At the age of 93, Sir John Templeton will be stepping down as chairman of the foundation he has created and endowed. His 65-year-old son, Dr. John M. (Jack) Templeton, Jr., is taking over after a long period of training. Dr. Templeton will also remain as president, a position he has held since 1995, when he left a distinguished career in pediatric surgery to help his father carry out his philanthropic legacy. Under the charter and bylaws of the foundation, Dr. Templeton will remain at its helm until the age of 78.

The transfer of leadership coincides with a substantial increase in the foundation’s grantmaking. Sir John made an extraordinary contribution of $550 million to the foundation in late 2004, more than doubling its assets. The Templeton Foundation now has about $950 million in assets, making it one of the 50 to 65 largest foundations in the country. In 2006, it will give approximately $60 million in grants, up from about $48 million in 2005 and $40 million in 2004.

Sir John will remain active in the foundation after the transition. He will continue to be one of 12 members of the foundation’s board of trustees. In addition to its fiduciary responsibilities, the board will assume new responsibilities in the oversight of grant-making strategy and in the approval of large grants. Also, as has been reported in the press, Sir John frequently sends his son detailed faxes about foundation issues. Dr. Templeton says he expects that practice to continue, “though perhaps less frequently than before.”

The foundation’s senior management team will aid Dr. Templeton in serving the board. Senior vice president Charles L. Harper, Jr., formerly a research scientist and cosmologist at Harvard University, helps to direct strategic thinking for the foundation’s major new initiatives. Harper is widely respected in philanthropic circles for his broad-ranging knowledge of, and creative insights, in philosophy, economics, the natural sciences and the political and intellectual cultures of third-world countries. In 2005, the foundation promoted Arthur J. Schwartz to the new position of executive vice president. Schwartz, a long-time grant-making officer at the foundation, is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading philanthropic authorities on character education. Among other achievements he has designed and supervised the Templeton Foundation’s signature initiatives in this field.

The transfer of leadership is a fitting occasion to assess the achievements of the Templeton Foundation. Under Sir John’s chairmanship and Dr. Templeton’s presidency, the foundation has become truly distinctive in the world of philanthropy in four important ways. These are:

its culture of discovery and original thinking, especially in the field of science and religion;
its commitment to free-enterprise-based solutions for the challenges of global poverty;
its use of competitive prizes and requests for proposals as a grant-making strategy; and
its determination to institutionalize donor intent in a foundation established in perpetuity.

The Templeton Foundation is perhaps best known for its work on science and religion. This work starts with the profound humility expressed in Sir John’s motto, “How little we know, how eager to learn.” But this humble approach is accompanied by an extraordinary boldness in asking cosmic questions about, for example, the nature of the universe, or purpose in biology, or the character of the human mind—and in engaging some of the world’s most brilliant scientists and theologians to conduct cutting-edge research on these questions, in conversation with each other.

As a result of this work, the Templeton Foundation has had a dramatic influence on intellectual culture. It has introduced to science promising new subjects of study—for instance, the empirical analysis of forgiveness, and the relationship between spirituality and health. It has encouraged world-class scientists to explore the theological implications of their work and, as important, it has encouraged theologians to integrate into their world-views the most significant discoveries of modern science.

Looking into the future, Dr. Templeton talks excitedly about potential new initiatives for the foundation in this field: for instance, the empirical study of infinity, of generosity, of wisdom, of gratitude. He has a special interest in the science of spiritual transformation—the study of how world views and belief structures change, and how these belief structures impact character and behavior.

The late Waldemar Nielsen, one of the most perceptive observers of philanthropic foundations in the past half-century, has written: “These strange and wonderful inventions (foundations) have a unique freedom from the dependency of other institutions on markets or constituencies that cripple their capacity to take the long view and to bring a competent and disinterested approach to the search for complex problems.” Nielsen went on: “It is a waste of important potential if foundations do not make use of the special freedoms they have been given: to take the long view; to back a promising but unproven idea, individual, or institution; to take an unpopular or unorthodox stand; to facilitate change rather than automatically endorsing the status quo…to act and not merely react; to initiate, even to gamble and dare.”

The work of the John Templeton Foundation in science and religion is one of the best examples in philanthropy today of what Nielsen called for. Neither governments nor businesses could do what the Templeton Foundation has done here, and for various reasons universities have neglected this subject. But as Sir John and Dr. Templeton have shown, a philanthropic foundation has the freedom and the capability to pursue and develop an unconventional set of ideas and turn it into a new branch of learning.

The Templeton Foundation is beginning to achieve similar results with another of its priorities—advancing enterprise-based solutions for the problems of global poverty. A superb example of its work here is a brilliant recent study by University of Newcastle professor James Tooley of for-profit schooling in the slums and villages of India, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. The Templeton Freedom Award, administered by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and given to research organizations drawing empirical connections between economic freedom and opportunity for the poor, has rapidly become the most prestigious prize for think tanks around the world.

One of Dr. Templeton’s central responsibilities in his new role as chairman will be to institutionalize an adherence to donor intent at the foundation. This commitment is unfortunately all too rare: The history of modern philanthropy is a sad story of one giant foundation after another ignoring and in some cases explicitly contradicting the most cherished values of their founders. Sir John and Dr. Templeton are determined not to let that happen. Every single grant will have to meet two standards to be approved by the staff and board:

The proposed grant must relate to the purposes of the foundation as defined in the charter and in Sir John Templeton’s writings and sayings.
Analysis must show that the proposed grant is a cost-effective use of the foundation’s resources.

Sir John has said: “I’m only going to be on this planet once, and only for a short time. What can I do with my life that will lead to permanent benefits?” One thing he has done is to create an enduring culture of discovery at the John Templeton Foundation and among the grantees it funds and the people they serve.

Links of Interest: For more information about the John Templeton Foundation please go to www.templeton.org.; For more information about the Philanthropy Roundtable please go to www.philanthropyroundtable.org.

Adam Meyerson is president of The Philanthropy Roundtable.

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Milestones is a publication of the John Templeton Foundation.