Topic: Economic Inequality

In the early 20th century, the General Education Board was devoted to the cause of improving education throughout the United States, without distinction of race, sex, or creed.

Prompted by Reagan-era budget cuts, a new program serving low-income single parents receiving public aid failed to meet its constituents’ needs.

Delving into a century of philanthropic engagement with race, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era.

A story recounting many accusations, from rigged elections to the meddling of big private money in grassroots organizing.

Applying a vast fortune to the American race problem, but with decades of false assumptions and well-intended approaches that fell short.

How a charismatic community activist from Watts challenged a foundation’s civil rights strategy through a jobs training program.

An early twentieth-century foundation tried using its endowment to support for-profit projects that also would achieve a social goal.

In 1968, the Ford Foundation began to make social investments using a new tool borrowed from the for-profit world, the Program-Related Investment.

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

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