Philanthropy in the United States
has played a major role in American history, from the Puritans of early Massachusetts who founded Harvard College, down to the present day. Since the late 19th century philanthropy has been a major source of income for religion, medicine and health care, fine arts and performing arts, as well as educational institutions.
Colonial era
Established and voluntary religion
Taxes from local and colonial government supported the established churches in New England, which were Congregational, and in the South, which were Anglican. A much faster rate of growth appeared in entirely voluntary religious denominations, especially the Methodists and Baptists, and among the Presbyterians especially on the frontier. German and Dutch immigrants supported their Reformed churches in Pennsylvania and New York without tax money.The first corporation founded in the 13 Colonies was Harvard College, designed primarily to them train young men for the clergy. A leading theorist was the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather, who in 1710 published a widely read essay, Bonifacius, or an Essay to Do Good. Mather worried that the 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, on the threshold of the Enlightenment.
Mather's many practical suggestions for doing good had strong civic emphases—founding schools, libraries, hospitals, useful publications, etc. They were not primarily about rich people helping poor people, but about private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life. Two young Americans whose prominent lives, they later said, were influenced by Mather's book, were Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere.
Ethnic and religious groups
Voluntary charitable organizations established by ethnic and religious groups, for their own people, originated in the colonial era and grew much stronger in the 19th century. As assimilation took place most of the European groups merged into a general "American" population; the ethnic charitable societies sharply declined by 1900. Minority ethnic groups and races that did not amalgamate extensively continued their separate operations, as did religious charities into the 21st century.The Puritans of New England and the Quakers Of Pennsylvania were the pioneers before 1700 in establishing charitable institutions, philanthropic operations, and their own schools. Eventually most of the many religious denominations set up charitable institutions as well as their own seminaries or colleges. The first ethnic group to mobilize served as a model for many others – it was the Scots Charitable Society of Boston, started in 1657. In 1754 the Episcopal Charitable Society of Boston Was oriented toward recent English immigrants. In 1768, the Charitable Irish Society of Boston opened for Irish Protestants. Eventually German and French immigrants set up their own benevolent societies.
Benjamin Franklin
was an activist and theorist of American philanthropy. He was much influenced by Daniel Defoe's An essay upon projects and Mather's Bonifacius. Franklin specialized in motivating his fellow Philadelphians into projects for the betterment of the city. As a young tradesman in 1727, he formed the "Junto": a 12-member club that weekly to consider current issues and needs. One of the qualifications for membership was the "love mankind in general". In 1729 he founded a weekly newspaper the Philadelphia Gazette, and for the next thirty years he used the Junto as a sort of think-tank to generate and vet philanthropic ideas, and the Gazette to test and mobilize public support, recruit volunteers, and fund-raise. his system Led to the creation of America's first subscription library, a volunteer fire association, a fire insurance association, , the paving and patrolling of public streets, the finance and construction of a civic meeting house, and many others. A world-class physicist himself, he promoted scientific organizations including the Philadelphia Academy --which became the University of Pennsylvania – as well as the American Philosophical Society to enable scientific researchers from all 13 colonies to communicate. Fellow diplomat John Adams reported that in France "there was scarcely a peasant or citizen" who "did not consider him as a friend to humankind."19th century
The new nation had weak national, state and local governments. A strong civil society was built by Volunteers in a culture of collaboration. French observer Alexis de Tocqueville called them, "voluntary associations." They permeated American life, as a distinguishing feature of the American character and culture, they were the key to American democracy. Americans, he said, did not rely on others—government, an aristocracy, or the church—to solve their public problems; rather, they did it themselves, through voluntary associations, which is to say, philanthropy, which was characteristically democratic.Important American philanthropists of the first half of the 19th century ere Gerrit Smith and the industrialist Arthur Tappan and to a lesser extent his brother Lewis.
