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.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/RSF-4th-of-July-1-500x500.jpg)
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.
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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.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Griffin-to-Bundy-letter-May-21-1969_Ford-Foundation-records_Office-files-of-Mitchell-Sviridoff_B9-F8_1_2-500x500.jpg)
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In Brief: James Baldwin’s Creative Writer’s Fellowship
How a foundation provided the final ingredient to an era-defining novel.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Kinsey_scale-large-500x500.jpg)
Funding a Sexual Revolution: The Kinsey Reports
The inside story of the study that first questioned binary sexuality and spurred outcry and controversy.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Griffin-to-Bundy-letter-May-21-1969_Ford-Foundation-records_Office-files-of-Mitchell-Sviridoff_B9-F8_1_2-500x500.jpg)
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.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/FA387a_S200_B106_F935_002_Display-1-500x500.jpg)
Ted Watkins and the Rockefeller Foundation: An Unlikely Partnership
How a charismatic community activist from Watts challenged a foundation’s civil rights strategy through a jobs training program.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/RSF-4th-of-July-1-500x500.jpg)
“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.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/image-80-500x500.png)
Photo Essay: Supporting Minority Enterprise in the late 1960s
In 1968, the Ford Foundation began to make social investments using a new tool borrowed from the for-profit world, the Program-Related Investment.
![](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/20190620_133736_Hero_Display-500x500.jpg)
The “Insulin Gift”
In 1923, a wealthy philanthropist’s funding helped make life-saving treatment for diabetes available to patients and doctors.
![A sepia- toned landscape photograph of the Grand Teton National Park. The mountain range are reflected onto the lake while the trees frame the shot.](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Grand-Teton-National-Park_JDR-Jr-family-photos_Sereis-1005_B95-500x500.jpg)
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Creates a National Park
Who defines the public good? The showdown caused when a wealthy philanthropist bought land and tried to give it to the American people.
![A room full of African-American students attending a lecture in 1955 as part of the United Negro Collection fund.](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/RBF_United-Negro-College-Fund_1955_Box-1031_F6279_186-500x500.jpg)
The Origins of the Rockefeller Foundation Equal Opportunity Program
How a simple grant request seeded the launch of a full program addressing inequality.
![Black and white image of a group of children on a cart that is decorated with them holding signs reading "sleep", "fresh air", "good food" "dirt" and "ignorance".](https://s30471.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Public-Health_RF-photos_B60_F1357_2_LV-500x500.jpg)
Photo Essay: The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission and the American South
Battling hookworm on rural farms laid the groundwork for a global public health system.