Goldman Sachs Philanthropy CONTINUED
small-business recovery initiative, and Goldman Sachs Gives (GSG)
contributions, total giving by the firm since 1999 was $931 million,
according to a Goldman Sachs spokesperson.
cut his wages by nearly 50 percent, and his
tenants moved out.
“I’m about to lose my house,” says Diaz,
who emigrated from Peru in 1994 and joined
the Reserves a few months after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, he says. “I’m work-
ing half the time here [at Fort Dix, training
for deployment], and half the time at my
civilian job trying to support my family. My
worry is, if I get deployed, if my family is
going to have a place to stay.”
“Today, 6. 5 million Americans are
suffering sleepless nights, every night,
wondering if they will have a home tomor-
row,” Center for Responsible Lending’s
Gordon said in testimony on Jan. 13 before
the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission,
established by Congress seven months ago
to investigate the causes of the financial
and economic crisis.
And it’s not over yet. “Our data
shows that by the end of 2014, 13 million
Americans will lose their homes,” she said.
Gordon told the commission that despite
pocketing billions of dollars from taxpayers, many of these same banks are failing
to modify loans at any meaningful rate and
often pursue modification plans without
stopping foreclosure procedures.
The end result: Hopeful homeowners
are often surprised at the door by sheriffs’
deputies ready to kick them to the curb.
Goldman Sachs Gives?
A similar review of the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund Form 990
for 2008 (again, 2009 is not yet available) shows that this fund started 2008 with $131 million in assets and ended with $116 million.
All told, the fund made 431 grants valued at $10.3 million,
according to the company’s Form 990. The fund lost $2.85 million
on investments and paid another $2 million in management fees.
GSG was launched in 2008 with $130 million in donations from
the firm’s partners. GSG is expected to grow to more than $1 billion
in assets over the next few years and the $500 million recently
donated by employees to that fund goes a long way in accomplishing
that goal. The company said that GSG donors will be strongly encouraged to give to nonprofit organizations focused on economic growth
and community development.
The company, which employs 32,500, has about 1,800 managing
directors, according to Business Week, and about 400 partners. Base
pay was about $200,000 for managing directors and approximately
$600,000 for partner managing directors in 2007, says Financial
News Online. These figures do not include bonuses, which can soar
into the millions.
Since 2006, they’ve earned $63 billion in bonuses.
Still, there is no denying that Goldman Sachs has made a number of
charitable offerings over the past several months. Aside from pumping an additional $200 million into the Goldman Sachs Foundation
and forcing its employees to funnel an additional $519 million into
GSG, the firm has:
;Invested $500 million to help 10,000 small businesses recover
from the recession.
10,000 Small Businesses is largely targeted
to underserved communities and populations in the United States
that were impacted by predatory lending and foreclosures
; Donated $1 million to the American Red Cross for the Haitian
Relief and Development Fund, CARE, Doctors Without Borders,
International Rescue Committee, World Food Programme and Save
the Children following the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti. The
firm will match all employee contributions made to the Haitian
relief efforts
ROUGH THE F
WALL STREET BANKS
CHEERED LENDERS
As the real-estate market pushed to its peaks in 2005 and 2006 and home prices across the nation literally doubled,
new homes couldn’t be built fast enough.
This voracious demand encouraged lenders
to loosen their guidelines by offering loans
to borrowers with even the shakiest credit.
Wall Street banks cheered them on, extending generous credit terms to lenders and
offering loan officers extra money to push
subprime mortgages.
“Wall Street investment banks were
subprime mortgage lenders’ single most
important source of capital and therefore
had a tremendous amount of power in the
Combined, that’s more than $1 billion in one year.
It’s hard not to view these moves as anything more than damage
control.
“I’m a real skeptic that short-term PR stunts really do anything,”
said corporate reputation expert Eric Dezenhall, author of “Damage
Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management Is
Wrong.” “If they gave up their bonuses—maybe if they gave up all
their bonuses—it’s not like if they write a check to the UNCF tomorrow people will feel good about them. If they do what Bill Gates
eventually did with a systematic campaign to demonstrate some
degree of social value, they may have some long-term success from
dissuading people from attacking them.” ;;;
