A Dossier on the Board of Directors of the Robin Hood Foundation - Money 2007

The Emperors of Benevolence

THE CREATIVE CLASS

(Photo: Ray Tamarra/Getty Images)

Doug Morris
Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group
One of the board’s music men, Morris helped persuade Beyoncé to sing at the 2006 Robin Hood Foundation gala; in 2001, he brought in the Who.

(Photo: Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images)

John Sykes
President, Network Development, MTV Networks
Music connections. Sykes booked Sheryl Crow to play a 2006 Robin Hood benefit at Radio City.

(Photo: Erik Freeland/Corbis)

Robert Pittman, Chair
Partner, Pilot Group
The “father” of MTV and onetime chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, Pittman represents downtown on a board dominated by Park Avenue financiers. In 2005, his family foundation gave $400,000 to Robin Hood. He also persuaded Tom Brokaw to join the board.

(Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images)

Harvey Weinstein
Co-chairman, The Weinstein Company
Harvey brings, well, Harvey. On the board for more than a decade, he recently got the Rolling Stones to play a 2006 Robin Hood benefit at Radio City.

THE NONPROFIT ELITE

(Photo: Warner Bros./Kobal Collection)

Maurice Chessa
Director, Bedford-Stuyvesant I Have A Dream Program
Chessa gives the board a presence in Bed-Stuy, another neighborhood of historically intense philanthropic interest. Chessa met Robin Hood founder Jones while the latter was volunteering with Brooklyn sixth-graders.

(Photo: Jimi Celest/Patrick McMullan)

Geoffrey Canada
President and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone
Canada gives Robin Hood street cred in its favorite location of charitable largesse—Harlem. Also a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

(Photo: Jim Spellman/Wire Image)

Marian Wright Edelman
President, Children’s Defense Fund
Edelman brings diversity to a board composed mostly of white men and is famously tight with Bill and Hillary.

(Photo: Warner Bros./Kobal Collection)

Mary McCormick
President, Fund for the City of New York
Another board member for whom philanthropy is a profession and not a hobby, McCormick has seen it all; she taught at Brooklyn’s P.S. 6 when it had the third-worst reading scores in the city.

THE CELEBRITIES

(Photo: Joe Schildorn/Patrick McMullan)

Gwyneth Paltrow
Actress
Robin Hood has plastered her face on the front of fund-raising mailings, on which she does her best to look beautiful and serious at the same time. Interestingly, the foundation’s most recent filing lists her as Gwyneth Martin.

(Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

Tom Brokaw
Former Anchor, NBC News
Along with $75,000 in donations over two years, Brokaw brings the board the Voice of God, albeit retired.

(Photo: Gary Hershorn/Reuters)

Diane Sawyer
Co-host, Good Morning America and Primetime Thursday
A major draw at the foundation’s annual gala for donors seeking a name to drop at work the next day.