"Foundations are unusual because they don't have to worry about being voted out at the next election or board meeting....Another way that running a foundation is not like running a business is that you don't have customers who beat you up when you get things wrong or competitors who work to take those customers away from you. You don't have a stock price that goes up and down to tell you how you're doing. This lack of a natural feedback loop means that we as a foundation have to be even more careful in picking our goals and being honest with ourselves when we are not achieving them."
 

In December, "about three dozen of the biggest Jewish foundations in the country convened an emergency meeting to come up with a plan to anonymously help the Jewish nonprofits that fell victim to a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that Wall Street trader Bernard L. Madoff is charged with operating, and to try to restore the community's faith in its values, said organizers of the meeting."  Thankfully, the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego had very minimal exposure to the Madoff funds.  Click here for a roundup of related articles on Madoff's impact.