Editors’ Note: Today (June 7, 2023), HistPhil co-editor Maribel Morey has updated this list of readings on US philanthropy that she originally published three years ago in June 2020 and last updated in April 2021.  

In June 2020, I first uploaded onto HistPhil a list of reading resources on US philanthropy, in response to Black Lives Matter protests, #BlackInTheIvory, and nearly daily updates of leading U.S. philanthropies, nonprofits and for-profits proclaiming their allyship to the BLM movement, noting some self-reflection on the role that we should and could play here on HistPhil. Because, since our founding in 2015, we have talked quite a bit on HistPhil about white Anglo-American men such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and our community of scholars very much reflects this demographic. However, we know that white Anglo-American men neither discovered the very act of being philanthropic nor are they uniquely qualified to be authoritative scholars of philanthropy per se. In fact, and even if we leave unchallenged dominant definitions of philanthropy in the US, I argued here in 2020 that internationally-renowned Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois should be credited for being one of the earliest, critical scholars of white Anglo-American philanthropy. This is something that I underscore in my debut book, White Philanthropy (UNC Press, 2021) and in a chapter I authored for The Oxford Handbook of W.E.B. Du Bois, edited by Aldon Morris et al., “W.E.B. Du Bois’s International Lens on Modern US Philanthropy and His Fleeting Hopes for Reform” (June 2022).

Building upon this focus on Du Bois as one of the earliest published critics of US philanthropy, and reflecting the stated urgency in US philanthropy in the summer of 2020 to be that much more conscientious about white supremacy and Black exclusion in the philanthropic sector, I started including here on HistPhil a list of scholarship by Black scholars of US philanthropy, published since the era of Du Bois.

During the following year, I updated this list of reading resources, though then moved away from it for the last two years as I focused on building our network of scholars at the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences, which (in the core spirit of this very post) very intentionally focuses on further democratizing the production and dissemination of knowledge across our disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.

Most recently in the fall of 2022, two scholars–Mariana Prandini Assis and Matthew Canfield– circulated a call for papers for the upcoming meeting of the Law & Society Association (LSA), which took place a few days ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This call for papers was called “Philanthropy, Law and Social Change” and, as a reader, I honed in on its particular claim that “the specificity of the philanthropic sector as a major force of legal transformation has been understudied.” With Du Bois in mind, and in my role as co-editor of this site for the past eight years, I felt invested in responding to the call. The two conveners kindly accepted my provocative paper on “The Routine Rediscovery of the Critical Study of Philanthropy and the Importance of Building Upon this Long-Standing Body of Work across the Social Sciences.”

Several attendees at the LSA meeting requested some paper format of the list of citations I mentioned. So to this existing list here on HistPhil titled “HistPhil‘s Reading List,” I am adding these citations. Furthermore in the spirit of this presentation at the LSA meeting, I am including explanatory prose below and adding the subtitle “The Long History of Knowledge Production on US Philanthropy.”

HistPhil‘s Reading List:

The Long History of Knowledge Production on US Philanthropy

(last updated June 7, 2023) 

Even if we consider US philanthropy simply to mean the study of elite “general purpose” foundations in the United States, such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, and Gates organizations and their peers, how very old is the “study of US philanthropy”? My quick response to this question is to look back to W.E.B. Du Bois’s own lifetime (citations which I mention above).

Then, my next step is to note too that a significant peak in the sheer quantity of published scholarship on US philanthropy increased with the opening of the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) in Tarrytown, New York in 1974– a major repository of material on and by these foundations. As the RAC notes on its website, over 400 researchers from around the world visit annually, suggesting just how many individuals are studying (and many too, also publishing) on these organizations. The RAC houses the papers of some major US foundations, such as the Rockefeller, Russell Sage, Ford, and Hewlett foundations.

