The Almanac of American Philanthropy

Editor/Author Karl Zinsmeister
Publication Year: 2016
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable

Price: Core Collection Only
ISBN: 978-0-9861474-5-6
Category: Social Sciences
Image Count: 49
Book Status: Available
Table of Contents

The Almanac conveniently encapsulates the history, purposes, effects, and modern direction of private giving. It lends missing perspective, and serves as a handy encyclopedic reference. People serious about donating money to good causes will consult it again and again as they refine their giving.

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Table of Contents

  • Introduction: How Philanthropy Fuels American Success
  • Donors + Passion = Potent Accomplishment
  • Good Charity, Bad Charity?
  • Fixing Problems via Philanthropy vs. Government
  • Common Criticisms of Philanthropy
  • Big-Picture Benefits of Philanthropy
  • Great Philanthropy Quotations
  • Philanthropy Hall of Fame
  • About this Section
  • Alfred Loomis
  • Andrew Carnegie
  • Andrew Mellon
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Bernice Pauahi Bishop
  • Bill Daniels
  • Conrad Hilton
  • David Packard
  • Don Fisher
  • Edward Harkness
  • Eli Lilly
  • Ellen Browning Scripps
  • Enoch Pratt
  • Ewing Kauffman
  • George Eastman
  • George Peabody
  • George Washington
  • Harry Earhart
  • Henry Ford
  • Henry Phipps Jr.
  • Herbert Hoover
  • Ima Hogg
  • Isaiah Williamson
  • J. Howard Pew
  • J. P. Morgan
  • J. Paul Getty
  • James Duke
  • James Smithson
  • John Olin
  • John Rockefeller Jr.
  • John Rockefeller Sr.
  • John Templeton
  • John Walton
  • Judah Touro
  • Julius Rosenwald
  • Leland Stanford
  • Madam C. J. Walker
  • Margaret Olivia Sage
  • Mary Elizabeth Garrett
  • Milton Hershey
  • Nathan Straus
  • Nettie Fowler McCormick
  • Nicholas Longworth
  • Oseola McCarty
  • Peter Cooper
  • Raymond Orteig
  • Robert Smith
  • Sebastian Kresge
  • St. Katharine Drexel
  • Stephen Girard
  • Thomas Eddy
  • Thomas Perkins
  • W. K. Kellogg
  • William Simon
  • William Volker
  • Zachary Fisher
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1735 to present) - Medicine & Health
  • About this Section
  • 1735 A Dying Sailor Endows the First U.S. Charity Hospital
  • 1751 Rescuing the “Sick Poor and Lunaticks”
  • 1786 A Revolutionary Medical Clinic
  • 1791 New York Dispensary
  • 1893 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
  • 1901 Rockefeller University
  • 1906 Peking Union Medical College
  • 1908 A Mass Crusade Against Tuberculosis
  • 1909 Eliminating Hookworm in the U.S.
  • 1910 Modern American Medical Education
  • 1913 American Cancer Society
  • 1913 Rockefeller’s Medical Philanthropy Sprouts 61 Nobel Prizes
  • 1913 Social Hygiene Movement
  • 1915 George Eastman Popularizes Preventive Dental Care
  • 1915 Henry Ford Hospital
  • 1922 Discovery of Insulin
  • 1922 Shriners Hospitals for Children
  • 1927 Rural Hospitals
  • 1931 Discovery of the Influenza Virus
  • 1932 Putting Psychiatry on the Map
  • 1933 A Standard Nomenclature of Disease
  • 1935 Invention of Health Insurance
  • 1937 Yellow Fever Vaccine
  • 1938 March of Dimes
  • 1941 Pap Smear Test
  • 1941 Production of Penicillin
  • 1944 DNA Uncovered
  • 1945 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
  • 1945 Sloan Kettering Institute
  • 1948 Kinsey Reports
  • 1949 Heart Catheterization
  • 1952 Eradicating Polio
  • 1952 Population Control Movement
  • 1953 Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • 1954 Kidney Transplants and Dialysis
  • 1962 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
  • 1965 Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants
  • 1971 A Supertanker of Anti-cancer Funding
  • 1971 Foundation Fighting Blindness
  • 1973 Emergency Medical Services
  • 1974 Ronald McDonald Houses
  • 1974 The Hospice Movement
  • 1974 Tropical Disease Research
  • 1975 Spine, Brain, and Neurological Health in Atlanta
  • 1976 Biomedical Engineering Willed Into Existence
  • 1978 Mercy Ships
  • 1979 Nurse-Family Partnership
  • 1980 Make-A-Wish Foundation
  • 1982 Battling Substance Abuse
  • 1982 Braun Labs Opens Up a New Biology
  • 1982 Komen Races to Cure Breast Cancer
  • 1982 Putting Geriatric Medicine on the Map
  • 1983 Markey Trust Launches Biomedical Careers
  • 1986 Development of the Automated DNA Sequencer
  • 1986 Guinea Worm Eradication
  • 1986 Health Surveys and Patient-centered Care
  • 1989 Leading a Charge Against Psychiatric Disorders
  • 1990 Fisher Houses Created for Families of Hospitalized Military
  • 1990 Taking on the Top Cause of Preventable Death
  • 1991 Aaron Diamond Foundation Unmasks HIV’s Weak Spots
  • 1991 Mind-Body Links Uncovered by Templeton
  • 1991 Painting a Target on Autism
  • 1992 Bill Gates Helps Mass-produce DNA Arrays
