This is not to say that concerns about administration expenses that led to congressional action were completely unfounded. Instances do occur of executive compensation out of scale with responsibilities and industry standards, as occasionally do other expenditures not in keeping with best practices. The most constructive way to identify and tackle these excesses, however, is through standards-setting by industry leaders, awareness by foundation boards, and appropriate monitoring by the Internal Revenue Service and state attorneys general.

Communicate more effectively. Foundations' vulnerability to misconceptions regarding their work and expenses could be reduced by better and more public communication. Most foundations, including some very able value-added ones, still leave communication about their own work and the accomplishments of their grantees to their grantees, many of whom are researchers or institutional leaders with relatively little experience with communicating or time to devote to it. Foundations need to be proactive in communicating about all aspects of their work, especially to influential audiences. As indicated by the Fund's 2003 audience survey, reliance on a traditional, printed annual report is unlikely to do the job in a web-oriented world, and all foundations should harness the powerful and relatively low-cost technology of the web to advance their missions and understanding of their work.

Interact more regularly and deliberately with members of Congress. Foundations exist at the behest of Congress. Few congressional districts lack a foundation of significance, and even fewer lack foundation grantees whose work is important to the social and economic environment of the region. No small part of the information that informs major public policy debates is generated by foundations, yet foundations themselves are poorly understood by many policymakers. Foundations should seek more opportunities to sponsor work useful to policymakers and devote more attention to developing communications activities appropriate for reaching them.