Topic: Grant-Making
“A very small number of men control all the money and the ideas”: Women Revolutionize Population Programs in the 1970s
Women and technocratic elites clashed at the 1974 World Population Conference. At stake was women’s control over their own bodies.
Centering Women’s Rights in the Population Field: The Ford Foundation and Sexual Health in the 1990s
A 1994 meeting moved women’s empowerment front and center for grantmaking in global population.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Rural Reconstruction Program in 1930s China
In the 1930s, an ambitious program to reshape China was cut short by war, but offered a model for community development.
Documenting Injustice: Recording the Histories of the Japanese American Incarceration
The origins and legacy of a research project conducted in the American concentration camps for Japanese Americans.
Legitimizing the Social Sciences: The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial in the 1920s
What began as a philanthropic fund to honor its namesake became an early force in the social sciences.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Role in Creating the Atomic Bomb
In the aftermath, Foundation staff struggled to rectify their organization’s involvement with this weapon of mass destruction.
Margaret Mead’s Call for Less “Orthodox” Grantmaking
How a famous anthropologist challenged her own funder to take more risks.
Profiles of Women in Philanthropy
In honor of Women’s History Month, we highlight thirteen individuals from our collections to show the range of contributions women have made in the field of philanthropy and in the world at large.
“Highest Standards”: Elite Philanthropy and Literary Black Voices during the Civil Rights Era
Against a backdrop of white, establishment concepts of literary excellence, one foundation struggled to appreciate Black voices.