Whatever the rights and wrongs of mission-related investment, the bad press of the past few weeks may mark a shift for the foundation, into an era when public opinion no longer takes for granted that giving alone is virtuous. -The Economist (2007)

By May the uproar caused by the stories in January about the inconsistencies between the Gates Foundation’s investments and its programs had subsided to a dull roar. The story then exploded again around Warren Buffett’s coming $31 billion contribution to the Foundation and his company’s investments and Darfur.

It seems, therefore, the right moment to take stock of some lessons to be drawn from the renewed furor.

Of these lessons, the most important to me is the virtue of consistency. Consistency, that is, between a foundation’s mission and the actions, policies and characters of the companies in which it invests to fund the programs through which it carries out its mission.

Achieving consistency can be neither difficult nor expensive. Failing to try to gain it risks harm to an institution’s reputation from the taint of hypocrisy.

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For the full article by Peter D. Kinder, click here.