Of course, before the opening of the RAC, scholars such as Du Bois wrote and published their analyses of US philanthropy. Very clearly, such works include–not only those of Du Bois, but also–that of Frederick P. Keppel, author of The Foundation (1930), and Waldemar Nielson, author of The Big Foundations (1972). However, as historians of US philanthropy Barry Karl and Stanley Katz noted in “Foundations and Ruling Class Elites” (1987): “With the opening of major foundation archives in the last fifteen years, scholars have become attracted to the study of foundations” (1-2). Writing this 1987 piece a little over a decade after the opening of the RAC, Katz and Karl furthermore noted that, with an increasing number of publications on US philanthropy, “a rather one-sided debate ha[d] developed” (2). As far as this “one-sided debated,” the two men observed that: “While defenders of donor benevolence have continued to appear, the critics of donors have been more numerous, and their attacks have taken on a Gramscian sophistication” (2). Ultimately, the two historians reasoned in the piece that:

The attractiveness of Gramscian analysis is obvious, as is its use for explaining the role that foundations play in American life. Yet, its limits are even more revealing, though much less satisfying to those who are committed to its application. While the creators of foundations and their early managers may have intended to establish a national elite that would bring about a significant degree of social and political reform without changing the nation’s basic economic structure, that purpose was complicated by the other missions to which they were deeply committed, and others that they could not possibly have anticipated (33-34).

Today in 2023, some thirty-six years since Karl and Katz published their commentary on a growing body of scholarly work on US philanthropy, scholars of US philanthropy (including those at the LSA meeting a few days ago) continue to engage in a similar debate on whether or not Antonio Gramsci’s concept of ‘hegemony’ is a helpful (or distracting) framework for understanding and explaining these organizations’ roles in national and international life.

It is a lively debate. And since the time of Karl and Katz’s comments, and particularly since the opening of the RAC some years earlier in the 1970s, the scholarly study of US philanthropy has only grown. Below, I suggest a broad sketch of four major threads of analyses (or rather, themes) in this growing literature during the past forty years: (1) US philanthropy and US democracy; (2) US philanthropy and the long Black Freedom Struggle in the US; (3) US philanthropy’s longstanding power abroad; and, generally, (4) a distinct literature geared towards analyzing and guiding contemporary philanthropic practices.

Please note that these are simply examples of four overlapping and general categories that have come to mind most immediately. Please know that these categories or lists of works are not exhaustive. It is just a start, to help shine further light on the depth and longstanding presence of scholarly literature on US philanthropy. Please contact me to update this list with other categories and other works that I have missed (there’s so much out there!).

(1) US philanthropy and US democracy:

-Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, The Politics of Knowledge: Carnegie Corporation, Philanthropy, and Public Policy (U. of Chicago Press, 1989).

-Lawrence Friedman, Charity, Philanthropy and Civility in American History (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

-Sarah Reckhow, Follow the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public School Politics (OUP, 2012).

-Olivier Zunz, Philanthropy in America: A History (Princeton University Press, 2014).

-Janelle Scott, “Foundations and the Development of the U.S. Charter School Policy-Planning Network: Implications for Democratic Schooling and Civil Rights,” Teachers College Record (2015).

-David Callahan, The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age (Knopf, 2017).

-Rob Reich, Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better (Princeton University Press, 2018).

-Megan Tompkins-Stange, Policy Patrons: Philanthropy, Education Reform, and the Politics of Influence (Harvard Education Press, 2020).

-Chiara Cordelli, The Privatized State (Princeton University Press, 2020).

-Noliwe Rooks, Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education (New Press, 2020). 

-Ted Lechterman, The Tyranny of Generosity: Why Philanthropy is Corrupting Our Politics and How We Can Fix It (OUP, 2021).

-Emma Saunders-Hastings, Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality (U. of Chicago Press, 2022).

-Dana Brakman Reiser and Steven Dean, For-Profit Philanthropy: Elite Power and the Threat of Limited Liability Companies, Donor-Advised Funds, and Strategic Corporate Giving (OUP, 2023).

(2) US philanthropy and the long Black Freedom Struggle in the US:

-James Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (UNC Press, 1988).

-James Anderson, “Philanthropy, the State and the Development of Historically Black Public Colleges: The Case of Mississippi,” Minerva 35(3) (1997).

-Noliwe Rooks, White Money/Black Power: The Surprising History of African American Studies and the Crisis of Race and Higher Education (Beacon Press, 2006).

