I just saw this in the elevator news ticker: It is not clear what will happen to the charitable donations that the Lehman Brothers Foundation makes each year.
The foundation tied to the bank that went under Monday annually gives out more than $40 million in charitable donations, including roughly $20 million throughout the United States, another $4 million in New York where the bank is headquartered, and $13 million internationally.
Among the Jewish related charities that the Lehman Brothers Foundation supports are Aleh Negev, for which they are building a special needs classroom in the High Dependency Ward of the organization’s medical facility in Israel, The Jewish Museum in New York and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Crain’s first reported on the uncertainty at the foundation but could not get a comment from the investment bank.
A Lehman spokesman declined to explain what will happen to its philanthropic commitments.
In May, a national survey of 300 foundations by the Council on Foundations showed that 55% did not expect fluctuations in the stock market to affect their level of grant making.
A Council spokeswoman said that historically, foundations are not usually crunched for cash until a year or two after an economic downturn begins.
But that was before this week, which wrought what many consider to be one of the greatest upheavals in the financial industry.
