Topic: Issues in Philanthropy
Featured
“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.
Philanthropy and Oceanography: An Episode in Field-Building
Funding on levels large and small helped this new area of scientific research grow and evolve.
Photo Essay: A Mother, a Son, and Modern Art
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller’s passion for modern art influenced her children, especially her son Nelson Rockefeller, and continues to reach the public through the museum she co-founded.
Philanthropy’s Search for an HIV Vaccine: Building Public-Private Partnerships in a Global Pandemic
How a meeting of scientists and health experts sparked a new international campaign to find a way to prevent AIDS.
Photo Essay: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and the Design of The Met Cloisters
How an American philanthropist’s love of medieval art created an immersive Old World experience at The Cloisters museum in New York City.
The Met Cloisters: An Unlikely Pair Makes a Home for Medieval Art in New York City
Does philanthropy always require a perfect partnership to create something great? Peering behind the facade of The Met Cloisters museum reveals that the answer is sometimes “no.”
Rebuilding a Cathedral: The Media, American Money, and French Heritage
Stepping in to save French monuments without stepping on French pride.
The Fairy Godmothers of Women’s Studies
Moving scholarship by and about women from margin to center.
How Philanthropy Helped History Go Public
What began as an attempt to find more job opportunities for historians went further and launched a new field.
In Brief: The 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference
The global conversation about women’s issues takes a big step forward.
Who Belongs in the Boy Scouts? Philanthropy’s Support for Black Scouting
A foundation struggled to make one of America’s oldest youth organizations more racially inclusive. But it only got so far under Jim Crow.