Thomas H. Kean on Running Carnegie, His Decades of Service, and the State of Philanthropy

On April 15, 2021, the board of trustees at the Carnegie Corporation of New York learned they had a succession problem, a big one. Carnegie’s longtime president, Vartan Gregorian, had suddenly passed away in a New York City hospital — and the foundation had no clear successor.

Gregorian, who was 87, was a much beloved, larger-than-life figure who had spent his last 24 years running Carnegie, and before that, Brown University and the New York Public Library. So to whom did the trustees turn to help lead Carnegie? They chose their own board chair Thomas H. Kean, who, it turns out, had been a successful substitute in the past, albeit in a very different role. Back in 2002, Kean was President George W. Bush’s second choice as chairman of the 9-11 Commission. Its original chairman, Henry Kissinger, had stepped aside soon after his appointment because of a conflict-of-interest issue, and Kean took over the job.

Once again last year, Kean agreed to come off the bench, this time to replace his dear friend and colleague Gregorian. And once again, he would have big shoes to fill. At the time, Kean said of Gregorian, “We will remember him most for his immense intellect, his thoughtful generosity, his witty, learned and sly sense of humor, and his uncanny ability to both inspire and challenge each of us to do our utmost to advance the corporation’s mission above all else. He was a man of the world who inspired the world.”

That said, similar words have been used to describe Kean, a two-term governor of New Jersey, with a loaded resume of his own. Kean came to the job with more than a little experience in the foundation and nonprofit world. Aside from his role as chair of Carnegie, he was also board chair at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and served on the boards of Rita Allen Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund, Columbia Teachers College, and a number of other nonprofits. He was also president of New Jersey’s Drew University for 15 years.

One of the ironies of Kean’s new position is that in 2013, he turned Vartan Gregorian down when asked to serve what ended up being his third stint as Carnegie’s board chair. At the time, Kean was also chair at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and felt strongly that no one should lead two major foundation boards at the same time. So he politely told Gregorian, “No thank you.”

A few days later, Kean’s phone rang, and when he picked up, he heard Gregorian’s voice: “‘I talked to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,’ he told me. ‘They’re all for it.’” Kean quickly countered that there were six other people on the Carnegie board who could easily become chair. Gregorian assured Kean he would think about it, but he didn’t think very long. “Vartan calls back,” Kean says, “and tells me, ‘I talked to every one of them. They voted unanimously for you.’ At that point, you just have to say, ‘OK.’ You just can’t say no to Vartan.”

For a little over a year now, Kean has been helping fill Gregorian’s shoes. He has taken on an interim role overseeing the foundation, working closely with the board’s vice chairman, Janet L. Robinson. Kean describes himself as minding the store until Gregorian’s permanent successor, Oxford Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson, takes the helm at the start of next year. After decades in public and philanthropic service, he’s well equipped for the job — and in a prime position to reflect on his impressive career, Carnegie’s legacy, and the role of foundations in our troubled times.

On the state of philanthropy

Kathryn Fuller, who chairs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s board and served with Kean on several boards, says of Kean, “He is just so generous of spirit and generous with his time. And given all in his personal life, it would be pretty easy to say, ‘OK, I’m in my 80s, yeah, [leading Carnegie], that’s a bridge too far.’ But that’s not Tom.”

It’s also a challenging time for anyone to be overseeing a foundation, as the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial uprisings of 2020, wealth inequality, and political turmoil are all forcing the sector to reexamine its place in American society. In his current, more hands-on role at Carnegie, Kean readily acknowledges that foundations, including his own, are not without fault — and in need of more self-scrutiny. “One of the things you have to do at foundations, which most foundations do not do, is look at their mistakes. All your grants are not perfect. Admit your mistakes, learn from them. Sometimes the idea isn’t as good as you thought it was.”

He recalls one of Carnegie’s unsuccessful educational initiatives. “We spent a lot of money a couple of years ago trying to improve teachers’ colleges. We were trying to basically change teachers’ colleges to do a better job of training teachers, right? I don’t think we were successful.” Kean has a master’s degree from Columbia Teachers College and served on the school’s board, so the failure of Carnegie’s initiative probably struck particularly close to home.

Yet, Kean also notes that failure can be helpful to foundations. “You make mistakes and you’ve got to recognize it when you do. But if you don’t make some bad choices, you’re not doing a good job. Because foundation money is risk capital, in my mind. And risk capital means you go out with the great ideas and try to get them funded and done — and when you do that, you can look back and say, you know, this wouldn’t have happened, except for this foundation’s money.”

As an example, Kean points to Robert Wood Johnson’s funding to curtail drunk driving through promoting designated drivers, a minor program at the time that ended up saving a lot of lives. Carnegie is also proud of its integral role in the creation of “Sesame Street” on PBS, which would go on to educate and influence young people for five decades and counting. Kean goes on to discuss how the very notion of foundations and giving are a point of pride, deeply embedded in the American ethos. “We have always had a philosophy of giving in this country. De Tocqueville noted it. He wrote how one of the unusual things about the United States is its tradition of giving.”

From his perch at Carnegie, Kean is encouraged by the fact that America’s foundations come in many shapes and sizes. “Some of them are very nimble in their approaches, some are not so nimble, for whatever reason. Some of them are conservative, some are very liberal. And it’s the range of philanthropy that I think the country needs. I would be upset if all foundations behaved the same.”

The need for a robust philanthropic sector is increasingly important, too, he says. With his decades of experience in both the political and foundation worlds, and despite being a two-term governor, Kean has become skeptical about government’s ability to address America’s and the world’s growing problems.

