of the assets of liberal George Soros’ $3 billion Open Society Foundations. The Sarah Scaife Foundation has “been responsible for a lot of national public policy for the conservative movement, in particular the work done by the Heritage Foundation, and in Pennsylvania the work done by the Commonwealth Foundation and the Allegheny Institute [for Public Policy],” said Allegheny County Republican Committee chairman Jim Roddey. The merger of the Carthage Foundation and the terms of Mr. Scaife’s will portend “more grants and … a bigger scope,” said Mr. Roddey, who is on the Sarah Scaife Foundation’s board. He said he doesn’t anticipate a change in its focus. “I believe that we all knew Mr. Scaife well. ... We know what his goals and thoughts on public policy [were],” he said. Mr. Roddey called Mr. Gleba, the foundation’s acting chairman, “one of the brightest and most informed people that I have ever known in the field of public policy.” In 2013, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and Carthage Foundation paid Mr. Gleba a combined $393,334, plus contributions to employee benefit plans totaling $50,250. The Allegheny Foundation and Sarah Scaife Foundation last year paid Mr. Groll a total of $216,000, plus $40,200 in contributions toward his benefits. The Sarah Scaife Foundation’s board boasts three aides to President Ronald Reagan: former domestic adviser T. Kenneth Cribb Jr., international finance consultant Roger W. Robinson Jr. and Edwin J. Fuelner, founder of the Heritage Foundation, among Mr. Scaife’s favored think tanks. Editor and author Roger Kimball, Carnegie Mellon University political economist Allan H. Meltzer and Republican National Committee member Christine J. Toretti are also on the board. The Scaife Foundations aren’t known for hobnobbing with other area philanthropies. They haven’t joined Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, which includes 83 donors active in the area. “If the Scaife foundations in this new iteration chose to have more conversations and be more of an active partner, that could be very beneficial,” said Peggy Morrison Outon, executive director of the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University. The Allegheny Foundation was pivotal to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s restoration of Station Square. Last year it boasted assets of $67 million and gave to 26 local organizations, from the Allegheny Institute to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. The foundation’s board plans to meet Nov. 18 to chart its course for the coming year. “It’s going to be very sad,” said Joanne B. Beyer, a former president of the Allegheny Foundation who is on its board. “Trustees of the Allegheny Foundation were all old-time friends of Dick [Scaife] and acquaintances and compatriots.” With its assets expanding into the $400 million range, the Allegheny Foundation is poised to leap past the Grable Foundation locally. It remains a fraction of the size of the Pittsburgh Foundation, Heinz Endowments and Richard King Mellon Foundation, which is the region’s biggest with assets valued at $2.1 billion. “People are watching to see what’s going to happen, and you can best believe that development officers all over the region are sharpening their pencils and getting ready to see whether they can apply,” said Ms. Outon. Rich Lord: rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542. Twitter @richelord
- Richard Mellon Scaife is the man William Randolph Hearst wanted to be if he wasn't such a pussy. Mr. Mellon Scaife uses his vast knowledge to aid in him in the day-to-day operations of his small publishing empire.
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