In the past, some of these donors have also collected antiquities, fueling concerns about looting. Mr. Reinhart and many of the new private backers do not collect. In many cases, they say their interest extends beyond archaeology to improving living conditions in the countries where they're digging. Even as they fund excavations, they're also paying to build schools and support agricultural projects.
My first thought as well on reading the introduction was that it sounded a lot like earlier days when museums and wealthy individuals sponsored excavations, primarily for the prestige and objects brought back for collections.
Mr. Reinhart sees a tie-in between his work with the ancient and the living Maya. "Excavating and restoring Mayan archaeological sites like San Bartolo can be used to show the living Maya what a rich and regal heritage they came from, and they can be proud of who they are," says Mr. Reinhart. "And since the Maya who built the ancient civilizations are still here, people and organizations who have the financial capacity can see that there is a great opportunity to bring these people out of their poverty."
The article also makes the tie-in with current trends in many countries of keeping their antiquities within the country and developing home-grown archaeological programs. I've blogged on this several times, notably with respect to Egypt, not only with its attempts to bring back objects taken out decades ago, but their increasing control over what excavations take place and where the excavated material goes to (this started a while ago, but Zahi Hawass has really been pushing it lately).
A bit of searching revealed that the Reinhart Foundation is administered through something called the International Community Foundation.
Don't have too much else to say as this is the first time I've heard of this sort of philanthropic behavior.
UPDATE: Okay, thinking about this a bit more. . . .in fact, this is fairly common practice, at least in parts of the world, especially Egypt and Israel. I did two seasons of work in the Valley of the Kings on strictly private money, and the recent tomb discovery by Otto Schaden there was also, I believe, funded privately. The article in WSJ states that private funding is becoming more common, so one wonders whether this is really the case or if it's just expanding out of the usual Old World context of classical civilizations and into other areas not generally connected with Western history. The added funding of local infrastructure could also be a new twist; not sure what other projects do, but those I'm familiar with in Egypt don't seem to do much more than pay for the excavation and some immediately ancillary work.
So who knows, maybe this is something different.