  • 1993 Prostate Cancer Foundation
  • 1994 Stowers Institute for Medical Research
  • 1994 Volunteers in Medicine
  • 1997 A Crusade Against Huntington’s Disease
  • 1997 Ellison Medical Foundation
  • 1999 A Foundation Acts Like a Venture Capitalist, and Scores Big
  • 1999 Huntsman Cancer Institute
  • 1999 Immunizing the Developing World
  • 1999 Linking Engineering and Medicine
  • 2000 Systems Biology is Created
  • 2001 9/11 Funds and Subsequent Disaster Giving
  • 2002 Boosting Electronic Health Records
  • 2003 Allen Institute for Brain Science
  • 2003 Agitating for Faster Cures
  • 2003 Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics
  • 2004 Medical School Infusion
  • 2005 Montana Meth Project
  • 2006 Applying Genomics to Pediatric Medicine
  • 2006 Nothing but Nets Campaign
  • 2006 Starr Foundation Builds Research Collaboratives
  • 2007 Healing the Upper Midwest
  • 2007 Koch Cancer Institute at MIT
  • 2007 Tamping Down Childhood Obesity
  • 2009 Bridging Elderly Patients from Hospital to Home
  • 2010 Dental Therapy
  • 2011 Malaria Vaccine
  • 2011 Top Cancer Center and a Medical Empire in Houston
  • 2012 Anti-cancer Encyclopedia
  • 2012 Debt-free Medical Students
  • 2013 Making Invisible Brain Wounds Visible
  • 2013 Regenerative Medicine in San Diego
  • 2013 Targeting Cancer’s Weak Spots in Oregon
  • 2014 Analyzing an Archive of Tumors
  • 2014 Fighting Back Against Allergies
  • 2014 Fighting Cancer at Johns Hopkins
  • 2014 Quick Action Against Ebola
  • 2014 Shot in the Arm for Public Health
  • 2015 Cornell Biomedical Engineering School
  • 2015 Creative Approach to Disease Research Pays Off
  • 2015 Funding the Small and the Large of Regenerative Medicine
  • 2015 Putting a $250M Shine on NYC’s Hospital District
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1636 to 2014) - Education
  • About this Section
  • 1636 Early American Colleges
  • 1643 First Fundraising Campaign
  • 1704 A School for Slaves
  • 1721 Endowed College Chairs
  • 1731 Philadelphia Library Company
  • 1780 A University Across the Woods
  • 1796 Washington and Lee University
  • 1805 New York Free School Society
  • 1824 Rensselaer School and the Rise of Scientific Education
  • 1826 Western Reserve University
  • 1831 Educating the Orphaned
  • 1833 A College Against Slavery
  • 1843 Western Colleges, Eastern Money
  • 1859 Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
  • 1861 Matthew Vassar’s College for Women
  • 1867 Peabody’s Reconstruction Schools
  • 1876 Johns Hopkins University
  • 1880 Bringing Teacher Education to the University
  • 1881 Wharton School and Economic Education
  • 1882 Great Libraries From Enoch Pratt—and Others
  • 1885 Stanford University
  • 1887 Gifts to Public Universities
  • 1888 Toward Collegiality on Campus
  • 1888 Williamson Free School for Mechanical Trades
  • 1890 Opening Medical Education to Women, and Higher Standards
  • 1890 University of Chicago
  • 1902 General Education Board
  • 1903 Professionalization of College Management
  • 1905 Financial Security for Teachers
  • 1907 Collaborating to Educate the Segregated
  • 1909 Milton Hershey School
  • 1912 George Eastman Puts M.I.T. and Rochester on the Map
  • 1912 Rosenwald Schools
  • 1917 Desert Educator
  • 1917 Lincoln School at Columbia
  • 1918 John Sterling’s Golden Bequest to Yale
  • 1918 Mental Hygiene for Children
  • 1921 Carnegie Enhances Legal Education
  • 1923 International Education Board
  • 1924 Duke University
  • 1936 John Bowlby and Child Psychology
  • 1944 United Negro College Fund
  • 1949 Earhart Fellowships
  • 1952 Area Studies Programs
  • 1954 Ford Bolsters Business Education
  • 1955 Ford Foundation’s Special Appropriation
  • 1959 Ford Foundation Aid for Inner-city Schools
  • 1959 Olmsted Scholars Program
  • 1961 A Gift Teaches Donors Not to Write Blank Checks
  • 1966 Carnegie Seminar on the Coleman Report
  • 1968 Children’s Television Workshop
  • 1974 Olin Brings Law and Economics to Campus
  • 1981 Keeping Phonics in the Reading Mix
  • 1981 “I Have a Dream” Scholarships
  • 1982 Educational Excellence Network
  • 1984 Hillsdale College Shifts to Private Funding
  • 1986 Bradley Foundation Puts School Choice on the Map
  • 1989 Posse Foundation
  • 1990 Teach For America
  • 1991 Pat Rooney and Educational Choice
  • 1991 Walton Family Foundation’s Support for Charter Schools
  • 1992 JSTOR Makes Good Research Accessible
  • 1992 Math and Science for All
  • 1992 Rowan University
  • 1993 Annenberg Challenge
  • 1994 Targeting First-generation College Candidates
  • 1996 Home Libraries From an Entertainer
  • 1997 Olin College of Engineering
  • 1997 Project Lead the Way
  • 1997 Revolving Funds for Building Charter Schools
  • 1997 The New Teacher Project
  • 1998 A World-beating School Network
  • 1998 Ave Maria University
  • 1998 Children’s Scholarship Fund
