Democracy & Philanthropy

DEMOCRACY & PHILANTHROPY The Rockefeller Foundation and the American Experiment the rockefeller foundation centennial series democracy & philanthropy the rockefeller foundation and the american experiment By Eric John Abrahamson Sam Hurst Barbara Shubinski Innovation for the Next 100 Years Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Series 2 Chapter _: Democracy & Philanthropy 3 4 Chapter _: Democracy & Philanthropy 5 6 Chapter _: Democracy & Philanthropy 7 8 Chapter _: Democracy & Philanthropy 9 Preface from Dr. Judith Rodin 14 Foreword – Justice Sandra Day O'Connor 18 1 The Charter Fight 24 11 Government by Experts 52 111 Philanthropy at War 90 © 2013 by Rockefeller Foundation have been deemed to be owned by 1v The Arts, the Humanities, The Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Series the Rockefeller Foundation unless we and National Identity 112 Foreword copyright Justice Sandra Books published in the Rockefeller were able to determine otherwise. Day O’Connor Foundation Centennial Series provide Specific permission has been granted All rights reserved. case studies for people around the by the copyright holder to use the v Foundations Under Fire 144 world who are working “to promote the following works: well-being of humankind.” Three books Top: Rockefeller Archive Center Equal Opportunity for All 174 Bottom: John Foxx. Getty Images. highlight lessons learned in the fields Ruthie Abel: 8-9, 110-111 v1 of agriculture, health, and philanthropy. Art Resource: 26 Three others explore the Foundation’s Book design by Pentagram. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of v11 Democracy and Design work in Africa, Thailand, and the United Public Health: 57 States. For more information about Democracy & Philanthropy: Department of Special Collections in America's Cities 210 the Rockefeller Foundation Centennial and University Archives, Marquette The Rockefeller Foundation and initiatives, visit http://centennial. University Libraries: 84, 86 the American Experiment rockefellerfoundation.org/ Regents of the University of California, Conclusion: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Printed in Canada. Notes & Permissions 101, 102 Resilience and the American Spirit 239 The Foundation has taken all reasonable Estate of Bob Serating: 126-127 Published by steps to ensure the accuracy of the Sony Music Entertainment: 139, 141 The Rockefeller Foundation Acknowledgments 246 information provided in the book; any Newark Public Library: 150 New York errors or omissions are inadvertent. This New York State Archives. New York United States of America book is published without footnotes or (State). Governor. Public information List of Illustrations 248 endnotes. A manuscript version with photographs, 1910-1992. Series 13703- citations and references for all sources In association with Vantage Point 83, Number 1381_2047_2: 157 used is available at http://centennial. Index 256 Historical Services, Inc. Boyd Lewis, Courtesy of Kenan rockefellerfoundation.org/ South Dakota Research Center at the Atlanta History United States of America Center: 166, 167, 168 Captions in this book provide Jonas Bendiksen: 88-89, 170-171, information on the creator and the ISBN-13: 978-0-9796389-6-1 233, 241 repository from which the images in this ISBN-10: 0-9796389-6-8 Spelman College Archives: 172-173, 175 book were obtained. The Foundation Dartmouth College Library: 187 has made its best efforts to determine the creator and copyright holder of all Suzie Fitzhugh: 200 images used in this publication. Images New Haven Register: 202 held by the Rockefeller Archive Center Democracy & Philanthropy 11 t has been frequently remarked that it hose coasts, so admirably adapted for seems to have been reserved to the people commerce and industry; those wide “Iof this country, by their conduct and “T and deep rivers; that inexhaustible example, to decide the important question, valley of the Mississippi; the whole continent, whether societies of men are really capable in short, seemed prepared to be the abode of or not of establishing good government from a great nation, yet unborn. In that land the reflection and choice, or whether they are great experiment was to be made, by civilized forever destined to depend for their political man, of the attempt to construct society upon constitutions on accident and force.” a new basis; and it was there, for the first time, that theories hitherto unknown, or deemed Alexander Hamilton Federalist No. 1 impracticable, were to exhibit a spectacle for which the world had not been prepared by the history of the past.” Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America 12 13 preface democracy & philanthropy By Dr. Judith Rodin President of the Rockefeller Foundation en years after the end of the American Revolution, Alexander problems, rather than to always turn first to government for solutions. He Hamilton wondered whether human beings were capable of wrote about the absence of a powerful aristocratic class in the United States establishing good government based on “reflection and choice.” and the egalitarian character of the culture. Tocqueville believed that these If not, he suggested, they would be ruled forever by those who things went hand-in-hand, and that mutual aid strengthened the bonds of Twould seize power by force. Alexis de Tocqueville, the French writer who citizenship and democracy at the same time. came to the United States in the 1830s to study American democracy, would The Industrial Revolution, however, transformed the United States. echo Hamilton’s concerns. He called the United States a “great experiment” In the last half of the nineteenth century entrepreneurs including John D. in politics and culture. His two-volume work entitled Democracy in America Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan built personal fortunes that seemed to ask the fundamental question: could a pluralistic society with were far beyond Tocqueville’s imagination and, even by today’s standards, of regional, economic, ethnic, and religious differences sustain a democratic unprecedented size. When these men decided at the beginning of the twen- government that would accommodate and draw strength from the underlying tieth century to use a great portion of their wealth to create the first broadly diversity of its culture? purposed, private foundations, modern philanthropy was born—and with it, Soon after the publication of Democracy in America, the American Civil a deep anxiety over the role of great concentrated private wealth engaged in War seemed to suggest that the answer was no. At Gettysburg in 1863, social projects in a democracy. President Abraham Lincoln reminded Americans that the great civil war John D. Rockefeller’s plan to create and endow the Rockefeller Foundation that had engulfed the nation would test whether the United States or any in 1910 engendered opposition in Congress and among some groups in the nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” could general public. People feared that Rockefeller’s money, directed toward solving endure. The tens of thousands of soldiers who died at Gettysburg, according to problems of broad public concern but without public oversight or administra- Lincoln, had given their lives so that “government of the people, by the people tion, might undermine the great experiment in democracy that Hamilton, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.” One hundred and fifty Tocqueville, and others had envisioned. The opposition was so strong that the years later, American democracy is still a work in progress and Tocqueville’s Rockefeller Foundation was eventually incorporated by the state of New York, great experiment is relevant to people around the world who aspire to rather than the United States Congress. democratic government. But abandoning the idea of a federal charter did not mean forsaking the In his travels throughout the United States, Tocqueville was particularly American people or the American experiment. As Democracy & Philanthropy impressed with what we would today call the nonprofit or civic sectors of so- shows, the Rockefeller Foundation has worked assiduously over the course ciety. He noted Americans’ tendency to form associations to address common of the last century to earn and keep the public trust. From its earliest days 14 Preface Democracy & Philanthropy 15 preface democracy & philanthropy the Foundation has published an extensive annual report that detailed every basic commitment has fostered tension with some in the United States who grant and investment and provided the names of all trustees and principal have asserted that working internationally is somehow un-American. officers involved with the Foundation’s operations. In the 1950s and 1960s, In creating the Foundation, however, Rockefeller did not see a conflict when Congress expressed grave concern about abuses perpetrated by some between his effort to help the world and his passion for his home country. institutions within the philanthropic community, the Rockefeller Founda- Neither do we. In fact, some of our most well-known international tion’s relationship with the people’s elected representatives and the American programs—in public health, for example—began here in the United States. experiment was tested again. On those occasions, the Foundation provided Just as Alexis de Tocqueville recognized that mutual aid strengthens the detailed reports on its work to satisfy Congressional investigators. bonds of civil society, we realize that our work to promote the well-being of Perhaps more importantly, the Rockefeller

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