-Nikki Brown, Private Politics: Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal (Indiana University Press, 2006).

-Khalil Gibran Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard University Press, 2010).

-Derrick E. White, The Challenge of Blackness: The Institute of the Black World and Political Activism in the 1970s (University Press of Florida, 2011).

-Alondra Nelson, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination (U. Minnesota Press, 2011).

-Karen Ferguson, Top Down: The Ford Foundation, Black Power, and the Reinvention of Racial Liberalism (U. of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).

-Vida L. Avery, Philanthropy in Black Higher Education: A Fateful Hour Creating the Atlanta University System (Palgrave, 2013).

-Charisse Burden-Stelly, “Black Studies in the Westernized University: The interdisciplines and the elision of political economy,” in Unsettling Eurocentrism in the Westernized University (eds. Julie Cupples and Ramón Grosfoguel (Routledge, 2018).

-Khalil Anthony Johnson Jr., “Problem Solver or ‘Evil Genius’: Thomas Jesse Jones and The Problem of Indian Administration,” Native American and Indigenous Studies (2018).

-Megan Ming Francis, “The Price of Civil Rights: Black Lives, White Funding, and Movement Capture,” Law & Society Review (2019).

-Kellie Carter Jackson, Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence (U. Penn Press, 2019).

-William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twentieth Century (UNC, 2020).

-Crystal M. Moten, “Pennies and Nickels Add Up to Success: Maggie Lena Walker,” (Feb. 27, 2020).

-Tyrone Freeman, Madam C.J. Walker’s Gospel of Giving: Black Women’s Philanthropy during Jim Crow (U. of Illinois Press, 2020).

-Fallon Samuels Aidoo, “The ‘Community Foundations’ of Allyship in Preservation: Lessons from West Mount Airy, Philadelphia,” in Preservation and Social Inclusion (2020): http://www.fallon-samuels-aidoo.com/articles-essays. (Please Note: Via Twitter in June 2020, Aidoo noted that this article is “[o]ne small part of a larger study of philanthropists involved in the preservation of neighborhoods and commercial corridors occupied largely by BIPOC”).

-Brandon K. Winford, John Hervey Wheeler, Black Banking, and the Economic Struggle for Civil Rights (U. Press of Kentucky, 2020).

-Maribel Morey, White Philanthropy: Carnegie Corporation’s An American Dilemma and the Making of a White World Order (UNC Press, 2021).

(3) US philanthropy’s longstanding power abroad:

-Kenneth James King, Pan-Africanism and Education: A Study of Race, Philanthropy, and Education in the Southern States of America and East Africa (Clarendon Press, 1971).

–Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism: The Foundations at Home and Abroad (ed., Robert F. Arnove) (Indiana University Press, 1980).

– Edward H. Berman, The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy: The Ideology of Philanthropy (SUNY Press, 1984).

-David McCoy and Linsey McGoey, “Global Health and the Gates Foundation– In Perspective,” in Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance (eds., Simon Rushton and Owain David Williams) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

-Inderjeet Parmar, Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power (Columbia University Press, 2012).

–Giving to Help, Helping to Give: The Context and Politics of African Philanthropy (eds, Tade Akin Aina and Bhekinkosi Moyo) (Amalion, TrustAfrica, 2013).

-Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Waste of a White Skin: The Carnegie Corporation and the Racial Logic of White Vulnerability (U. California Press, 2015).

-Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy (Verso Books, 2016).

-Caroline Shenaz Hossein, Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power, and Violence in the Black Americas (U. of Toronto Press, 2016).

-Tore C. Olsson, Agrarian Crossings: Reformers and the Remaking of the US and Mexican Countryside (Princeton University Press, 2017).

-Keisha N. Blain, Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (U. Penn Press, 2018).

-Tiffany N. Florvil, Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement (U. of Illinois Press, 2020).

–Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens’ Report of the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture(ed., Vandana Shiva) (Synergetic Press, 2022).