  • 1998 Leadership and Character Education at Our Academies
  • 1998 NewSchools Venture Fund
  • 1999 Center for Research on Education Outcomes
  • 1999 Free Tuition at Music School
  • 1999 Gates Millennium Scholars
  • 2000 Don Fisher Takes KIPP Nationwide
  • 2000 New Leaders for New Schools
  • 2001 Hewlett and Packard Families Make Stanford a Powerhouse
  • 2001 Largest Gift in History to a College
  • 2002 Broad Prizes
  • 2002 Inspired Schooling
  • 2002 Opening University Offerings to the World
  • 2002 Pulling Talented Leaders into Education
  • 2004 Math for America
  • 2005 Charter School Growth Fund
  • 2005 Helping Disadvantaged High School Students Love the Classics
  • 2005 National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
  • 2005 University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform
  • 2006 Blended Learning Schools
  • 2006 New Schools for New Orleans
  • 2006 The Mind Trust
  • 2007 National Math and Science Initiative
  • 2007 Odyssey Scholarships
  • 2007 Teaching America’s History and Founding Principles
  • 2008 A New Kind of Teacher College
  • 2008 Booth, and Other, Schools of Business
  • 2008 Houston Charter School Bloom
  • 2008 Khan Academy
  • 2009 Chicago Preschool Experiment
  • 2009 Value-added Teaching
  • 2010 A State Model for Defending Reform on Multiple Fronts
  • 2010 Common Core State Standards
  • 2010 Counter-balancing Protectors of the K-12 Status Quo
  • 2010 Newark’s School Struggle
  • 2010 Philadelphia School Partnership
  • 2011 Cornell Tech
  • 2012 Chopping the Price of College Textbooks
  • 2012 Easy Online Learning
  • 2012 Providing an International Yardstick to Measure U.S. Schools
  • 2012 Silicon Schools Fund
  • 2013 Boston’s No-lemons Charter Schools
  • 2013 Putting a Bloomberg on the Hopkins Rose
  • 2013 Rating Teacher Colleges
  • 2014 New Orleans School District Goes All-charter
  • 2014 Protecting NYC Charter Schools From Political Opponents
  • 2014 Scholarships for Engineers
  • 2015 Building Real-world Leadership In Every Student
  • 2015 Doubling Wisconsin’s Endowed Chairs
  • 2015 Edgy Education News
  • 2015 Flexibly Incubating New Ideas at Caltech
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1805 to present) Arts & Culture
  • About this Section
  • 1805 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • 1815 Re-Founding the Library of Congress
  • 1836 Preservation of Monticello
  • 1842 Wadsworth Atheneum
  • 1846 Smithsonian Institution
  • 1860 Preservation of Mount Vernon
  • 1870 Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • 1874 Corcoran Gallery of Art
  • 1879 Art Institute of Chicago
  • 1881 Carnegie’s Libraries, and Others’
  • 1895 Carnegie Cultures Pittsburgh
  • 1903 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  • 1905 Juilliard School
  • 1907 MacDowell Artist Colony
  • 1909 Preserving Fort Ticonderoga
  • 1912 Loeb Classical Library
  • 1916 Museum of the American Indian
  • 1917 Godmother of the Harlem Renaissance
  • 1917 Joseph Pulitzer Celebrates Letters and Arts
  • 1919 Frick Collection
  • 1919 Huntington Library
  • 1921 America’s First Modern Art Museum
  • 1921 Eastman School of Music
  • 1923 West by Northeast to the Frederic Remington Art Museum
  • 1924 Morgan Library
  • 1925 Barnes Collection
  • 1926 George Eastman Debuts Martha Graham
  • 1926 Spencer and Katrina Trask’s Yaddo
  • 1927 Revival of Colonial Williamsburg
  • 1929 Black Creativity and the Julius Rosenwald Fund
  • 1929 Museum of Modern Art
  • 1929 Preservation of Mystic Seaport
  • 1929 Samuel Kress Sprinkles Great Art Across America
  • 1930 Saving George Washington’s Birthplace
  • 1931 Severance Hall
  • 1932 Folger Shakespeare Library
  • 1933 Bringing the Science Museum to America
  • 1933 Saving Negro Spirituals
  • 1934 Centuries of Art Shown for Charity in Baltimore
  • 1936 Creating a Cultural Village
  • 1937 Andrew Mellon and the National Gallery of Art
  • 1937 The Guggenheim
  • 1938 The Cloisters
  • 1940 Rare Books Made Accessible by Berg and Rosenwald
  • 1940 Tex Met: Broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera
  • 1940 Historic Hudson Valley
  • 1943 Taming Western Art
  • 1946 Old Sturbridge Village; Plimoth Plantation
  • 1948 New York City Ballet
  • 1949 Aspen Music Festival and School
  • 1951 Corning Museum of Glass
  • 1951 Ford and Carnegie Create Public Broadcasting
  • 1953 Cultural Kingmaker at the Ford Foundation
  • 1954 Columbus Discovers Modern Architecture
  • 1954 Getty Museum
  • 1956 To Create a Mockingbird
  • 1957 Hidden Gems: Community Museums
  • 1961 Revival of New Orleans Jazz
  • 1962 Creating, and Re-creating, Lincoln Center
  • 1962 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
  • 1964 Saving Frank Lloyd Wright Masterpieces
  • 1966 A Delicious Collection Donated by Campbell
  • 1966 Avery Brundage Brings Asian Art to the U.S.
