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.

1960s

A Hand in Urban Design: Rockefeller Foundation Support for Renowned Urbanist Jane Jacobs and New York’s Lincoln Center

One small grant gave enduring voice to one of the most famous critiques of postwar urban renewal, while another huge grant went to an opposing cause.

1960s

The Rockefeller and Ford Foundations Navigate Civil War in Nigeria

What happened to a massive agricultural development program when war broke out?

Nine students listen to a lecture in a lecture hall. A female student raises her hand.
1950s 1960s

The Birth of the Modern MBA

Why would an American foundation transform the field of business education?

Elementary children of diverse ethnic backgrounds get ready to go inside their school, two hold hands
1950s 1960s

Can Data Drive Social Change? Tackling School Segregation with Numbers

In the years before Brown v. Board, a philanthropic fund hoped research and data would turn the tide on attitudes toward segregation.

1960s 20th Century

Supporting Economic Justice? The Ford Foundation’s 1968 Experiment in Program Related Investments

How the largest US foundation began supporting market-based projects in the late 1960s.