No wonder they're non-profit

From the Boston Globe a series on Charitable foundations:

* A gilded retirement package for the head of The William T. Morris Foundation of New York. The foundation more than tripled its president's compensation to more than $900,000 between 1997 and 2001. An $88,000-a-year foundation employee also doubles as a driver for the president, who is 86 and semiretired.

* The Hocker Foundation of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., which wrote just three grants over four years, a total of $265,000 that all went to one charity, a hospital. During the same four years, the trustee, who lists himself as a full-time employee, was paid $580,000. He also violated rules governing private foundations when he took a personal loan from the foundation for $200,000, which he repaid.

* A San Francisco-area foundation, Franklin Holding Corp., paid its chairman $3.5 million in 1998. That year, its charitable donations amounted to just $1.6 million, all of that donated to a hospital.

And this is how they avoid inheritance tax. If I were a billionaire and wanted to pass my fortune to my kids without the tax, I'd create a 501(c)(3) and make them the officers.