  • 1966 Ima Hogg and the Houston Arts Scene
  • 1966 Preservation of Olana
  • 1968 Business Committee for the Arts
  • 1968 New York Music and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust
  • 1971 Masterpiece Theatre
  • 1971 Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
  • 1972 Worthy Art at the Kimbell Museum
  • 1973 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
  • 1974 Hirshhorn Museum of Contemporary Art
  • 1977 Spoleto Festival USA
  • 1981 Sundance Institute
  • 1981 YoungArts
  • 1982 The New Criterion
  • 1982 Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation
  • 1984 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
  • 1987 A New Generation Discovers Jazz at Lincoln Center
  • 1987 Moses Asch and American Folk Music
  • 1987 National Museum of Women in the Arts
  • 1990 Carnegie Hall is Rescued, and Reoriented
  • 1991 $1 Billion Annenberg Art Collection Donated to the Metropolitan Museum
  • 1993 Saving the Joffrey Ballet
  • 1994 Knight Foundation Experiments in Saving Orchestras
  • 1995 Preservation of Copland House
  • 1999 $60 Million for San Diego Art
  • 1999 Ira Fulton Feeds the Digital Imagination
  • 2000 See the Good TV
  • 2001 Doris Duke Foundation Invests in New Artists
  • 2002 Ruth Lilly, Patroness of Poetry
  • 2003 Driehaus Prize in Architecture
  • 2005 Classical Music Popularized in San Francisco
  • 2006 A Broad Infusion of Modern Art in Los Angeles
  • 2008 Lincoln’s Cottage
  • 2009 History Philanthropy
  • 2011 Archimedes Palimpsest
  • 2011 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
  • 2012 Saving Consecrated Ground
  • 2012 A Private Performance Hall
  • 2012 A Revolutionary Museum Challenge
  • 2012 Kickstarter Exceeds the NEA in Arts Funding
  • 2013 An Art Donation Cubed
  • 2013 Boosting Traditional Architecture
  • 2013 Space for Arts Education
  • 2014 Art for the West
  • 2014 Foundations Rescue Detroit’s Accumulated Art
  • 2014 Last of the Mellon Pictures
  • 2014 Making an Impressionism on Denver
  • 2015 A Nonpareil Book Collection
  • 2015 Art of Native America to Indiana
  • 2015 Stringing Houston’s Art Pearls
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1856 to present) - Nature, Animals, & Parks
  • About this Section
  • 1856 Henry Shaw’s St. Louis Parks
  • 1866 ASPCA Births the Animal Welfare Movement
  • 1876 Appalachian Mountain Club
  • 1890 Trustees of Reservations
  • 1892 From Snowy Egrets to Jungle Gardens
  • 1903 Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • 1906 Pierre du Pont Creates Longwood Gardens
  • 1907 Grand Canyon of the East
  • 1908 Muir Woods National Monument
  • 1911 Camel’s Hump State Park
  • 1916 Stephen Mather Builds the National Park Service
  • 1919 Acadia National Park
  • 1928 Great Smoky Mountains
  • 1930 Hunter-led Wildlife Recoveries
  • 1930 Mount Katahdin and Baxter State Park
  • 1930 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • 1934 Hawk Mountain
  • 1937 Appalachian Trail
  • 1947 Mellon Parklands
  • 1949 Cementing Grand Teton National Park
  • 1950 Bernheim Arboretum
  • 1951 John Olin Launches Scientific Game Management
  • 1951 The Nature Conservancy
  • 1954 Humane Society of the United States
  • 1956 Virgin Islands National Park
  • 1958 Kentucky’s Floracliff
  • 1963 Henry Doorly Zoo
  • 1969 Francis Beidler Forest Sanctuary
  • 1970 Ordway Prairie Preserves
  • 1971 Saving the Winged Cheetah
  • 1972 Guadalupe Mountains National Park
  • 1976 Yawkey Wildife Center
  • 1978 Citizen-led Bluebird Recovery
  • 1978 Early Use of Conservation Easements in Montana
  • 1980 Central Park Conservancy
  • 1980 Free Market Environmentalism
  • 1982 Land Trusts Take Off
  • 1983 Improving Water Quality with Market Incentives
  • 1984 Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • 1987 Kohlers Fly to the Aid of Endangered Swans and Cranes
  • 1987 Using Economic Incentives to Sustain Predators
  • 1988 American Land Conservation Program
  • 1989 Atlanta Botanical Garden Fuqua Centers
  • 1989 Reviving the Bison by Eating It
  • 1990 Andorra Forest
  • 1990 Civil War Land Purchases
  • 1991 Fort Worth Zoo
  • 1992 A National Park for Vermont
  • 1992 Disney Wilderness Preserve
  • 1994 Fred Meijer and Rails-to-Trails
  • 1995 Arc of Appalachia Preserves
  • 1995 Kentucky’s Largest Old-growth Forest
  • 1995 Swift Fox Revival
  • 1999 Creation of the High Line
  • 1999 Gorges State Park
  • 1999 Rose Center for Earth and Space
  • 2000 Paying for Lynx Habitat at Loomis Forest
  • 2000 T-Rex Cliffhanger
  • 2003 Saving Fisheries Through Catch Sharing
  • 2004 Donor-created Public Parks in Louisville
  • 2005 A Noah’s Ark in the Sunshine State
  • 2005 Acres Across America
  • 2005 Great Rivers Partnership
  • 2005 Maine North Woods
  • 2005 World’s Largest Aquarium
  • 2005 Yosemite Falls Restoration
  • 2007 Dinosaur Hall at the Museum of the Rockies
  • 2007 Garden in a Quarry
  • 2007 Largest Park in Chester County, at No Public Cost
  • 2007 Transforming Parks in Memphis, Atlanta, and Beyond
  • 2007 Trust for the National Mall