In a 2019 essay, Kean discussed the numerous ground-breaking programs that the federal government used to implement, including the GI Bill, Medicare, Head Start, and setting up the EPA. He then wrote, “Could Congress pass and launch these life-changing programs today? The answer is an emphatic, ‘No!’ — and that is deeply troubling.” So who should be taking the lead? Kean argues foundations need to pick up the cudgel to bring about societal change. “Our country’s great philanthropic institutions… must fill the void left by a gridlocked government.”

On the state of Carnegie

Under Kean, and Gregorian before him, Carnegie is committed to funding around $160 million in grants each year in three core areas: K-16 education, democracy, and international peace and security. Concerning democracy and its future, Kean, a lifelong Republican, shares the concerns of a growing number of philanthropy leaders.

“We’re in trouble, no question — with outward signs very much there, whether it’s the riots in the Capitol or whether it’s voting procedures, whether it’s the idea of trying to stop people from voting rather than encouraging them to vote. We’ve got a lot of grantees out there, we’re taking every one of these problems and trying to find ways we can make these things better.”

Another key area on Carnegie’s grantmaking agenda is halting nuclear proliferation. “It’s one of the most dangerous things in the world, as stockpiles of nuclear weapons grow, whether they are in Russia, in the U.S., or North Korea. And we’ve got to find some way of preserving ourselves as a world and a species by getting rid of those nuclear stockpiles in one way or another. And we (Carnegie) are one of the only ones who do that. Governments don’t do it anymore.”

The murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement were a major impetus for change influencing Kean, and the foundation world in general. Kean acknowledges that they served to bring about a renewed and necessary focus on equity and inclusion in both grants and foundation staffing. “It’s affected us at Carnegie and it’s affected, should have affected, every foundation.”

He’d also like to see the philanthropic sector become more creative and break out of some of its stubborn, ingrained habits, which he witnessed during his time as a grant seeker, as president of Drew University.

Kean is trying to implement a move toward more diversity in grantmaking at Carnegie, but he is also aware that, despite its prestigious, century-long reputation, the foundation no longer swings the biggest bat in the sector. As one Carnegie executive confessed to IP, “We have more cachet than cash.” In fact, Carnegie’s $4.7 billion endowment puts it relatively far down the food chain these days. As a result, says Kean, Carnegie seeks to partner with other foundations when funding many of its new initiatives.

“Historically, we were a foundation that could bring other foundations together. We will get an idea, say in education, and we will put in our money, and then we’ll talk to other foundations and other foundations will come in. We learned at Carnegie that as long as you share the credit, it doesn’t matter whose idea it is.” One example of this is OpenSciEd, a fairly recent Carnegie effort to develop an open-source science curriculum for middle school teachers. Carnegie was joined in this initiative by several partner foundations, including Gates, Hewlett and Schusterman Family Philanthropies.

This collaborative approach fits well with Kean’s lifelong modus operandi. As chair of the 9-11 Commission, he convinced all 10 commission members, five Democrats and five Republicans, to agree unanimously on the Commission’s over 40 recommendations — a rare bipartisan success story, and one that is, sadly, even rarer these days.

“His management style is quiet. He doesn’t speak unless he feels the conversation needs to be directed,” says Robert Wood Johnson’s Fuller, describing how Kean runs a boardroom. “But he has such gravitas and experience that everybody was always aware that Tom Kean is in the room.”

On Carnegie’s future

Today, thankfully, more than a year into his tenure, help is on the way. Carnegie’s new president has finally been approved by the board. The new president, Louise Richardson, who is currently vice chancellor of Oxford (in short, she runs the university), was announced in November 2021. Kean is pleased with the board’s selection.

“She was my choice and a lot of other people’s choice in the beginning, and we had a wonderful search. But if you can get a Louise Richardson, it’s just beyond the pale.” As its 13th president, Richardson will be the first woman to run Carnegie.

But there’s a caveat — Richardson’s commitment to Oxford runs until December 31, 2022. So, Kean has miles to go before he can sleep. Judy Woodruff, Carnegie board member and “PBS Newshour” anchor and managing editor, says the board was not troubled when they learned that Richardson would need more than a year to make the transition. “We just sort of immediately and intuitively decided, OK, we can make this work. In the meantime, Tom and Janet [Robinson, Carnegie’s vice chair] are going to be taking a more hands-on role, and the staff will step up, as well.”

Kean sees himself, along with Robinson, former CEO of the New York Times Company, as just minding the store until Richardson comes on board. “And that means trying to keep everybody on board, and everybody stayed on board. It means keeping the relationship with the grantees. And she’s going to make changes. And everybody knows that. And the staff knows it, the grantees know it. And we wouldn’t want her if she didn’t. So, she’s going to have her own vision. And my job is to make sure she could do that vision with the least possible problem.”

With just six more months to go, Kean remains proud not only of the foundation’s prestigious legacy but also its Gilded Age founder, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was once the world’s wealthiest man and his generosity helped set in motion the concept of large foundations and grantmaking in America. Carnegie “wasn’t a saint,” he acknowledges, “But just the principle, that you owe the world to give back what you reaped — that’s a wonderful idea.”

Meanwhile, in our own high-tech Gilded Age, Kean hopes that more of America’s new billionaires find a way to step up to the plate and embrace Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic commitment, which called for the very rich to give their wealth away. “I think to die rich is to die disgraced. Not to use your wealth and do some public good is a sin,” Kean says, paraphrasing Carnegie. Kean pauses and shakes his head while quietly adding, “Some of them haven’t done it yet, and time’s a-wasting.”

Editor’s Note: This article has been modified to clarify Kean’s role following Vartan Gregorian’s death, which has involved overseeing and helping lead Carnegie, working closely with board Vice Chairman Janet L. Robinson.

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