Philanthropy

==United States ==
{{Main|Philanthropy in the United States}}
The first corporation founded in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] was [[Harvard College]] (1636), designed primarily to train young men for the clergy.  A leading theorist was the Puritan theologian [[Cotton Mather]] (1662–1728), who in 1710 published a widely read essay, ''Bonifacius, or an Essay to Do Good''. Mather worried that the{{Specify|reason=which original idealism? Christian? colonial? puritanical?|date=August 2023}} original idealism had eroded, so he advocated philanthropic benefaction as a way of life. Though his context was Christian, his idea was also characteristically American and explicitly Classical{{Specify|reason=what does "Classical" mean in this context?|date=August 2023}}, on the threshold of the [[American Enlightenment|Enlightenment]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Cotton Mather|title=Essays to do Good addressed to all Christians, whether in public or private capacities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oNllAAAAcAAJ|year=1825|publisher=Chalmers and Collins|location=Glasgow|orig-year=1710|series=Select Christian Authors, with Introductory Essays|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oNllAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA51 51]}}</ref>

[[Benjamin Franklin]] (1706–1790) was an activist and theorist of American philanthropy. He was much influenced by [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''An Essay upon Projects'' (1697) and [[Cotton Mather]]'s ''Bonifacius: an essay upon the good'' (1710). Franklin attempted to motivate his fellow [[Philadelphia]]ns into projects for the betterment of the city: examples included the [[Library Company of Philadelphia]] (the first American subscription library), the fire department, the police force, street lighting, and a hospital. A world-class physicist himself, he promoted scientific organizations including the Philadelphia Academy (1751) – which became the [[University of Pennsylvania]] – as well as the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1743), to enable scientific researchers from all 13 colonies to communicate.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Robert T.|editor-last=Grimm|chapter=Benjamin Franklin|title=Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanp0000unse|url-access=registration|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanp0000unse/page/100/mode/2up 100]–03|isbn=9781573563406}}</ref>

By the 1820s, newly rich American businessmen were initiating philanthropic work, especially with respect to private colleges and hospitals. [[George Peabody]] (1795–1869) is the acknowledged{{By whom|date=August 2023}} father of modern philanthropy. A financier based in [[Baltimore]] and [[London]], in the 1860s, he began to endow libraries and museums in the United States and also funded housing for poor people in London. His activities became a model for Andrew Carnegie and many others.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|editor-first=Robert T.|editor-last=Grimm|chapter=George Peabody|title=Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanp0000unse|url-access=registration|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanp0000unse/page/242/mode/2up 243]–45|isbn=9781573563406}}
|2={{cite journal |first=Elizabeth |last=Schaaf |title=George Peabody: His Life and Legacy, 1795–1869 |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |volume=90 |issue=3 |year=1995 |pages=268–285}} }}</ref>

===Andrew Carnegie===
[[File:Carnegie-1903.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|[[Andrew Carnegie]]'s philanthropy. ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' magazine cartoon by [[Louis Dalrymple]], 1903]]

[[Andrew Carnegie]] (1835–1919) was the most influential leader of philanthropy on a national (rather than local) scale. After selling his steel company in 1901 he devoted himself to establishing philanthropic organizations and to making direct contributions to many educational, cultural, and research institutions. He financed over 2,500 public [[Carnegie library|libraries]] built across the United States and abroad. He also funded [[Carnegie Hall]] in New York City and the [[Peace Palace]] in the Netherlands.

His final and largest project was the [[Carnegie Corporation of New York]], founded in 1911 with a {{currency|25 million|USD|passthrough=yes}} endowment, later enlarged to {{currency|135 million|USD|passthrough=yes|linked=no}}. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establish institutions that include the Russian Research Center at [[Harvard University]] (now known as the [https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/ Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies]), the [[Brookings Institution]] and the [[Sesame Workshop]]. In all, Andrew Carnegie gave away 90% of his fortune.<ref>{{cite book|first=Joseph Frazier|last=Wall|title=Andrew Carnegie|url=https://archive.org/details/andrewcarnegie0000wall|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|year=1970|pages=[https://archive.org/details/andrewcarnegie0000wall/page/882/mode/2up 882]–84}}</ref>

===John D. Rockefeller===
[[File:Portrait of J. D. Rockefeller.jpg|thumb|left|170px|[[John D. Rockefeller]] in 1895]]

Other prominent American philanthropists of the early 20th century included [[John D. Rockefeller]] (1839–1937), [[Julius Rosenwald]] (1862–1932)<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|editor-first=Robert T.|editor-last=Grimm|chapter=Julius Rosenwald|title=Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering|url=https://archive.org/details/notableamericanp0000unse|url-access=registration|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/notableamericanp0000unse/page/277/mode/1up 277]–79|isbn=9781573563406}}
|2={{cite book |first=Peter M. |last=Ascoli |title=Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South|url=https://archive.org/details/juliusrosenwaldm0000asco|url-access=registration|publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2006|series=Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies|isbn=978-0-253-34741-1 }} }}</ref> and [[Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage]] (1828–1918).<ref>{{cite book |first=Ruth |last=Crocker |title=Mrs. Russell Sage: Women's Activism and Philanthropy in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America |year=2003 }}</ref>

