ABSTRACT
Private foundations are characteristically linked in some degree and in various ways to the particular corporation from which the donor's wealth derived. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation was created by one of the most colorful and controversial figures in American history. He was the first of the great newspaper magnates and a man of unlimited ego and appetite for power. The Hearst Foundation was set up in 1949 three years before the donor's death. The benefit to philanthropy was that the foundation increased its giving. Prior to passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, it distributed less than $1 million a year in grants; after passage of the act the level of giving immediately more than doubled. Both William Randolph Hearst and Frank Ernest Gannett built great newspaper empires. The Gannett Foundation offers the sharp contrast of a better and rapidly improving program accompanied by a vigorous program to maximize the visibility of the parent company.
