Topic: Issues in Philanthropy
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“Investment Philanthropy” Investing for Social Good, a Century Ago
An early twentieth-century foundation tried using its endowment to support for-profit projects that also would achieve a social goal.

A “Constructive and Important Failure”: A Foundation Funds Job Training in the 1970s and 1980s
Prompted by Reagan-era budget cuts, a new program serving low-income single parents receiving public aid failed to meet its constituents’ needs.

From Populist Crusade to Comprehensive Regulation: the Tax Reform Act of 1969
Is private wealth an obstacle to democracy? Fifty years ago, Congress thought so.


“A Roomful of Brains”: Early Advances in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
At midcentury, Rockefeller Foundation staffers hoped new technologies might find solutions to complex problems.


International Cooperation and Soft Diplomacy: The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center
Convenings at Bellagio have tackled global challenges of every sort, from trade and finance to public health, agriculture, and food security.

The Birth of International Agricultural Research Institutes in the Mid-20th Century
Rockefeller Foundation agriculture programs begun in Mexico achieved global reach through four major research institutes. Building them was the result of partnership.


Toward a More Robust Study of Mental Health: Rockefeller Foundation Funding for Psychiatry
Two decades of funding helped legitimize the study of psychiatry as a medical issue, not a problem of character.



The Rockefeller Foundation’s Mexican Agriculture Program, 1943-1965
The Rockefeller Foundation’s first intensive agriculture endeavor is now credited with launching the global transformation known as the “Green Revolution.”

For Small Farmers and Food Security: The International Agricultural Development Service
In the 1980s, critics argued that some groups had been left behind by the Green Revolution.