Stanford Business

AUGUST 2006


Nonprofit Hero Battles Malevolent Ideologues

“Would Bill Buckley be a household name without PBS and Firing Line?” Citing the longtime celebrity of conservative editor and pundit Buckley, Peter Hero, MBA ’66, is clearly annoyed at the suggestion that the Public Broadcasting System leans to the left—or in any other direction.

Over his 17 years at Community Foundation Silicon Valley, Hero has been widely credited with moving the culture of the Valley from self-obsessed workaholism toward, well, other-obsessed workaholism. At the national level, Hero helped found and now chairs the PBS Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to augmenting uncertain local station dues and fickle congressional funding. The PBS Foundation raised almost $14 million in its first 18 months.

“PBS is always, it seems, under the spotlight, thanks usually to malevolent ideologues in Congress who should know better and should have other things to do,” Hero says. “Their gripe is that PBS is biased—as in not supportive enough of the war—but countless studies continue to show that it is in fact very balanced.”

Hero calls the whole situation “tiresome and distracting,” noting that “PBS continues to be among the most trusted institutions in America, especially among parents, and pbs.org is the most visited dot-org in the world.”

Hero also serves on the board of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that provides funding for many of the nation’s cultural institutions. “There is not a huge budget, but it has been growing under President Bush,” Hero says. “Laura is a big fan and advocate.”