  • 2008 Saving America’s Mustangs
  • 2010 Putting the Bayou Back in Bayou City
  • 2012 A Park on the Freeway
  • 2012 Rolling Restoration of Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum
  • 2013 Carving Out New Urban Oases
  • 2013 High-adventure Haven for Boys
  • 2013 Largest Cash Gift to National Parks
  • 2013 Lufkin Prize
  • 2014 $350 Million for a City Park in Tulsa
  • 2014 A Park on the Water
  • 2014 Natural History Education
  • 2015 A Golden Age for Parks
  • 2015 Healing Horned Owls and Breeding Bugs
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1657 to present) - Prosperity
  • About this Section
  • 1657 The Continent’s First Ethnic Charity
  • 1727 Franklin’s Network for Good
  • 1743 Ben Franklin Advances Learning
  • 1770 Charity for State-side Britons
  • 1776 Financing our Revolution
  • 1785 Manumission in New York
  • 1797 A Charity By Women for Women
  • 1799 Fighting Ships by Subscription
  • 1801 Serving Elderly Sailors in America’s First Secular Charity
  • 1806 An Orphanage for New York
  • 1812 A Privately Won War
  • 1819 A Bank for Modest-income Workers
  • 1825 A Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents
  • 1829 Educating the Blind
  • 1837 Building the Underground Railway
  • 1837 Initiating Black Colleges
  • 1841 Purifying the Air of American Business
  • 1842 Fraternal Lodges Supply Health Benefits
  • 1843 Fighting Poverty in a Personal Way
  • 1853 Connecting Orphans to Families
  • 1856 Education for the Deaf
  • 1861 Sanitary Commission Saves Lives in the Civil War
  • 1865 Private Donations to Settle Freed Slaves
  • 1868 Voluntary Organizations Pioneer Life Insurance
  • 1877 Steering the U.S. Between Dependence and Neglect
  • 1881 Creation of the American Red Cross
  • 1881 Rescuing Refugees
  • 1889 Settling the Poor
  • 1892 Millions of Lives Saved by Pasteurized Milk
  • 1899 Pioneering Worker Bonuses and Profit-sharing
  • 1907 Creating Business Philanthropy
  • 1907 Sage Social Science
  • 1908 Franklin Institute of Technology
  • 1910 Scouting Improves Boys and Girls
  • 1914 The Community Foundation
  • 1915 Birth of cryptology
  • 1918 Andrew Carnegie Popularizes Pensions
  • 1919 Speeding Flight
  • 1920 Economic Research
  • 1925 Enabling Aeronautics and Commercial Aviation
  • 1925 Reversing the Rhodes Scholarship
  • 1928 200-inch Telescope
  • 1930 Launching Rocketry
  • 1932 Making Books Talk for the Blind
  • 1933 Inventing Molecular Biology
  • 1933 Saving European Intellectuals
  • 1936 Building Up the Boys Clubs
  • 1940 Loomis Laboratory Creates Radar
  • 1948 Counting, and Comforting, Disadvantaged Children
  • 1952 Highway Safety Breakthrough
  • 1955 Artificial Intelligence
  • 1957 Science for the Nation in Time of Need
  • 1958 Saving Traditional City Neighborhoods
  • 1960 Cultivating Community Colleges
  • 1967 Marriage Encounter
  • 1975 Addicts Support Themselves in Group Living
  • 1975 Settling a Million Vietnamese Refugees
  • 1983 Turning Addicts Into Workers
  • 1984 Job Training for Hard Cases
  • 1985 Helping Immigrant Families Flourish
  • 1985 Keck Observatory
  • 1985 Training the Homeless to Do for Themselves
  • 1987 Guiding Poor Kids to Business
  • 1988 Fighting Poverty With Data
  • 1989 Funding a Harlem Rebound
  • 1989 Homes for Philly’s Homeless
  • 1990 Advancing the Science of Business-building
  • 1991 Beating Homelessness in Chicago
  • 1993 Improving Public Understanding of Technology
  • 1994 Financial Services for Low-income Workers
  • 1994 Fostering Complex Math and Science
  • 1996 Advancing Work as a Cure to Poverty
  • 1996 Launch of Non-governmental Space Transport
  • 1997 Finding Techniques That Strengthen Families
  • 1997 Jobs for People With Impediments
  • 1997 Violence-free Zones
  • 1998 Reinforcing Vocational Education
  • 2000 Lifting Risky Cases Into the Work Force
  • 2000 Sending Diamonds in the Rough to College
  • 2001 Battling Poverty via Family Support and Economic Incentives
  • 2002 Building Basic Science
  • 2003 World’s Most Powerful Telescope
  • 2005 Nutrition Research Hub in North Carolina
  • 2006 Clearing Minefields for Peanuts
  • 2006 Creating an Ecosystem of Aid for Servicemembers
  • 2006 Helping People Who Are Ready to Change
  • 2006 Sanford Underground Research Facility
  • 2007 Strengthening Character Through Sports
  • 2008 Science Prizes and Research Institutes
  • 2009 Helping Community-college Students Complete Degrees
  • 2011 Venture For America
  • 2012 Mapping Killer Asteroids
  • 2012 Pay-for-Performance Social Investing
  • 2012 Skilled Jobs and Vets, Brought Together
  • 2012 Speeding Safe Shale-gas Production
  • 2013 Betting on Cross-fertilization
  • 2014 Allen Invents New Methods for New Science Puzzles
  • 2014 Computing Promoted to the Major League of Scientific Prizes
  • 2014 Supporting Drug Discovery as an Economic Engine
  • 2015 Engineering Improvements at Harvard
  • 2015 Jailing Efficiently—and Less Often
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1681-present) - Religion
  • About this Section
