The Whitman Institute is a left-of-center grant making institution that supports left-progressive social policy initiatives and organizations that lobby for increased welfare spending. ¹ The Whitman Institute was created in 1985 by Fred Whitman to promote research and resources to devise methods by which people could make better decisions to improve their lives; when John Esterle took over the organization in 2004 he turned its efforts toward support for liberal social and economic policy. ²

The Whitman Institute places a premium on organizations which promote left-progressive social policy initiatives through media and communication and advocate for left-of-center social change through the use of dialogue. ³

Background

The Whitman Institute was created in 1985 by Fred Whitman to promote research and resources to devise methods by which people could make better decisions to improve their lives. ⁴

Fred Whitman had a vision of creating reading materials through which people can learn to make better life choices and supporting foundations that support closer family ties, which through better decision-making Whitman believed could improve people’s lives and reduce poverty. ⁵

In 2004 John Esterle took over the organization and decided to expand the institute’s mission to support left-progressive social policy issues and welfare spending. ⁶

Spend-Down Policy

In 2011 the Whitman Institute decided that it could not follow a grant-making model which allowed for it to support its favored organizations indefinitely.

Finding itself committed to its organizations, the Whitman Institute decided to opt for a spend out policy. Accordingly, the Whitman Institute has maintained its grantmaking initiatives despite not generating sufficient income to sustain their spending. Based on the institute’s internal projections, the organizations will run out of money by 2022. ⁷

Funders

While the Whitman Institute will run out of private funding left by its beneficiary, Fred Whitman, it is unclear whether the organization will completely fold as the Whitman Institute provides a list of organizations which have either funded the Whitman Institute or supplement their efforts in funding far-left and left-of-center organizations. The exact relationship between the Whitman Institute and these “funders” is left open ended by them, referring to them simply as “allies.” ⁸

These organizations include: The Durfee Foundation, General Service Foundation, Headwaters Foundation, International Women’s Health Coalition, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and Satterberg Foundation. ⁹

Officers

Compensation

John Esterle, the executive director of the Whitman Institute, and Pia Infante each receive an annual salary of $133,900. ¹⁰

Pia Infante

Pia Infante is the co-executive director of the Whitman Institute with John Esterle. Ms. Infante speaks and teaches on “radically embodied” leadership as a faculty member of the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She holds an MA in education from the New School for Social Research. ¹¹

Assets and Expenditures

In 2017 the Whitman institute held $7,306,988 in assets. ¹² The institute received $133,327 in interest and dividends from stock and sold $408,191 in stock to generate revenue. ¹³

Of the total $541,518 in revenue generated, the Whitman institute spent all of it and more, a total $590,429 on “operating expenses” including Mr. Esterle and Ms. Infante’s salaries, travel, and legal fees. ¹⁴

The organization also spent $1,050,000 on contributions, spending against the organization’s assets. ¹⁵

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2. “Our Story” The Whitman Institute. https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/about/our-story/
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6. “Our Story” The Whitman Institute. https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/about/our-story/
7. “Spend Out” The Whitman Institute. https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/grantmaking/spend-out/
8. “Funders” The Whitman Institute. https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/investors/
9. “Funders” The Whitman Institute. https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/investors/
10. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 18, 2019, Part VIII, Line 1.
11. “Our Staff” The Whitman Institute. https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/about/people/
12. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 18, 2019, Part II, Line 16.
13. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 18, 2019, Part I, Lines 4 and 6a
14. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 18, 2019, Part I, Line 12.
15. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax.” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 18, 2019, Part I, Line 25.