Columbia University Provost Katznelson's Russell Sage Foundation Connection: Conclusion

Russell Sage Foundation headquarters building at 112 East 64th Street in Manhatta

Russell Sage Foundation Trustee Jason Furman has been sitting next to former Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Dean Lemann on the Russell Sage Foundation board of trustees (that Columbia Provost Katznelson sat on between 1992 and 2002), since November 2018. And, according to the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University website, Russell Sage Trustee Furman worked “eight years as a top economic adviser to President Obama, including serving as…Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017”—during a period of U.S. economic history when public funds were used by the Obama Administration to bail out for-profit Wall Street banks, U.S. unemployment rates exceeded 6 percent for many years, and economic inequality in the USA continued to increase.

As the same website recalled, Russell Sage Foundation Trustee “Furman played a major role in most of the major economic policies of the Obama Administration;” and, in addition, Trustee Furman also, previously, “worked at both the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration” in the 1990’s and “also at the World Bank.”

Coincidentally, according to the Upper West Side-based Columbia University’s, “Columbia World Project” website, “Columbia World Project” also operates “the Obama Foundation Scholars Program;” and  a photograph and biography of Russell Sage Foundation President Sheldon Danziger are, also coincidentally, posted on Columbia’s “Columbia World Project” website page.

Like “non-profit” Columbia Univesity, the Columbia-linked Russell Sage Foundation may still not be paying a fair share of New York City taxes in 2021. Yet, according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2018, besides paying Russell Sage Foundation President Danziger a total annual compensation of between $594,000 and $623,000, the “philanthropic” Russell Sage Foundation also paid total annual compensations to the “non-profit” foundation’s administrators that were a lot more than the total annual compensations that most essential workers in the Big Apple are paid each year. For example:

1. Russell Sage Foundation Assistant Treasurer William Moon was paid a total annual compensation of over $301,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019;

2. Russell Sage Foundation Program Director Aixa Cintron-Velez was paid a total annual compensation of over $251,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019;

3. Russell Sage Foundation Program Director James Wilson was paid a total annual compensation of over $250,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019;

4. Russell Sage Foundation Program Director of Communication David Haproff was paid a total annual compensation of over $236,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019;

5. Russell Sage Foundation Director of Administration Ivan Ramos was paid a total annual compensation of over $232,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019;

6. Russell Sage Foundation Director of Publications Suzanne Nichols was paid a total annual compensation of over $230,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019; and

7. Russell Sage Foundation Board of Trustees Secretary Claire Gabriel was paid a total annual compensation of over $222,000 between Sept. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019.

And besides having a board of trustees which interlocks with the boards of even wealthier foundations, that also obtain their “charitable” grant money from investments in for-profit corporations which exploit essential workers and consumers, the “non-profit” Russell Sage Foundation also apparently “enters into research collaboration with a number of other foundations;” and its “co-funders” include the Carnegie Corporation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, according to its website. In addition, the Russell Sage Foundation also “partners” with the Gates Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

But if it’s a violation of U.S. anti-trust laws for U.S. business firms in a particular industry to collaborate or conspire with, purportedly separate, business firms to exploit U.S. consumers, why isn’t it a violation of U.S. anti-trust laws for U.S. foundations in the “philanthropy industry” to collaborate with, purportedly separate, foundations--to undemocratically determine how the money they obtain, from investments in corporations that exploit essential workers and consumers, is to be distributed?

One reason the New York Times might not be interested in either raising this question or providing New York Times or Upper West Side Patch readers with the answer to the above question, however, might be because—coincidentally—as a press release that was posted on the Russell Sage Foundation’s website on June 21, 2020  noted:

“The Russell Sage Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of David Leonhardt…to its board of trustees effective at its November 2020 board meeting. David Leonhardt is an American journalist and columnist at The New York Times.  He writes The Morning Briefing newsletter, covering the day’s biggest news and cultural developments, and contributes occasionally to the Sunday Review.  Leonhardt has worked at the Times since 1999…He also served as the Times’ Washington bureau chief from 2011-2013…” 

(end of article) (This article was first posted on the Upper West Side Patch website).