  • 1681 Quaker Prison Reform
  • 1727 Ursuline School, Hospital, and Orphanage in New Orleans
  • 1740 A Great Awakening of Mass Philanthropy
  • 1763 A Shrine to Religious Liberty
  • 1768 California’s Missions
  • 1770 Benezet and the Quakers Aid the Forgotten
  • 1792 Sunday Schools Spread Literacy and Constructive Behavior
  • 1801 Charleston’s Hebrew Orphan Society
  • 1801 Rebecca Gratz
  • 1804 Building Evangelicalism
  • 1807 Andover Theological Seminary
  • 1809 Bible Societies
  • 1809 Catholic Schools Launched by the Sisters of Charity
  • 1810 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
  • 1816 American Colonization Society
  • 1827 Evangelical Do-gooding by the Tappan Brothers
  • 1842 Religious Colleges Come (and Go) in Waves
  • 1845 Society of St. Vincent de Paul
  • 1849 Perpetual Emigration Fund
  • 1851 YMCA Comes to America
  • 1854 Jewish Community Centers
  • 1854 Judah Touro, Friend to Religion
  • 1861 United States Christian Commission in the Civil War
  • 1864 Baptist Colleges Bolstered by Rockefeller
  • 1873 Temperance Movement
  • 1874 Spiritual Growth On Chautauqua Lake
  • 1876 Seventh-day Adventists Create Health Food
  • 1880 Salvation Army Marches to America
  • 1884 Expansion of Catholic Schooling
  • 1884 Jacob Schiff’s Philanthropy
  • 1889 Nettie McCormick Bolsters Religious Schools
  • 1891 Katharine Drexel Devotes Her Fortune to Indians and Blacks
  • 1892 Cathedral of St. John the Divine
  • 1900 A Cookbook Helps Americanize Jews
  • 1902 Andrew Carnegie, Organ Donor
  • 1905 Goodwill Industries
  • 1908 Getting the Word Out
  • 1910 Catholic Charities
  • 1911 Making Group Homes Work
  • 1915 Early Fundraising for Endangered Jews
  • 1917 American Friends Service Committee
  • 1922 Junior Rockefeller Promotes Liberal Protestantism
  • 1924 James Duke and the Methodist Church
  • 1928 Pershing and the National Cathedral
  • 1929 Capuchin Soup Kitchen
  • 1933 Catholic Worker Movement
  • 1936 LDS Welfare System
  • 1937 Lilly Endowment
  • 1938 Sealantic Fund
  • 1939 Jewish Federations of North America
  • 1941 Young Life
  • 1943 Catholic Relief Services and the Raskob Family
  • 1947 Weyerhaeuser’s Stewardship Foundation
  • 1950 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
  • 1950 World Vision
  • 1951 Religious Fellowship on Campus
  • 1952 Giant Mainz Bible
  • 1954 Fellowship of Christian Athletes
  • 1956 Pew Builds the Evangelical Parachurch
  • 1966 Saving Addicts, and Other Faith-based Social Work
  • 1968 Covenant House
  • 1968 Pregnancy Resource Centers
  • 1970 Samaritan’s Purse
  • 1972 Templeton Prize
  • 1973 North American Islamic Trust
  • 1976 Christian Study Centers on Campuses
  • 1976 Habitat for Humanity
  • 1976 Prison Fellowship
  • 1978 Michael Novak Synthesizes Catholicism and Capitalism
  • 1981 Healthcare-sharing Ministries
  • 1981 Institute on Religion & Democracy
  • 1982 National Christian Foundation
  • 1984 Leadership Network Helps Build Megachurches
  • 1985 LDS Charities
  • 1986 Sponsoring Low-income Children in Catholic Schools
  • 1988 Ralph Beeson’s Orthodox Philanthropy
  • 1988 StepUp Ministry Encourages Work
  • 1990 MANNA from Heaven
  • 1990 Milken Archive of Jewish Music
  • 1990 Synthesizing Religion and Democratic Capitalism
  • 1991 Sisters of Life
  • 1992 Tikvah Fund
  • 1993 Alliance for Catholic Education
  • 1993 Bolstering Lutheran Tradition
  • 1996 Rebuilding Christianity Behind the Iron Curtain
  • 1999 Birthright Israel
  • 1999 Jubilee Schools
  • 2000 Generous Giving
  • 2000 Melding Work and High School via Cristo Rey
  • 2001 LDS Perpetual Education Fund
  • 2002 Christian Union
  • 2002 Faith Angle Forum
  • 2002 Reconciliation and Economic Progress
  • 2004 Boston Jewish Day Schools
  • 2005 Moving Unprotected Children into Forever Families
  • 2006 Creating More, and Better, Foster Families
  • 2007 Giving It All
  • 2008 Encouraging Muslim Giving
  • 2008 Last Languages for Bible Translation
  • 2008 New Leaders for Catholic Schools
  • 2011 An Illuminated Bible for the Computer Age
  • 2011 Green Collection
  • 2014 Polin Museum
  • 2015 A Fund to Seed New Catholic Schools
  • 2015 A Record for Catholic-school Scholarships
  • 2015 Museum of the Bible
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1833 to 2014) - Public-Policy Reform
  • About this Section
  • 1833 American Anti-Slavery Society
  • 1841 Amistad Decision
  • 1846 American Missionary Association
  • 1848 Adding Active Resistance to Abolitionism
  • 1892 John Muir Guides the Sierra Club to Activism
  • 1895 Jane Addams Pushes Social Reform
  • 1902 Rockefeller Sends the South to High School
  • 1903 Booker T. Washington’s Secret Litigation Donations
  • 1910 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • 1911 Mothers’ Pensions
  • 1916 Brookings Institution
  • 1919 Hoover Institution
  • 1919 Private Scholarly Institutes to Guide Government
  • 1921 Building the ACLU
  • 1936 Laying the Intellectual Foundation for Racial Equality
  • 1946 RAND Corporation
  • 1946 Rockefeller Keeps the U.N. in U.S.
