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New Works in the Field / Philanthropy and Education

Do Old and New K-12 Education Philanthropy Differ?

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Editors’ Note: Jeffrey W. Snyder continues the site’s philanthropy & education forum.  Much of the emerging research on philanthropic involvement in K-12 education focuses on the “new” breed of extremely prominent funders like the Gates, Walton, and Broad foundations. These studies are undoubtedly important, and show how this newly emergent group has very defined preferences … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Education / Philanthropy in the News

Why We Consider Public Schools Public & Charter Schools Private

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Editors’ Note: This piece by Johann N. Neem continues the site’s philanthropy & education forum.  Earlier this month, the Washington Supreme Court determined that charter schools are ineligible to receive public school funds under the 1889 state constitution. Article 9, section 2 of the Washington constitution states that “the entire revenue derived from the common … Continue reading →

New Works in the Field / Philanthropy and Education

Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg’s Grant for Educational Reform in Newark

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Editors’ Note: As part of the ongoing forum on philanthropy & education, author of Follow the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public Schools Sarah Reckhow discusses Dale Russakoff’s recently-published book, The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? In 2010, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a $100 million grant for educational reform in Newark on The Oprah Winfrey … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Education

Finding the Funding: The Professionalization of Development in American Higher Education

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Editors’ Note: Today, John Thelin opens this site’s forum on the relationship between philanthropy and education. Readers, please feel free to comment on these posts, both via the comments section and Twitter, and please do reach out to us with post suggestions. And though we are moving on from last month’s discussion on philanthropy & inequality, also please … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Historical Research

An Update on Open Philanthropy’s History of Philanthropy Project

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Editors’ Note: Next week, this site will begin a discussion on philanthropy & education. In the meantime, HistPhil co-editor Benjamin Soskis provides an update on his work with Open Philanthropy’s history of philanthropy project. Several years ago, GiveWell, a nonprofit that evaluates charities and advises donors on effective giving, began to consider how historical inquiry might help them … Continue reading →

From the Editors / Philanthropy and Education

A Call for Contributions on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge

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As part of HistPhil‘s education theme, we’d like to run a post, or a number of posts, on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which can be regarded as a precedent for some of the major educational philanthropic interventions of the current moment. If you are doing work on the Challenge, or know a scholar, researcher or … Continue reading →

From the Editors / Philanthropy and Education / Philanthropy and Inequality

Shifting Focus: From Inequality to Education

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With Erica Kohl-Arenas’ recent piece, HistPhil‘s forum on inequality comes to an end. This is not to say that our attention toward the issue will wane; we still welcome contributions and discussions on the topic. But at the start of September, we’ll be moving on to a focus on another theme: the history of the … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

Can Social Movements Tackle Inequality with Foundation Funding? The Case of the Farmworker Movement

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Editors’ Note: Below, Erica Kohl-Arenas provides the final contribution for the site’s ongoing discussion on philanthropy & inequality.  Over the past month HistPhil has published a timely series on philanthropy and inequality. A few commentators, including Pablo Eisenberg and Alice O’Connor, proposed that if foundations are to seriously address inequality they must, among other things, invest … Continue reading →

From the Editors / Philanthropy and Inequality

Reflecting on the Past 10 Years: U.S. Philanthropy’s Response to Katrina

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Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, The New York Times today published an in-depth analysis of how the city of New Orleans has changed since then, arguing: “The city that went under in the surging waters of Hurricane Katrina has not returned, not to the way it used to be.” Though the piece does not focus particularly on philanthropy, it … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

The Cycle of American Money: Making it, Giving It Away, Re-making the World

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Editors’ Note: With the below post, Zoltan J. Acs continues HistPhil’s philanthropy & inequality forum. In the coming weeks, we’ll be moving on to our next forum on philanthropy & education. Please reach us if you’d like to contribute to either discussion. The foundations of the American ethos and mythos are that we are all created equal and that … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

How do Darren Walker’s Plans Compare with McGeorge Bundy’s Accomplishments at Ford?

