Bill Berkowitz
October 11, 2005

Philanthropy the Wal-Mart way

Will the Walton Family Foundation become a $20 billion tax-exempt opponent of public education?

Today most people think they know the story of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, owned by the Walton family of Bentonville, Arkansas. Together the Waltons own 39 percent of the corporation that brings discounted merchandise to the public through Wal-Mart and its other stores. The company has more than 5,000 stores (3,400 in the U.S.), is the world's largest private employer, and is the world's largest company based on revenue with more than $280 billion in annual sales.

Wal-Mart's discounted prices, however, come with a heavy price tag. Workers are under-paid and overworked in sweatshops overseas, while their non-union counterparts in the U.S. often cannot afford healthcare for their families. Wal-Mart has been the target of a flood of suits; it is currently the defendant in the largest sex-discrimination class-action lawsuit ever, a suit representing more than 1.5 million women.

When Wal-Mart comes to town, many small businesses invariably close, permanently changing the "civil fabric" of local communities. Worse, the company's bottom line is dependent upon soaking up of hundreds of millions of dollar in taxpayer subsidies extracted from cash-strapped state and county budgets. A May 2004 study by the Washington, DC-based Good Jobs First titled "Shopping for Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never Ending Growth," found that the company has siphoned more than $1 billion in economic development subsidies from state and local governments across the country.

If Wal-Mart was just another gigantic retail chain that was virulently anti-union, niggardly with its benefits, and a drain on the economies of local communities, it would certainly be remarkable but it would pretty much fall into the "business as usual" category. However, Wal-Mart, and the Walton family that runs the company founded by Sam Walton, also does its damage in ways that are more insidious: Through its philanthropic ventures, the Walton Family devotes a significant portion of its holdings to boosting conservative political candidates and a conservative social agenda centered on the privatization of public education.

Sometime in the near future, upon the death of the matriarch of the family, Helen Walton, the Walton Family Foundation could get an infusion of up to $20 billion, making it the largest foundation in the world.

As the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) points out in its recent report titled "The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy,"

"...philanthropic grantmaking and campaign contributions to political action committees (PACs), as well as to candidates, increasingly represents the surplus capital of the wealthy, which they can devote to promoting their sociopolitical worldview."

While wealthy conservatives such as the Koch Family and the Scaife Family have donated large amounts of money to a number of "safe" charities, a good portion of their largesse has flowed to conservative causes -- particularly to the establishment and sustenance of an infrastructure of right wing think tanks, public policy institutes, and media outlets. More recently, George Soros and Peter Lewis have become "very visible progressive donors ... to both charity and politics."

The NCRP report notes that, "corporations and their foundations in 2004 contributed $12 billion in cash and in-kind donations to charities." A "lack of government regulation over the reporting of those contributions," makes it very difficult to track "the true amount of corporate gifts nearly impossible."

It is "even more difficult," the NCRP report maintains, "to uncover the true intent behind many corporate philanthropic projects." While companies benefit in a number of ways when gifts to non-controversial charities are acknowledged and publicized, donations to politically charged campaigns and causes often raise the hackles of both stockholders and customers. In recent years, "little government oversight and a general lack of transparency," have become the spawning grounds for "the misuse and abuse of corporation philanthropy," as witnessed by scandals involving Enron and Tyco International which included components of "questionable board and executive uses of corporate philanthropy."

In its report, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy studies the intersection between corporate philanthropy and public policy by examining Wal-Mart's "corporate philanthropy" and looking into the "philanthropic efforts" of Sam Walton, and the various philanthropic ventures established by the Walton children and grandchildren.

Sam Walton paves the way

Bentonville, Arkansas is home to the Walton family and the Wal-Mart corporate empire. The family controls "about 39% of Wal-Mart [4.3 billion shares] stock, worth some $90 billion, which makes them by far the richest family in the U.S.," Andy Serwer reported in his extensive profile of the family in the November 15, 2004 edition of Fortune magazine.