  • 1947 Volker Bolsters Economic Liberty
  • 1950 Philanthropists vs. Communism
  • 1952 Rockefeller III Births the Population Council
  • 1954 AEI Guards Free Enterprise
  • 1957 Spawning Birth Control
  • 1958 Pastor Robinson Blazes a Path for the Peace Corps
  • 1959 Law School Clinics Institutionalize Political Activism
  • 1960 Pierre Goodrich and the Liberty Fund
  • 1960 Putting Bail on a Scientific Footing
  • 1962 Disarmament Lobbies
  • 1964 A Report Card for Schools
  • 1964 Buffett Billions for Abortion
  • 1965 Making a Case for Government Arts Spending
  • 1966 Ford Invents Advocacy Philanthropy
  • 1967 Race-rights Lawsuits
  • 1968 Carnegie Pushes a “G.I. Bill” for the Poor
  • 1969 Ethnic-rights Lawsuits
  • 1970 An Explosion of Giving for Gay Advocacy
  • 1970 Environmental Lawsuits
  • 1972 Feminist Flurry From the Ford Foundation
  • 1972 Joe Coors Brews Up the Heritage Foundation
  • 1973 Filer Commission Defends Private Giving
  • 1974 Linking Law and Economics
  • 1976 A Donor-advised Fund for Liberal Policy Reform
  • 1977 Improving Ideological Diversity Among Reporters
  • 1977 Rise of the Cato Institute
  • 1978 A Popular Tax Revolt
  • 1978 MacArthur’s Money Moves Left
  • 1978 Questioning Statism in Manhattan and Elsewhere
  • 1980 Austrian Economics Along the Potomac
  • 1980 Human Rights Campaign
  • 1980 Mothers Against Drunk Driving
  • 1980 Putting Milton Friedman on PBS
  • 1980 Starting the Presses for Conservative Student Journalists
  • 1981 Give Peace a Grant
  • 1981 New Efforts to Open Minds on Campus
  • 1982 Birth of the Federalist Society
  • 1984 Koch Brothers Take Up Advocacy
  • 1984 Religion in Public Life
  • 1985 Minting New Democrats
  • 1986 ACLU LGBT Project
  • 1986 Creating State Think Tanks
  • 1986 Organizing School Choice
  • 1986 Sparking Welfare Reform
  • 1988 A Think Tank for Family Reinforcement
  • 1988 Pew Warms to Climate Change
  • 1989 New Approach to Race Discrimination
  • 1991 Backscratching Philanthropy Sows Havoc
  • 1991 Campaigning Against Tobacco
  • 1991 Energy Foundation
  • 1991 Institute for Justice
  • 1993 Scuttling HillaryCare with Faxed Memos
  • 1994 A New Way to Fight Crime
  • 1994 Dick Weekley Trims Lawsuits in Texas
  • 1994 Soros Declares War on the War on Drugs
  • 1994 Tim Gill Puts Big Money Into Gay Rights
  • 1994 Tug-of-war Over Campaign Finance
  • 1997 Nudging Congress By Funding School Choice in DC
  • 1998 Moving On to Internet Politics
  • 1999 A Donor-advised Fund for Conservative Policy Reform
  • 2000 Open Society Opens Door to Gay Marriage
  • 2003 Remaking the Think Tank Into Political War Room
  • 2004 Skoll Pioneers “Filmanthropy”
  • 2005 Democracy Alliance
  • 2006 Intelligence Squared Debates
  • 2006 Nudging States Left
  • 2006 Stryker Roils Michigan Politics
  • 2007 Designed to Win Climate-policy Fights
  • 2007 ED in ’08
  • 2008 Advocating for Generational Fairness in Fiscal Policy
  • 2008 Cause-oriented Journalism
  • 2008 Painting Colorado Bluer
  • 2009 Refocusing Governance in Wisconsin
  • 2010 $27 Million to Pass Obamacare
  • 2010 A New Top Dog in Public-policy Funding
  • 2010 Exposing Top Students to the Classics
  • 2010 Fracking Gets Drilled
  • 2010 Painting North Carolina Redder
  • 2011 Avoiding Meltdowns of Public Pensions
  • 2011 Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
  • 2011 Koch Programs for Students
  • 2013 A Bit of Diversity in the Faculty Lounge
  • 2013 Supreme Assistance
  • 2014 $50 Million for Gun Control
  • 2014 A $250 Million Media Experiment
  • 2014 Boosting Policy Instruction at U. Chicago
  • 2014 Helping Transitions to Freedom
  • 2014 Keeping the Lights on in Detroit
  • 2014 Suing for Reform
  • 2015 Building U.S. Interest In Israel
  • 2015 Gestating an Iran Deal
  • 2015 Independence Project for Veterans
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1810-2015) - Overseas
  • About this Section
  • 1810 A Board to Fund American Missionaries
  • 1820 Pioneer Missions to Hawaii
  • 1821 Support for Greek Independence
  • 1847 Responding to the Great Famine of Ireland
  • 1862 Peabody Battles London Slums
  • 1863 American Colleges Abroad
  • 1864 First Modern College in China
  • 1873 Father Damien Redeems the Lepers of Hawaii
  • 1901 Carnegie Bolsters Scottish Universities
  • 1901 Missions to the Philippines
  • 1913 Building a Palace for Peace
  • 1913 Rockefeller Pioneers Public Health in Foreign Lands
  • 1914 Birthing Modern Medicine in China
  • 1914 Rescuing Jews Amid World War
  • 1915 Aiding Armenians After Genocide
  • 1919 Inventing International Exchange Programs
  • 1928 Aluminum-clad Asian Education
  • 1943 Green Revolution
  • 1944 Heifer International
  • 1956 A Life Serving the Poor in Haiti
  • 1962 Averting Millions of Deaths by Starvation
  • 1962 Ford Boosts Market Democracy in Latin America
  • 1974 New Urgency Against Tropical Diseases
  • 1976 Ford Launches Microfinance
  • 1982 Turning Peasants Into Landowners
  • 1984 Archaeology Goes Donor-funded
  • 1984 Opening Former Communist Societies
  • 1985 Eradicating Polio
  • 1986 Mobilizing African Aid
  • 1987 Donating Drugs to Stop Dreadful Diseases
  • 1987 Partners in Health
  • 1989 A Cool Billion After Armenia’s Earthquake