George Peabody
By the 1820s, newly rich American businessmen were establishing philanthropic work, especially with respect to private colleges and hospitals. George Peabody, A merchant in banker based in Baltimore and London he became the father of modern philanthropy. Historian Roderick Nash argues that Peabody as a disciple of Benjamin Franklin, joined hard work with frugality, punctuality, and a strong public spirit. Peabody was a pioneer, whose success in philanthropy set the standard for American millionaires in a way that was unique in the world. Philanthropy in Europe typically came from old aristocrat families with vast inherited wealth who built palaces and museums that were eventually opened to the public. The American way was for the self-made millionaires to become self-made philanthropists, a model that was perfected in the next generation by Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller. They agreed with Peabody that riches produced a duty to give most of it back to the community through specialized permanent foundations. Peabody was especially imaginative, – and relied on his own memories of poverty and self learning to figure new ways to Educate and culturally enrich the next generation of poor youth, and thereby promote more equality in American society. Jacksonian Democracy promoted equality in politics; he promoted equality and culture through libraries, schools, museums and colleges. He rejected doling out bundles of cash to the poor as a waste of money in comparison to building permanent institutions that produced a steady stream of benefits. His last great benefaction was the Peabody Education Fund, which had a dramatic impact in improving southern public schools. It was the first major Philanthropy that gave large sums to very poor Blacks on the same terms as whites, albeit within the strict limits imposed by Southern culture regarding racial segregation and white supremacy. Even more important was the institutional framework that Peabody devised, of a permanent professional foundation, run by experts in philanthropy, who were guided by and indeed invented the best practices of the day.Jewish philanthropy
In the mid-19th century, German Jewish immigrants operated businesses and financial institutions in cities across the country. They set up extensive charitable institutions, generously giving money and volunteer time of charity a high prestige activity. After 1920 the newer Yiddish-speaking Jewish community centered in New York City became active in philanthropy.Local millionaires
By the late 19th century, about a third of the successful local businessman were making philanthropic donations. Albert Shaw editor of the magazine American Review of Reviews in 1893 examined philanthropic activities of millionaires in several major cities. The highest rate was Baltimore where 49% of the millionaires were active givers; New York City ranked last. Cincinnati millionaires favored musical and artistic ventures; Minneapolis millionaires gave to the state university in the public library; Philadelphians often gave to overseas relief, and the education of blacks and Indians. Boston had a weak profile, apart from donations to Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital. Railroad leaders seldom focused on local issues, since they had responsibility for much larger territories. They approve the work of the railroad YMCAs in uplifting the labor force, though they seldom gave them any corporate money. One exception came in 1882 when the president of the Illinois Central Railroad provided a salary of $50 a month for six months for a YMCA Evangelist in Cairo, Illinois, hoping "he will be able to accomplish some good in that ungodly place." Executives rarely used the railroad's financial resources for philanthropic goals. Occasionally they donated land for public schools or colleges, assuming it would have a positive impact on the selling price of their nearby lands.'s philanthropy. Puck magazine cartoon by Louis Dalrymple, 1903
Andrew Carnegie
was the most influential leader of philanthropy on a national scale. After selling his giant steel company in the 1890s he devoted himself to establishing philanthropic organizations, and making direct contributions to many educational cultural and research institutions. His final and largest project was the Carnegie Corporation of New York, founded in 1911 with a $25 million endowment, later enlarged to $135 million. In all he gave away $350 million, or 90% of his fortune.The establishment of public libraries in the United States, Britain, and in dominions and colonies of the British Empire started a legacy that still operates on a daily basis for millions of people. The first Carnegie library opened in 1883 in Dunfermline, Scotland. His method was to build and stock a modern library, on condition that the local authority provided site and keep it in operation. In 1885, he gave $500,000 to Pittsburgh for a public library, and in 1886, he gave $250,000 to Allegheny City for a music hall and library, and $250,000 to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a free library. In total Carnegie gave $55 million to some 3,000 libraries, in 47 American states and overseas. As VanSlyck shows, the last years of the 19th century saw acceptance of the idea that libraries should be available to the American public free of charge. However the design of the idealized free library was at the center of a prolonged and heated debate. On one hand, the library profession called for designs that supported efficiency in administration and operation; on the other, wealthy philanthropists favored buildings that reinforced the paternalistic metaphor and enhanced civic pride. Between 1886 and 1917, Carnegie reformed both library philanthropy and library design, encouraging a closer correspondence between the two. Using the corporation as his model, Carnegie introduced many of the philanthropic practices of the modern foundation. At the same time, he rejected the rigid social and spatial hierarchy of the 19th-century library. In over 1,600 buildings that he funded and in hundreds of others influenced by its forms, Carnegie helped create an American public library type that embraced the planning principles espoused by librarians while extending a warmer welcome to the reading public. There was some opposition, for example in Canada where anti-American and labour spokesman opposed his libraries, in fear of the influence of a powerful American, and in protest against his breaking a strike in 1892.