Rockefeller retired from business in the 1890s; he and his son [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]] (1874–1960) made large-scale national philanthropy systematic, especially with regard to the study and application of modern medicine, higher education, and scientific research. Of the {{currency|530 million|USD|passthrough=yes}} the elder Rockefeller gave away, {{currency|450 million|USD|passthrough=yes|linked=no}} went to medicine.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Peter J.|last1=Johnson|first2=John Ensor|last2=Harr|title=The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family|url=https://archive.org/details/rockefellercentu00harr|url-access=registration|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|year=1988|isbn=978-0-684-18936-9 }}</ref> Their leading advisor [[Frederick Taylor Gates]] launched several large philanthropic projects staffed by experts who sought to address problems systematically at the roots rather than let the recipients deal only with their immediate concerns.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Dwight|editor-last=Burlingame|title=Philanthropy in America: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, vol 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSakKhqTy70C|url-access=limited|year=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lSakKhqTy70C&pg=PA419 419]|isbn=9781576078600}}</ref>

By 1920, the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] was opening offices in Europe. It launched medical and scientific projects in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere. It supported the health projects of the [[League of Nations]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Paul|last=Weindling|title=Philanthropy and world health: the Rockefeller Foundation and the League of Nations Health Organization|journal=Minerva|volume=35|number=3|year=1997|pages=269–281|doi=10.1023/A:1004242303705 |jstor=41821072|s2cid=140744506 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41821072|url-access=subscription}}</ref> By the 1950s, it was investing heavily in the [[Green Revolution]], especially the work by [[Norman Borlaug]] that enabled India, Mexico, and many poor countries to upgrade their agricultural productivity dramatically.<ref>{{cite book|first=Leon F.|last=Hesser|title=The man who fed the world: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug and his battle to end world hunger: An authorized biography|url=https://archive.org/details/manwhofedworldno0000hess|url-access=registration|publisher=Durban House|isbn=1930754906|year=2006}}</ref>

===Ford Foundation===
{{Main|Ford Foundation}}
With the acquisition of most of the stock of the [[Ford Motor Company]] in the late 1940s, the [[Ford Foundation]] became the largest American philanthropy, splitting its activities between the United States and the rest of the world. Outside the United States, it established a network of human rights organizations, promoted democracy, gave large numbers of fellowships for young leaders to study in the United States, and invested heavily in the [[Green Revolution]], whereby poor nations dramatically increased their output of rice, wheat, and other foods. Both Ford and Rockefeller were heavily involved.<ref>{{citation|doi=10.1196/annals.1425.028|pmid=18579885|title=Building an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa|journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|volume=1136|issue=1|pages=233–42|year=2008|last1=Toenniessen|first1=Gary|last2=Adesina|first2=Akinwumi|last3=Devries|first3=Joseph|bibcode=2008NYASA1136..233T|s2cid=16277025|doi-access=free}}</ref> Ford also gave heavily to build up research universities in Europe and worldwide. For example, in Italy in 1950, sent a team to help the Italian ministry of education reform the nation's school system, based on meritocracy (rather than political or family patronage) and democratisation (with universal access to secondary schools). It reached a compromise between the Christian Democrats and the Socialists to help promote uniform treatment and equal outcomes. The success in Italy became a model for Ford programs and many other nations.<ref>{{citation|doi=10.1080/0046760X.2016.1154192|title=American cultural diplomacy and post-war educational reforms: James Bryant Conant's mission to Italy in 1960|url=https://iris.unimore.it/handle/11380/1176822|journal=History of Education|volume=45|issue=3|pages=352–371|year=2016|last1=Mariuzzo|first1=Andrea|s2cid=146991139|hdl=11380/1176822|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

The Ford Foundation in the 1950s wanted to modernize the legal systems in [[India]] and [[Africa]], by promoting the American model. The plan failed, because of India's unique legal history, traditions, {{clarify|text=and profession|date=August 2023}}, as well as its economic and political conditions. Ford, therefore, turned to agricultural reform.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Jayanth K.|last=Krishnan|title=Professor Kingsfield goes to Delhi: American academics, the Ford Foundation, and the development of legal education in India|url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1347&context=facpub|journal=American Journal of Legal History|volume=46|number=4|year=2004|pages=447–499|doi=10.2307/3692406 |jstor=3692406 |s2cid=142891825 }}</ref> The success rate in Africa was no better, and that program closed in 1977.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Jayanth K.|last=Krishnan|title=Academic SAILERS: The Ford Foundation and the Efforts to Shape Legal Education in Africa, 1957–1977|url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1795&context=facpub|journal=American Journal of Legal History|volume=52|number=3|year=2012|pages=261–324|doi=10.1093/ajlh/52.3.261 }}</ref>