I like where you're coming from, but I'm not sure our foundation system is as altruistic or effective as we're led to believe. Peter Buffett wrote a great op-ed the other day on this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/opinion/the-charitable-ind...
I'd managed to miss that the first time around; I wish I could thank you for prompting me to read it.
Buffett offers some vague criticisms, intended I assume to mean something to his rivals in the trust-fund-gradual-diminution game. They mean little to someone outside that community. They seem especially unfair in response to a mention of Bill Gates. Gates is ending diseases. How is that kicking the can? How is that turning the world into "one vast market"?