According to the NCRP report, "although all family members have had business ventures and wealth independent of their inheritance, the bulk of the family's fortune is managed together by Walton Enterprises." On an annual basis, the Walton's $90 billion "produces dividends upward of $800 million."

When Sam Walton died in 1992, he left "the bulk of his wealth" to his wife and their four children. According to the NCRP, Sam Robson (Rob) Walton is the eldest son and has been Chairman of the Board of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. John, who recently died, was "the activist in the family, working to fund political campaigns for school vouchers and charter schools and directing much of the family's charitable giving." Jim, the youngest son, "is CEO of the Walton's family's financial division, Arvest Holdings, which owns Arvest Bank ... the largest bank in Arkansas." He also "heads" Walton Enterprises and "owns" the local newspaper in Bentonville. Alice apparently is the only Walton child that "does not directly control any of the family enterprises."

With the strong encouragement from his wife, Sam Walton started his family foundation with $1,000 in 1987, Fortune's Andy Server reported. By the time Sam Walton died five years later, he left the foundation $172 million through a trust.

NWANews.com's Mark Minton pointed out in November 2004 that, according to Walton Family Foundation's tax return filed that same month it "held assets worth $733.9 million at the end of 2003." The year before, the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) was worth $791.9.

Giving, Wal-Mart style

While assorted members of the Walton family have established their own philanthropic projects, the Walton Family Foundation and the Wal-Mart Foundations are the flagship foundations. The Walton Family Foundation already gives out more than $100 million a year -- much of it to opponents of public school education -- and it may receive as much as an additional $20 billion when Helen Walton, the family matriarch, leaves this mortal coil. Helen Walton, who currently runs the foundation created by her husband Sam Walton, is in her mid-eighties and her health has declined since being involved in an auto accident five years ago. If the Walton Family Foundation does wind up with the lion's share of her holdings, it will propel it from being the largest foundation in its home state of Arkansas, to the biggest in the world.

Despite donations by Helen Walton to Planned Parenthood, and $5 million for the establishment of Walton Arts Center near the university campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Walton family has been a champion of educational causes, specializing in financing alternatives to public education. It has supported the establishment of charter schools and private school choice. "It gave a string of grants totaling nearly $3 million to the national Knowledge is Power Program, which recruits teachers to create public college prep charter schools in underserved communities," Minter reported. "The gifts included donations to 21 such schools around the country."

Steve Mancini, a spokesperson for the Knowledge is Power Program said that "The Walton family, and particularly John Walton, is building a kind of quiet revolution in public education."

"The importance of the Waltons is not how much money they are giving now, but how much money they will be giving in a few years and where the money will be going," the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's report states. According to the report, "almost all political contributions made by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Political Action Committee for Responsive Government, and individual family members are directed toward Republican candidates for public office or Republican political committees. Of $2.1 million given in 2004, $1.6 went to the GOP, while less than $500,000 went to Democrats.

Citing statistics from the Foundation Center, the NCRP report points out that in 2003 the Wal-Mart Foundation (WMF) "was the 51st-largest corporate foundation based on assets and the second-largest based on total giving," figures that includes in-kind and product donations. Newsweek reported that WMF has consistently ranked first in total giving based only on cash contributions. Wal-Mart reported that WMF gave more than $170 million in 2004, up nearly $60 million from two years earlier. According to the company's figures, "more than 90 percent" of its donations go through its local stores, and most are in the $500 - $1,000 range.

While Wal-Mart supports long-time national charities like the Salvation Army and the United Way, its foundation primarily focuses on local grants: "In our experience, we can make the greatest impact on communities by supporting issues and causes that are important to our customers and associates in their own neighborhoods." The upshot of these policies is that the foundation's money never benefits anyone outside the Wal-Mart community.

Although the foundation prohibits the funding of "faith-based organizations whose projects benefit primarily or wholly their membership or adherents," nevertheless, "churches and other houses of worship receive a large percentage of ... grants," according to the report.