  • 1989 Reinventing Development Economics
  • 1991 Central European University
  • 1993 Saving Bosnians and Serbs
  • 1994 Massive Gifts to Global Health from the Gates Family
  • 1996 Fair Standards to Fuel Trade
  • 1999 Sustainable Energy in China
  • 2000 Bolstering African Universities
  • 2000 Building Civil Society After Communism
  • 2000 Gates Cambridge Scholarships
  • 2000 Gordon Moore’s Andes-Amazon Initiative
  • 2001 Accelerating Microfinance
  • 2001 Clean Water Thanks to Coke
  • 2001 Ford’s International Fellows
  • 2003 Private Schools in Poor Countries
  • 2006 Extending the Green Revolution to Africa
  • 2006 Soros Overseas Spending
  • 2007 A People’s Bank in Rwanda
  • 2007 Bloomberg Campaign Against Tobacco
  • 2007 Bolstering Property Rights
  • 2007 Road Safety in Poor Countries
  • 2009 Robertson Adopts New Zealand
  • 2010 American Missionaries
  • 2010 Giving Pledge Spreads Philanthropy Abroad
  • 2010 Preempting Nuclear Enrichment
  • 2010 Promoting Good Government Abroad
  • 2010 Radios Against Genocide
  • 2011 Collaborating for a Bigger Bang
  • 2011 Mobile Payments in Poor Countries
  • 2012 Clean Water to Drink
  • 2013 Overseas Giving by U.S. Churchgoers
  • 2014 A Chinese Rhodes Scholarship
  • 2014 Bolstering Science in Israel
  • 2014 Boosting Art in Hong Kong
  • 2014 Preserving Jewish History In Tel Aviv and Venice
  • 2015 Gates Doubles Spending Against Hunger
  • 2015 Global Studies at Northwestern
  • Major Achievements of American Philanthropy (1887 to 2014) - Local Projects
  • About this Section
  • 1887 Kamehameha Schools (Hawaii)
  • 1909 Grandaddy of Charity Marathons (Massachusetts)
  • 1914 World’s First Community Foundation (Cleveland)
  • 1924 Duke of the Carolinas (North and South Carolina)
  • 1931 Marquee Donors of Lafayette (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)
  • 1937 Lilly Builds Civil Society (Indiana)
  • 1940 A Forester Sprouts Research (Oregon)
  • 1945 Soil Steward (Oklahoma)
  • 1948 A Gonzo Memorial to Crazy Horse (South Dakota)
  • 1950 Old Salem (Winston-Salem)
  • 1951 Morehead, Cain, and Levine Mint Scholars (North Carolina)
  • 1954 Elevating Home City and State (Louisville)
  • 1982 Gabriel Homes (Virginia)
  • 1986 From State to Local (Minnesota)
  • 1987 Financial Literacy for Young Americans (Colorado)
  • 1987 Matching Local Health-care Solutions (49 states)
  • 1991 Youth Entrepreneurs (Kansas and Missouri)
  • 1993 Adopting a Whole Neighborhood (Tangelo Park)
  • 1993 Transforming His City’s Worst Neighborhood (Atlanta)
  • 1994 FareStart (Seattle)
  • 1995 Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park (Grand Rapids)
  • 1996 A Donor-assisted Urban Turnaround (New York City)
  • 1996 Pritzker Prizes (Chicago)
  • 1996 Reclaiming a City (Hartford)
  • 1997 Bubble-Up Economics (Texas)
  • 1997 Health Care for the Needy (Orlando)
  • 1998 Banking on the Palmetto State (South Carolina)
  • 2000 Largest Gift for Literacy (Mississippi)
  • 2001 Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville)
  • 2001 New Museum for New South (Charlotte)
  • 2001 Respectable Education (Las Vegas)
  • 2002 Charitable Food Distribution Initiative (Nevada, Oklahoma, Arkansas)
  • 2003 Decentralized Giving at El Pomar (Colorado)
  • 2003 Entrepreneurs Adopt Classes (District of Columbia)
  • 2003 Video Medicine in the Desert (New Mexico)
  • 2003 Winged History (Virginia)
  • 2004 Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention (Gainesville)
  • 2005 Entrepreneur High (Providence and Newport)
  • 2005 New Music in Mizzou (Missouri)
  • 2006 Boosting Boy Scout Councils (Phoenix, Lebanon, Parkersburg)
  • 2006 Taking the Ache Out of Bush Life (Alaska)
  • 2007 Outdoor Therapy (Bozeman)
  • 2009 ArtPrize (Michigan)
  • 2010 Aviation School (Grand Rapids)
  • 2011 Brisk Disaster Relief (Alabama and Missouri)
  • 2011 Loans with Integrity (Lancaster County)
  • 2012 Finger Lakes Musical Theater Festival (Auburn)
  • 2012 Gates Pushes Schools to Cooperate (Boston, Denver, Hartford, Philadelphia, etc.)
  • 2012 Polishing Jewels of Columbus (Ohio)
  • 2013 Remembering the Outer Boroughs (New York City)
  • 2014 An Art Trove for the Hometown (St. Louis)
  • 2014 California Techies Find Philanthropy (Silicon Valley)
  • 2015 Safety and a New Life for Women in Crisis (Dallas-Fort Worth)
  • ESSENTIAL BOOKS & ARTICLES ON PHILANTHROPY
  • Preface
  • Strategies for Giving
  • Case Studies and the History of U.S. Giving
  • Biographies of Some Great Donors
  • Philanthropy and the American Character
  • Pursuing Philanthropy Like a Business
  • The Role of Moral Issues in Charitable Success
  • The Power of Grassroots Civil Society
  • Charity in Literature
  • The Special Case of Corporate Philanthropy
  • Respecting the Intentions of Donors
  • In Defense of Private Giving
  • Results of an Original 2015 National Poll
  • Results of an Original 2015 National Poll
  • Statistics on US Generosity
  • Statistics
  • Who Gives Most to Charity?
  • Who Gives Most to Charity?
  • Why is Charitable Activity Tax-Protected? (Think Freedom, Not Finances)
  • Why is Charitable Activity Tax-Protected? (Think Freedom, Not Finances)
  • TIMELINE of AMERICAN PHILANTHROPY 1636-2015