Topic: Philanthropy & the Private Sector

“A Reverse Technology Transfer:” The Ford Foundation, Grameen Bank, and Microlending in the US
In the late 20th century, the Ford Foundation’s attempt to translate microlending methods from Bangladesh to the United States revealed false assumptions about poverty, social context, and individual entrepreneurial spirit that undergirded microlending experiments.



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.

Photo Essay: The Rockefellers, National Parks, and Public Lands
The nation’s parks, perhaps our most remarkable public resource, have a history of development through private giving.

Photo Essay: Radburn, New Jersey – the Town for the Motor Age
Philanthropy helped architects and planners create a new kind of suburban community in the 1920s.

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.

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.

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.

“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.