Walton Family Foundation: relentlessly conservative

According to its 2003 IRS 990 tax filing, the Walton Family Foundation is smaller and considerably less complex that the Wal-Mart Foundation, and therefore easier to track. In 2003 it was the 63rd-largest foundation in terms of assets ($733+ million) and 25th-largest in terms of giving (nearly $107 million).

According to the report, the WFF concentrates its giving on three spheres: "systematic reform in education" -- focusing on K-12; "the northwest region of Arkansas"; and "the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi." All of its spheres of interest include educational concerns.

The WFF concentrates on funding Charter School Initiatives, Educational Options Scholarship Initiatives, School Improvement, and Arkansas Education. Before his death, John Walton was "one of the nation's leading private individual funders of charter schools and voucher initiatives." Interestingly enough the NCRP report claims, "this type of charitable giving does not have to be legally disclosed, making it difficult to put the final price tag on his contributions."

The NCRP, looking into the WFF's penchant for spearheading the privatization movement asks: "Why is the richest family in the world so committed to education, and specifically to school choice, when they themselves mostly attended public school to apparently good effect?"

"Some critics argue that it is the beginning of the ‘Wal-Martization' of education, and a move to for-profit schooling, from which the family could potentially financially benefit. John Walton owned 240,000 shares of Tesseract Group Inc. (formerly known as Education Alternatives Inc.), which is a for-profit company that develops/manages charter and private school as well as public schools."

The WFF provides more than $1 million to each of the following so-called school reform/choice groups: the American Education Reform Council, the Center for Education Reform, Children's Scholarship Fund, Colorado League of Charter Schools, and the Florida School Choice Fund. The Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation of America (also known as Children's First America) received $10.3 million in 2003 and $8.3 in 2002.

The WFF has also supported the Washington, DC-based Black Alliance for Education Options (BAEO - website), an African American-headed group that "works to advertise and market the school voucher movement top African-American families." In October 2002, BAEO received a $600,000 grant from the Bush administration. "We want to change the conversation about parental choice by positively influencing individuals who are resisting parental choice options and get them to reconsider their outlook," Undersecretary of Education Gene Hickok said when he announced the grant. The Black Commentator characterized the BAEO as "the school vouchers propaganda outfit created by the far-right [Harry and Lynde] Bradley Foundation."

In addition to its support for the "school reform" movement, the WFF "funds pro-voucher think tanks like the Goldwater Institute and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research," People for the American Way (PFAW) has reported. In a short piece, titled "John Walton and the Walton Family Foundation," PFAW pointed out that, "on the legislative front, John Walton personally contributed $2 million to the failed 2000 Michigan voucher initiative as well as $250,000 to California's Prop 174 in 1993, another unsuccessful voucher initiative. Walton also bankrolled the California effort through his American Education Reform Foundation, as well as an unsuccessful 1997 voucher campaign in Minnesota."

John Walton may have passed, but the Walton Family Foundation appears to have an extraordinarily bright future ahead of it. With Helen Walton's $18-20 billion coming down the pike, WFF will be "propel[led] to the top of the list of largest foundations," the NCRP maintains. In addition, as the WFF grows, "so will the scope of its funding," expanding beyond its current three-pronged interests.

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy concludes its report by pointing out that "Wal-Mart and the Walton family have only recently begun to translate their vast wealth into political power." While Sam Walton expressed little interest in national politics, his progeny have moved in that direction.

Over the decades, Wal-Mart has incessantly expanded its presence across the US and throughout the world. Over the past few years, it has expanded its presence in the nation's capital. The company hired its first Washington, DC lobbyist in 1998, and in 2000, it opened a Washington, DC office. It currently employs six "external lobbying firms (in addition to its internal operation), ... and [has become] one of the top 20 PAC contributors to federal candidates in the 2004 election cycle."