-Fungisai Musoni-Chikede, “Transcending Colonial Rule and Reimagining Rhodesia’s Future: The Rockefeller Foundation and the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1950-1980,” in Belonging in Changing Educational Spaces: Negotiating Global, Transnational, and Neoliberal Dynamics (eds., Ann Frkovich and Karen Monkman) (Taylor & Francis, 2022).

-Matthew C. Canfield, Translating Food Sovereignty: Cultivating Justice in an Age of Transnational Governance (Stanford University Press, 2022).

-Álvaro Morcillo Laiz, “La gran dama: La Fundación Rockefeller y las ciencias sociales mexicanas en los años de 1940,” Estudios sociológicos de El Colegio de México (2023).

Álvaro Morcillo Laiz, “Los orígenes del estudio de las relaciones internacionales en América Latina. La Fundación Rockefeller y la teoría realista durante la Guerra Fría,” Estudios sociológicos de El Colegio de México (2023).

-Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak y Ramon Fernandez, “La Fundación Ford y la formación de una comunidad académica pluralista de economistas en Brasil,” Estudios sociológicos de El Colegio de México (2023).

-Juan Pedro Blois, “Controversias alrededor de la filantropía científica estadounidense entre los sociólogos argentinos (1950-1970),” Estudios sociológicos de El Colegio de México (2023).

-Stephen Turner, “Foundations, Foreign Funding and the Social Sciences: What We Know,” Estudios sociológicos de El Colegio de México (2023).

(4) Analyzing and guiding contemporary philanthropic practices: 

-Vida L. Avery, Race, Gender and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations (Palgrave, 2011).

-Davia Downey, “Civic Culture in Ottawa: The Endurance of Local Culture” (with Laura A. Reese and Raymond A. Rosenfeld) in Comparative Civic Culture: The Role of Local Culture in Urban Policy-Making (eds. LA Reese and RA Rosenfeld) (Routledge, 2012).

-Rand Quinn, “Beyond Grantmaking: Philanthropic Foundations as Agents of Change and Institutional Entrepreneurs,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2014).

-Jasmine McGinnis Johnson, “Necessary but Not Sufficient: The Impact of Community Input on Grantee Selection,” Administration & Society, 14 (1) (2016).

-Julia Carboni, “Combined Effects: The Influence of Organizational Form and Structural Characteristics on Contract Performance in Mixed Sector Markets,” Voluntas 27(4) (2016).

-Lindsey M. McDougle, et al., “Can Philanthropy be Taught?,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (2017).

-Jason Coupet, “Exploring the Link Between Government Funding and Nonprofit Efficiency,” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 29(1) (2018),” Journal of Public Administration Research Theory (Under Review).

-Jessica Owens-Young (and David J. Hawthorne), “Integrating Health and Community Development for Health Equity: Philanthropic Investments in Baltimore City, 2010-2017,” Health Equity (2019).

–Una Osili: “An internationally recognized expert on economic development and philanthropy, Dr. Osili speaks across the globe on issues related to national and international trends in economics and philanthropy.”

Forthcoming works on US philanthropy:

Tanisha C. Ford: “Ford is working on the first economic history of the civil rights movement to explore how black women activists raised millions of dollars for movement organizations by hosting lavish galas, fashion shows, and beauty pageants for an interracial audience.” Ford presented this work at the Radcliffe Institute, and a video recording of the presentation is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhX9qN49LW8

Zinhle Mkhabela, PhD candidate, Development Studies, University of Witwatersrand, studying “the effects of philanthro-capitalist education and empowerment initiatives on shaping Black African girls’ lives.” Please see this video interview of Mkhabela: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L30O2C420fg

Erica Sterling, PhD, History Department, Harvard University, “studying race, philanthropy, and educational inequality in twentieth-century US history. Her dissertation examines post-Brown v. Board collaborations between local, state, and federal policymakers, philanthropists, and community organizers as they experimented with alternative models of K-12 schooling in Boston, Ma, Berkeley, Ca, and Washington D.C. from 1954 to 1993. The dissertation charts a parallel narrative to school desegregation politics, demonstrating how public-private partnerships charted the course of US education policy in the latter half of the twentieth century”: https://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/erica-sterling