Carnegie was in fact transforming his wealth into cultural power independent of Governmental or political controls. However he transcended national boundaries – he identified so much with Britain that at one point he thought of running for Parliament. In Canada and Britain he worked with like-minded local intellectual and cultural leaders who shared his basic values to promote an urgently needed Canadian or British cultural, intellectual, and educational infrastructure. In those countries, the rich industrialists rarely supported national philanthropy. He also set up numerous permanent foundations, especially in pursuit of world peace, such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace formed in 1910 with a $10 million endowment.
In Gospel of Wealth, Carnegie proselytized the rich about their responsibilities to society. His homily had an enormous influence in its day, and into the 21st century. One early disciple was Phoebe Hearst, wife of the founder of the Hearst dynasty in San Francisco. She expanded the Carnegie approach to include women declaring that leisured women had a sacred duty to give to causes, especially progressive education and reform, that would benefit their communities, help those excluded or marginalized from America's mainstream, and advance women's careers as reformers and political leaders.
1900 to 1980
Prominent American philanthropists of the early 20th century were John D. Rockefeller and his son, Julius Rosenwald and Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage.Rockefeller network
The senior John D. Rockefeller retired from business in the 1890s; he and his son John D. Rockefeller Jr. made large-scale national philanthropy systematic especially regarding the study and application of modern medicine, higher, education and scientific research. Of the $530 million the elder Rockefeller gave away, $450 million went to medicine. Their top advisor Frederick Taylor Gates designed several very large philanthropies that were staffed by experts who designed ways to attack problems systematically rather than let the recipients decide how to deal with the problem.One of the largest of the Rockefeller philanthropies was the General Education Board which focused on higher education medical school, and Uplift of the poverty-stricken rural South, both black and white. It funded rural schools, helped modernize farming practices, and work hard to eradicate hookworm. It promoted the county agent system run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that brought research from state agricultural experiment stations into actual operation on millions of farms. Rockefeller gave it $180 million starting in 1903. Its head Frederick Gates envisioned "The Country School of To-Morrow," wherein "young and old will be taught in practicable ways how to make rural life beautiful, intelligent, fruitful, recreative, healthful, and joyous." By 1934 the Board was making grants of $5.5 million a year. It spent nearly all its money by 1950 and closed in 1964.
Hoover in Europe
The Commission for Relief in Belgium was an international organization that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War. It was led by Herbert Hoover. Between 1914 and 1919, the CRB operated entirely with voluntary efforts and was able to feed 11,000,000 Belgians by raising the necessary money, obtaining voluntary contributions of money and food, shipping the food to Belgium and controlling its there, For example, the CRB shipped 697,116,000 pounds of flour to Belgium. Biographer George Nash finds that by the end of 1916, Hoover "stood preeminent in the greatest humanitarian undertaking the world had ever seen." Biographer William Leuchtenburg adds, "He had raised and spent millions of dollars, with trifling overhead and not a penny lost to fraud. At its peak, his organization was feeding nine million Belgians and French a day. When the U.S. entered the war President Wilson gave Hoover charge of the American food supply.When the war ended in late 1918, Wilson gave Hoover control of the American Relief Administration, with the mission of finding food and coal for Central and Eastern Europe. The ARA fed millions. U.S. government funding of $100 million for the ARA expired in the summer of 1919, and Hoover transformed the ARA into a private organization, raising millions of dollars from private donors. He had numerous efficient aides, such as Anson Goodyear, who handled coal supplies in Austria, Hungary and Poland. According to Kendrick Clements:
Under the auspices of the ARA, the European Children's Fund fed millions of starving children. When attacked for distributing food to Russia, which was under Bolshevik control, Hoover snapped, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation was founded in 1936, and after the deaths of Edsel Ford and Henry Ford it was given by the family all of the non-voting shares of the Ford Motor Company. The family kept all the voting shares, which although far fewer in number, assured its continuous control of the corporation. Ford's profits, dividends, and increases in stock value went overwhelmingly to the Foundation. In 1950 the family gave up control of the Foundation, Keeping a few seats on the board until 1976. In 1955 the Foundation sold most of its Ford shares. By then it passed the Rockefeller Foundation to become the largest philanthropy, with very large scale projects in the United States and around the world. Domestically, it focused on inner-city revitalization, the development of public broadcasting, and support for the arts. It invested heavily in graduate training programs in American and European research universities, especially in promoting international studies. Civil rights and aid to minority groups became a major priority after 1950. It started with an effort had building minority communities and promoting integration. However, by the 1970s it had switched to a top-down strategy of training new minority leaders. One result was the support for Black Power elements hostile to integration, such as CORE, as well as black studies programs on campuses. Another was resentment especially as Jewish leaders were pushed out of the civil rights movement by the new black generation. 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.Recent philanthropists
