High Cost of Freedom

BEFORE ALLEN NEUHARTH BECAME ITS CHAIRMAN IN 1989, the Virginia-based Freedom Forum was best known as a provider of local journalism grants. Neuharth raised the foundation’s profile by creating journalism libraries across Eastern Europe and awarding generous cash prizes to free-speech supporters. The organization also paid $15 million for luxurious new headquarters in Arlington, including $1 million for artwork, and gave Neuharth a $130,000 annual fee for the part-time chairman’s job.

Now the New York State attorney general is investigating whether the tax- free, not-for-profit foundation’s spending was “excessive or imprudent.” A report in the current Chronicle of Philanthropy notes that the Freedom Forum awarded $20 million in grants last year while spending $34 million on administrative costs. Said a Freedom Forum spokesman: “There have been no excessive expenditures.”