Topic: Issues in Philanthropy

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Issues in Philanthropy

“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.

Issues in Philanthropy

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.

Issues in Philanthropy

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.

1940s 1950s 1960s

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.”

Black and white image of the hands of Norman E. Borlaug holding a piece of "Norin" dwarf wheat.
1970s 1980s

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.

1940s 1950s

The Rockefeller Foundation and Civil Liberties During the Early Cold War

A foundation-supported publication challenged McCarthyism and caused a controversy.

1940s

Rebuilding Asia and Europe: the Rockefeller Foundation’s Role in Post-World-War II Reconstruction

Foundation policy toward reconstruction was shaped by uncertainty over Europe’s — and in particular Germany’s — future

1920s 1930s 1940s

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.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s Refugee Scholar Program

Saving scholars threatened by Nazis was not easy, but choosing which ones to save was even more difficult.

1910s

World War I & the Rockefeller Foundation

Global war drew a new philanthropy into relief work.

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.

1960s 1970s

“Distasteful Regimes”: Authoritarianism, the Ford Foundation, and Social Sciences in Brazil

When the restrictive military regime that had taken power in Brazil in 1964 became even more repressive by 1969, staffers at the Ford Foundation found themselves facing a conundrum.

Red Cross Nurses at Riverside Theater in 1918.

Success and Failure in Community-Based Healthcare: The East Harlem Health Center

An innovative nursing program gathered crucial data and brought healthcare to needy families, but ultimately lost its way.