Advisor. Author. Teacher.
Doug White
Doug White, a long-time leader and scholar in the nation’s philanthropic community, is an author and an advisor to nonprofit organizations and philanthropists. He serves as the Co-Chair of the Walter Cronkite Committee at FoolProof, and as a member of the President’s Advisory Council at the Secular Coalition of America. He is also a past member of SCA’s board of directors. He is on the faculty at Southern University’s Valdry Center for Philanthropy, and is the former Director of Columbia University’s Master of Science in Fundraising Management program, where he also taught board governance, ethics and fundraising. Prior to that, he was a lecturer at and the academic director of New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.
Doug has published five books. His most recent, “Wounded Charity” (Paragon House, 2019), analyzes the allegations of mismanagement made in January 2016 against Wounded Warrior Project. Kate Bahen, the managing director of Charity Intelligence Canada, wrote, “An epic whodunnit. A sweeping sector perspective. A gripping read for everyone interested in the charity sector. The facts behind the news headlines leaves one reeling. How could this happen? Using the dramatic case of Wounded Warrior Project, Doug White addresses the key forces shaping today’s charity sector. From his unique perch, he generously shares his insights and those of the sector’s thought leaders. Doug White’s books should be required reading for charity directors, journalists, staff and donors alike.”
“Abusing Donor Intent” (Paragon House, 2014) chronicles the historic lawsuit brought against Princeton University by the children of Charles and Marie Robertson, the couple who donated $35 million in 1961 to endow the graduate program at the Woodrow Wilson School. The family contended that Princeton abused its mandate to spend the money as the donors wished – and as the university agreed. The Foundation Center had this to say about the book: “Well-plotted with the slow burn of a decades-old frustration, and immensely readable with the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars at stake – to say nothing of the reputation of one of America’s most august universities – Abusing Donor Intent is equal parts thriller and cautionary tale.”
His three other books are: “The Nonprofit Challenge: Integrating Ethics into the Purpose and Promise of Our Nation’s Charities” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), “Charity on Trial: What You Need to Know Before You Give” (Barricade Books, 2007), and “The Art of Planned Giving: Understanding Donors and the Culture of Giving” (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), which was awarded the 1996 Staley/Robeson/Ryan/St. Lawrence Prize for Research by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
He has written several articles for a variety of magazines and periodicals, including Trusts and Estates, the Journal of Gift Planning, Charitable Gift Planning News, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Since 1979 Doug has advised hundreds of charities of all types and sizes – including social service, educational, health and environmental organizations. Today, he works closely with select organizations on ethical decision-making, board governance, and fundraising, as well as with individual philanthropists who want to see their gifts used most effectively.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Doug worked as the development director at Holderness School (NH). For almost two decades (1982 – 2000) he served on the Capital Giving Committee at Phillips Exeter Academy and as its national chair for several years during that time. He has served in leading roles with two national planned gift and endowment investment firms. As a long-term consultant to Blackbaud, Inc. in the 1980s and 1990s, he developed one of the first planned giving software programs.
In 1995 Doug testified before a Congressional committee in support of the Philanthropy Protection Act and served as an advisor for the charitable defendants in a national lawsuit – the “Texas Lawsuit” – that threatened the ability of charities to raise money through gift annuities. He has also since served as an advisor in other lawsuits relating to donor intent.
Doug is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (formerly the National Committee on Planned Giving). In 1996, while on the NCPG board, he founded the national initiative of Leave A Legacy. He is also a past chair of the NCPG Ethics Committee and the 1995 NCPG National Conference. He is a past president of the Planned Giving Group of New England and a past president of the New Hampshire/Vermont chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. He writes the ethics column for the National Capital Gift Planning Council (Washington, DC); in 2002 the council presented Doug with its Distinguished Service Award.
Since 1981 he has spoken at over 850 conferences on philanthropy, including the Association for Fundraising Professionals, The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, United Jewish Communities, and hundreds of local professional organizations and planned giving councils, as well as many audiences sponsored by local charities and other groups.
