REsource

Applying a vast fortune to the American race problem, but with decades of false assumptions and well-intended approaches that fell short.

In the years before Brown v. Board, a philanthropic fund hoped research and data would turn the tide on attitudes toward segregation.

Delving into a century of philanthropic engagement with race, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era.

In 1968, the Ford Foundation began to make social investments using a new tool borrowed from the for-profit world, the Program-Related Investment.

Against a backdrop of white, establishment concepts of literary excellence, one foundation struggled to appreciate Black voices.

A story recounting many accusations, from rigged elections to the meddling of big private money in grassroots organizing.

What might appear to be a simple publication project came to fruition only after a decade of political upheaval, cultural repression, war, and Rockefeller Foundation support.

What does it take to control the outbreak of a deadly disease?

In the aftermath, Foundation staff struggled to rectify their organization’s involvement with this weapon of mass destruction.

Encouraging cross-cultural knowledge in an interconnected postwar world by shaping new interdisciplinary programs and retooling traditional academic fields.

As the scarcity of global resources became increasingly worrisome in the 20th century, these organizations more boldly approached work in population and family planning.

A foundation set on eradicating mosquito-born diseases had to accept that disease control was good enough.