Tax-exempt Universities Chip In

by Gary Snyder

Mayor Angel Taveras has singled out “Providence’s most prestigious tax-exempt organizations for a ‘failure to sacrifice.’” Most notably has been Brown University. 

The Wall Street Journal reported (“Ivy League School to Pay City Millions”) that Brown University has agreed to voluntarily pay “$31.5 million to Providence [Rhode Island’s capital] over 11 years, on top of what the school already pays in voluntary remittances and taxes on some of its properties.” 

According to the Journal, “With an endowment of $2.5 billion, Brown had come under pressure to do more for the city, which has said it risks bankruptcy if it doesn’t close a roughly $22.5 million deficit for the fiscal year ending in June.” The article notes that “a ‘significant minority’ of colleges and universities nationwide already make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes [including six of the eight Ivies], but more are being pressured to do so....” 

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)