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Editors’ Note: In the below post, HistPhil co-founder Stanley N. Katz brings the site’s ongoing discussion on philanthropy & inequality in dialogue with Kai Bird’s The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms (Simon and Schuster, 1998). We have had a number of posts responding to Darren Walker’s recent articulation of … Continue reading →

New Works in the Field / Philanthropy and Inequality

Do Foundations Co-opt Civil Rights Organizations?

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Editors’ Note: With the below post, Megan Ming Francis continues HistPhil’s philanthropy & inequality forum. In the coming weeks, we’ll be moving on to our next forum on philanthropy & education. Please reach us if you’d like to contribute to either discussion.   In 2015, protection of black bodies from state sanctioned violence remains an unmet challenge … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

Responding to the Forum on Philanthropy & Inequality

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Editors’ Note: This past Friday, Hewlett Foundation President Larry Kramer reached out to co-editor Maribel Morey with some reactions to the ongoing forum on philanthropy & inequality. Below is a snapshot of their dialogue: KRAMER: Pablo Eisenberg’s response is the latest in what has been a line of surprisingly unhistorical and depressingly superficial posts. Most have … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

Responding to Benjamin Soskis’s ‘New Gospel of Wealth’

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Editors’ Note: In the below post, Pablo Eisenberg responds to Benjamin Soskis’s recent contribution to the site’s Philanthropy & Inequality Forum, “Does Ford’s Announcement Signal a New Gospel of Wealth?” Ben Soskis has raised some searching questions about the potential of new philanthropic initiatives to attack income and wealth inequality and to make major changes in our … Continue reading →

New Works in the Field / Philanthropy and Inequality

Responding to Leah Gordon’s FROM POWER TO PREJUDICE (2015)

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Editors’ Note: This spring, we asked Daniel Geary to review the second chapter of Leah Gordon’s recently-published book, From Power to Prejudice: The Rise of Racial Individualism in Midcentury America (U. of Chicago Press, 2015). Titled “‘Data and Not Trouble’: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Social Science of Race Relations,” this second chapter places particular attention on the history of the … Continue reading →

New Works in the Field / Philanthropy and Inequality

By Focusing on the Individual, Foundations Have Missed the Mark on Racism

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Editors’ Note: The following post by Leah Gordon continues the site’s ongoing discussion on philanthropy & inequality. Here, Gordon presents some of the key arguments in her recently-published book, From Power to Prejudice: The Rise of Racial Individualism in Midcentury America (U. of Chicago Press, 2015). In a subsequent post, Daniel Geary reviews the second chapter … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

Does Ford’s Announcement Signal a New Gospel of Wealth?

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Editors’ Note: HistPhil co-editor Benjamin Soskis continues the Philanthropy & Inequality Forum with the below post. One of the welcome, immediate consequences of the Ford Foundation’s recent announcement that it would focus its grant-making on eradicating inequality has been the flood of excellent writing on the subject of philanthropy and inequality that it has provoked—at HistPhil and elsewhere. I’ve … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

How Have Black Lives Mattered to American Philanthropy?

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Editors’ Note: Karen Ferguson continues the philanthropy & inequality forum with the below post. She is the author of Top Down: The Ford Foundation, Black Power, and the Reinvention of Racial Liberalism.  It’s telling that I wrote a book on the Ford Foundation, the largest philanthropy of post-World War II America, yet when I was invited … Continue reading →

From the Editors / Philanthropy and Inequality

Beyond HistPhil: Discussing the Ford Foundation’s Global Inequality Focus

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This week’s contributors to the Philanthropy & Inequality Forum—particularly Alice O’Connor and I—made mention of the Ford Foundation’s recent announcement to make global inequality its principal grantmaking focus. Before moving on with the forum on Monday with contributions by Karen Ferguson, Leah Gordon, and Daniel Geary, here is a list of other pieces from various … Continue reading →

Philanthropy and Inequality

Is Ford’s Inequality Focus a Turning Point in the History of Philanthropy & Capitalism?

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Editors’ Note: The philanthropy & inequality forum continues with this post by Alice O’Connor. Earlier contributors to this forum include HistPhil co-founder Maribel Morey and Faith Mitchell, president and CEO of Grantmakers in Health (GIH).  There are some refreshingly forthright things about Ford Foundation President Darren Walker’s announcement of the foundation’s intention to make inequality the central focus of grantmaking under … Continue reading →