Harvard Gifts Not Threatened By Regulations on Foundations

Harvard need not fear losing funds from tax-exempt foundations due to possible increased state control over foundations, a spokesman for the Ford Foundation said yesterday.

Robert Tolles, a spokesman for the foundation, said that current pressure in Congress to increase regulation of foundations is aimed at providing Federal funds to finance state control and is not meant as a direct attack on the recipients of foundation funds.

A third of Harvard's gifts are now supplied by foundations, with the Ford Foundation contributing almost half of this amount.

Attempts at Control

The campaign for increased control is being waged by Representative. Wright Patman (D-Texas), who has introduced legislation to forward excess Federal auditing funds to states that have a program of supervision of foundations. Only a fourth of a 4 per cent audit fee on foundations was actually used last year in auditing.

Representative Edward I. Koch (D-N.Y.) last week told a Congressional committee investigating foundations that some states could now take actions against foundations that the Federal Government could not. He pointed out that some of these states could remove directors who spent foundation funds for improper sources.

Tolles said that he could not think of any Harvard programs funded by foundations that would be considered "improper sources."