Once largely confined to the biggest cities in the mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states, philanthropic foundations now play a significant role in nearly every state. Wide-ranging and incisive, the essays in American Philanthropic Foundations: Regional Difference and Change examine the origins, development, and accomplishments of philanthropic foundations in key cities and regions of the United States. Each contributor assesses foundation efforts to address social and economic inequalities, and to encourage cultural and creative life in their home regions and elsewhere. This fascinating and timely study of contemporary America's philanthropic foundations vividly illustrates foundations' commonalities and differences as they strive to address pressing public problems.

This volume studies the links between politics and science during the 20th century, based on the example of the large US foundations. If the 20th century can be regarded in many ways as the »American Century«, then the large US foundations such as Carnegie, Rockefeller and Ford played a major role in this development. And yet they weren ́t simply stooges for official US power politics. The circumstances surrounding their actions were much more complicated and made great demands of the philanthropy of the day. This volume with articles in English and German shows the course of US philanthropy in Europe in the time between the world wars and following World War II; it demonstrates how Europe became the setting for continually new versions of the postwar political and scientific landscape.

This book examines the generally unrecognized role played by the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller foundations in support of United States foreign policy, particularly since 1945. The foundations' efforts on behalf of American interests abroad have focused primarily on their support for a number of institutions of higher education in strategically located Third World nations. These institutions, modeled after foundation-supported American universities, were designed to train Third World leaders in norms that would encourage them—minimally—to assume a posture of neutrality toward American economic and political penetration of their societies. Dr. Berman's study challenges the oft-asserted, but undocumented, thesis of the American political right that these liberal foundations historically have pursued policies detrimental to United States interests. The evidence indicates how foundation policies and programs were formulated after close consultation with leaders of the American corporate sector and government officials, and how their activities were designed to further the objectives determined by those who influence the direction of United States foreign policy.

With guidance from America's most-experienced foundation development consultants, Creating Foundations for American Schools provides the know-how and tools K-12 schools and districts need to build the types of foundations colleges and universities use so successfully to raise money-and standards! Includes ready-to-adapt models and materials for: Presenting the concept to the community Developing alumni associations Leveraging Parent-Teacher organizations Maintaining and expanding success Incorporating and creating bylaws, plus much more!

What are the implications when the educational policy and priority of public schools are concentrated in ways that foster de-unionization and teacher de-skilling while homogenizing school models and curriculum? This volume addresses this crucial, unanswered question while investigating the impact of the Gates Foundation on education.

Unique in all the world, the American foundation sector has been an engine of social change for more than a century. In this companion volume to The Foundation: A Great American Secret, Joel Fleishman, Scott Kohler, and Steven Schindler explore 100 of the highest-achieving foundation initiatives of all time. Based on a rich array of sources -- from interviews with the principals themselves to contemporaneous news accounts to internal evaluation reports -- this volume presents brief case studies of foundation success stories across virtually every field of human endeavor. The influence of the foundations on American, and indeed global society, has only occasionally come into the public view. For every well-known foundation achievement -- Andrew Carnegie's massive library building program or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's public efforts to curb tobacco use -- there are a great many lesser-known, but often equally important stories to be told. The cases in this volume provide a wealth of evidentiary support for Joel Fleishman's description of, and recommendations for, the foundation sector. With lessons for grant-makers, grant-seekers, public officials, and public-spirited individuals alike, this casebook pieces together 100 stories, some well known, others never before told, and offers hard proof of the foundation sector's immense and enduring impact on scientific research, education, public policy, and many other fields. The work that foundations have supported over the past century has achieved profound results. Yet foundations are capable of more and better. This volume, a window onto great successes of the past and present, is at once a look back, a look around, and a point of reference as we turn to the future.