The man who invented Grantsmanship.

(My traditional April Fool's column is presented one month

The year is 2007. Buried somewhere in the dead files of the Internal Revenue Service, gathering layers of dust, is a group of folders bound together with string and simply marked M.A.M.A. Although few people remember M.A.M.A., it was, during its peak years, one of the best-known and most powerful nonprofit organizations in America.

The fascinating trail of events leading to the birth of M.A.M.A. and to its eventual demise, goes all the way back to 1997. As with most important philosophical concepts, the idea for the organization grew out of a reaction against, rather than an assertion for, something. Amos T. Frieswick III, was the first to react.

Frieswick, a 60-year-old bachelor businessman, living at home with his widowed mother in quiet complacency, stirred the very day he chanced to read a magazine article which lashed out against American mothers for emasculating their sons. Anti-motherhood was akin to anti-Americanism and Frieswick, already miffed at those who insisted that America pull its troops out of Bosnia, Haiti, South Korea and the casino at Monte Carlo, rallied together a group of his mother-loving friends and organized a new non-profit organization, the American Society for the Lovers of Mothers, or A.S.L.O.M., as it was known in its early days.

In spite of its good intentions and its strong philosophical underpinnings, A.S.L.O.M.'s leaders lacked national stature and the organization floundered. Occasionally, its members would pool their resources to place an eighth of a page ad in The New York Times, rallying sons to the defense of their mothers, and every Mother's Day its 42 members would organize a parade down some obscure street in Manhattan. But nobody took the organization seriously until Henry T. Grant entered the picture. Grant, the most successful consultant on philanthropy in American history and the man in whose honor the word "Grantsmanship" was coined, was a master at giving visibility to any worthy concept, however unrecognized that concept was at the time.

By reconstructing an historic first meeting between Frieswick and Grant, we can gain insight into a philosophy of grant-getting which has influenced the pattern of American philanthropy to this very day. Grant speaks first. "I'm glad you called me, Mr. Frieswick. As I understand it, you would like me to undertake a development program on behalf of your organization."