Judging by your review of Joel Fleishman’s book on American philanthropy (The Foundations: A Great American Secret, New York: Public Affairs, 2007), it scarcely looks beyond the surface of the foundation business (“The Rage of Giving,” January 27, 2007). The worst foundation failure he brings to light is that of the Annenberg Challenge, launched in 1993. Ostensibly, the publishing baron donated half a billion dollars to improve America’s public schools. Yet, as you quote Fleishman, “the impact was negligible.” Was it, though? In his mid-eighties, Annenberg got on every front page and into all television news. By his death nearly a decade later, he was celebrated as one of the greatest philanthropists America had ever seen. The gift made perfect sense in terms of income tax, it goes without saying. As your own obituary put it, “Annenberg did not die a pauper” (October 12, 2002). To wit, what foundations do cannot be judged by what they say they are doing. Old Annenberg would certainly snigger at Fleishman’s conclusions. It would make much more sense to focus on the failure of the law regulating the behavior of American philanthropists. That is the Annenberg Challenge for you.