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded more than $6 billion since its first grants in 1978. It has an endowment of $6.3 billion and provides approximately $270 million annually in grants and impact investments. It is best known for the annual MacArthur Fellows Program, often dubbed "genius grants", which makes $625,000 no-strings-attached awards annually to about two dozen creative individuals in diverse fields.Gates and Buffett
During the past few years, computer entrepreneur Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, and billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett have donated many billions of dollars to charity and have challenged their wealthy peers to donate half of their assets to philanthropic causes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has led campaigns to eradicate malaria and river blindness, and Buffett donation $31 billion in 2006 to the Gates Foundation.Financier Ronald Perelman signed the Gates-Buffett Pledge in August 2010, committing up to half his assets to be designated for the benefit of charitable causes, and gave $70 million to charity in 2008 alone.
Phil Knight, a co-founder of Nike Corporation, and his wife Penny, have given or pledged more than $2 billion. Oregon Health and Science University, Stanford University and the University of Oregon have received the bulk of their philanthropy.
In December 2015, Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse Priscilla Chan pledged to donate over the decades 99% of their Facebook shares, then valued at $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, their new charitable foundation with focuses on health and education.
Female philanthropists
became a noted philanthropist during the latter part of the 20th century in collaboration with, and independently of, her husband, Henry Glendon Walter, Jr. Best known for her support of public television programming in the United States, she has also served as a trustee for the American Museum of Natural History, Long Island University and the Paley Center for Media.21st century efforts
Trends in philanthropy have been affected in various ways by a technological and cultural change. Today, many donations are made through the Internet.The Indiana University Center on Philanthropy has reported that approximately 65% of households earning $100,000 or less donate to charity, and nearly every household exceeding that amount donated to charity. More particularly, according to studies by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the rich give a smaller share, averaging 4.2%, to charity than those poorer, who give an average of 7.6%.
Religious Communities
Today, the involvement of religious communities in philanthropic work is still observable, with scholars demonstrating that, “individuals who are religious are more likely to give money to charitable organizations” and they are also more likely, “to give more money than those who are not religious.” These monetary contributions can be either charitable donations made to religiously run-or secular charities and institutions, or religious organizations and religions themselves, as a means of sustaining the institutions. When looking at the total amount of charitable giving in the United States, the largest proportion are donations made to religious congregations, nearly 29%. American Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, and Protestant communities all, nearly equally, prioritize constributing ot their congregational houses of worship above other causes.The impact of American religious communities in philanthropy and charitable giving can be seen across a variety of faith communities, including the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim communities. Institutes like the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Lake Institute on Faith and Giving not only conduct research on the practice of faith-based giving, but also offer education and training on how to better engage in and manage religious philanthropy.
American Muslims
When it comes to American Muslims, their “philanthropic patterns and preferences”, mostly are “aligned remarkably well with other faith groups and the general public.” Key differences include greater likelihood to have their philanthropic donations motivated by their “sense of religious duty” for 17% of American Muslims, contrasted with the 10% reported in the general American public, and a “feeling that those with more should aid those with less” for 20% of American Muslims, contrasted with only 12% in the general public.In a study conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, when compared to other American faith groups, Muslims were found to be the most likely to “contribute to organizations” combating poverty in the United States that were “outside their faith communities”. This statistic remains true despite the fact that a notable amount of American Muslims are immigrants to the United states, demonstrating an “opposite trend” to what may be expected. After domestic poverty, 58% of those surveyed prioritized non-domestic relief as a philanthropic cause.
The study also found that there were no major distinctions between the giving patterns of men and women, but did observe age and race-based differences. Younger American Muslims were much more likely to give to domestic causes than their elders, as well as to overseas causes. When it comes to race, Black Muslims are more likely to give to both educational causes within the American Muslim community, as well as to “youth & family services” and “arts & culture causes” both outside of their community.