Lehman's not-for-profit fallout

September 17, 2008
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When a major company goes under, it's not just the employees and shareholders who take hits. It's also the not-for-profits that the company helps support. A Bloomberg story today reports on Lehman Brothers endowment, which contributes to over 200 causes each year.

According to Lehman Brothers' website, its philanthropic activity included donations to the Apollo Theatre Foundation and its in-school seminars, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's Team Shakespeare school program, Dallas Children's Theatre, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra's Children's Concert Series, Los Angeles Opera's outreach program, the Alliance of Resident Theatres and many, many more.

According to the Bloomberg story, the endowment may still survive an additional five years.

Looking over the list and watching the news reports, I'm reminded of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara, who acknowledged, "...when we feed a starving fellow creature, it is with their bread, because there is no other bread; when we tend the sick, it is in the hospitals they endow; if we turn from the churches they build, we must kneel on the stones of the streets they pave. As long as that lasts, there is no getting away from them. Turning our backs on [them] is turning our backs on life."

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  • It's not just the companies that go under that are pulling back corporate giving. Check out some of what's happening right here in Central Indiana with some of the big companies here. Talk to a few of the bigger non-profits in the area and you'll find that their corporate donations are likely going down as well.
  • Lou, what was the name of that new restaurant on Indiana Avenue that you just reviewed?
  • It's Zing. You can find the review at www.ibj.com/arts.

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  1. Good ole' Obamacare. Thanks liberals and those who didn't bother to vote.

  2. Yes. Blame those who were too lazy to go vote Obama out and those who voted him in again. That's my take on it. I know folks won't get it on the left. OK. Start berating me now!

  3. Serioulsy, people are AGINST this project? Most communities would be salivating over a project like this. You'd rather have an empty eye-sore gas station and shacks posing as apartments? This project is exactly what BR needs. BUILD IT MR MAYOR. And yes, I am a BR resident, and have been for 20 years.

  4. As a St. Vincent employee of over 20 years, I am saddened and disheartened by this announcement. Unfortunately, as the healthcare "industry" continues on this political and corporate path, all that St. Vincent Hospital has stood for spiritually for its employees and this community is being sucked dry. I know it truly has no choice. It is not just Obamacare or just competition or just any single thing. This trend started long before I was even born when the government became involved in healthcare and it became an "industry." I grieve for those who will lose their jobs, one of whom may be me, but I also grieve for this hospital which I have served for over 20 years. May God give us and it the grace to withstand the future of healthcare.

  5. Why do people constantly harp on this issue and act ignorant about what a city population measures? A city's population is the city's population. There is no argument or debate about it. If you want to measure the density of a city--measure it. If you want to measure the size of a metropolitan area, then measure the metropolitan population. City boundaries cover different sized areas--and they always have (though the disparity has probably increased since about 1900 or so when more cities began annexing their surrounding communities). For example, San Francisco only covers 49 square miles while Houston cover nearly 600 square miles. No one argues about the population rankings of either city even though they clearly cover extremely different sized areas. Indianapolis is the 13 largest city by population in the U.S. That is a fact. While the population of a metropolitan area may give you a better sense of how large a community is, as noted, even metro areas can vary widely in the size of geographic area they cover--so that is not a perfect comparison either.

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