Financial endowment

===Donor intent===
{{See also|Donor intent|Community foundation}}
The case of [[Leona Helmsley]] is often used to illustrate the downsides of the legal concept of donor intent as applied to endowments. In the 2000s, Helmsley bequested a multi-billion dollar trust to "the care and welfare of dogs".<ref name="Rosenwald">{{cite journal|last=Rosenwald|first=Julius|date=May 1929|title=Principles of Public Giving|journal=The Atlantic Monthly}}</ref> This trust was estimated at the time to total 10 times more than the combined 2005 assets of all registered animal-related charities in the United States.

In 1914, Frederick Goff sought to eliminate the "dead hand" of organized philanthropy and so created [[the Cleveland Foundation]]: the first [[community foundation]]. He created a corporately structured foundation that could utilize community gifts in a responsive and need-appropriate manner. Scrutiny and control resided in the "live hand" of the public as opposed to the "dead hand" of the founders of private foundations.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cleveland Foundation 100 – Introduction|url=https://www.clevelandfoundation100.org/foundation-of-change/invention/introduction/|access-date=2019-04-04|website=The Cleveland Foundation Centennial|language=en-US}}</ref>