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Home , Edward Harkness, George Peabody, Ima Hogg, Peter Cooper, Stephen Girard

American Historys Greatest Philanthro

REATNESS. It’s a surprisingly elusive con - Three basic considerations guided our selection. Gcept. At first it seems intuitive, a superlative First, we focused on personal giving— quality so exceptional that it cannot be conducted with one’s own money—rather than insti - missed. But when you try to define greatness, when tutional giving. Second, we only considered the you try to pin down its essence, what once seemed accomplishments attained within the individual’s obvious starts to seem opaque. own lifetime. (For that reason, we did not consider If anything, it’s even living donors, whose harder to describe greatness work is not yet finished.) in philanthropy. When it The Philanthropy Hall of Fame And third, we took a comes to charitable giving, The Roundtable is proud to announce broad view of effective - what separates the good the release of the Philanthropy Hall of ness, acknowledging from the great? Which is that excellence can take Fame, featuring full biographies of more important, the size of many forms. the gift, its percentage of American history’s greatest philan - The results of our net worth, or the return on thropists. Each of the profiles pre - research are inevitably charitable dollar? Is great sented in this article are excerpted subjective. There is a dis - philanthropy necessarily cipline, but not a science, transformative? To what from the Hall of Fame. To read more to the evaluation of great extent is effectiveness a about these seminal figures in Amer - philanthropists. Never - function of the number of ican philanthropy, please visit our new theless, we believe that individuals served, or the website at GreatPhilanthropists.org. these individuals are degree of innovation worth studying, for their achieved, or the years of innate human interest as lasting influence? well as for what they can For the past year, we have grappled with the ques - teach the donors of today. tion: Who were America’s greatest philanthropists? We This list isn’t the final word on the greatest phil - studied hundreds of individuals, carefully reviewing anthropists in American history, nor does it intend to their achievements. On the basis of that research, we be. Think of it instead as a starting point for discus - are pleased to present the following selection from the sion—and, we hope, a source of inspiration. inaugural class of the Philanthropy Hall of Fame. —THE EDITORS

8 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 Introducing the Philanthropy Hall of Fame

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Nettie Fowler McCormick s Nicholas Brady Andrew Mellon J. P. Morgan pistsPeter Cooper John M. Olin Joseph Coors Raymond Orteig Bill Daniels St. Katharine Drexel Thomas H. Perkins James B. Duke J. Howard Pew Harry Earhart Henry Phipps George Eastman Thomas Eddy John D. Rockefeller Sr. Don Fisher John D. Rockefeller Jr. Zachary Fisher Julius Rosenwald Henry Ford Margaret Olivia Sage Ellen Browning Scripps Mary Elizabeth Garrett Daniel C. Searle J. Paul Getty William E. Simon Stephen Girard Robert H. Smith Edward Harkness James L. Smithson Milton Hershey Leland Stanford Ima Hogg Nathan Straus Herbert Hoover John M. Templeton Ewing Marion Kauffman Judah Touro W. K. Kellogg William Volker S. S. Kresge Madam C. J. Walker Eli Lilly John T. Walton Nicholas Longworth Oseola McCarty Isaiah Williamson

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 9 FOUNDING FUNDERS

Benjamin Franklin “It is prodigious the quantity of good that may be tution, and saw it through to its opening day. The done by one man, if he will make a business of it,” Academy of , later the University of Benjamin Franklin once , opened its doors in January 1750. observed. From a young age, Within two years, it had 300 students. Franklin made doing good his Franklin then turned his attention to founding business. Biographer Edmund a charitable hospital. In doing so, he pioneered the Morgan once suggested he concept of the matching grant, approaching the “was behind virtually every colonial legislature and proposing that once the scheme that made [Philadel - hospital had raised £2,000 in private contribu - phia] an attractive place to tions, the colonial government contribute another live.” Indeed, Benjamin £2,000 to the effort. When it began admitting Franklin may well be consid - patients in 1756, it was the nation’s first hospital, ered the father of American a charitable enterprise that served all comers, civil society. regardless of their ability to pay. In 1731, when Franklin was In addition to the institutions he founded, 25 years old, he led the effort Franklin supported scores of others. Franklin’s to incorporate the Library name, notes one biographer, appears “at the head Company of Philadelphia, the of many a subscription list, whether for the College first such library in British of Philadelphia, to support the botanizing of John Franklin North America. Five years Bartram, or to construct a synagogue for Mikveh later, he conceived and Israel Congregation. (He was often the most gen - founded the Union Fire Company, the first volun - erous contributor as well.)” Even late in life, he was teer fire brigade in Pennsylvania, with each of the an inveterate joiner. Only a few years before his company’s 30 charter members pledging to protect death, Franklin became the president of the Soci - one another’s homes against fire. ety for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Franklin also played a crucial role in the move - Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. ment to bring higher education to Philadelphia. As a final bequest, Franklin left £1,000 to his Around 1743, he began circulating his proposal for native Boston and another £1,000 to his adopted the Academy of Philadelphia. Unlike other colonial Philadelphia. Both bequests were held in trust, to colleges, which preferred the sons of leading fam - gather interest for 200 years. In 1990, the trusts ilies, Franklin’s college would be open to all deserv - were required to sunset. Philadelphia elected to ing young men. (It also differed from other schools spend its funds on scholarships for local high school in that it lacked a denominational affiliation.) students, while Boston established a trade school: Franklin was elected president of the nascent insti - the Franklin Institute of Boston.

1750: Stephen Girard born in ,

1756: With support from Benjamin 1764: Franklin, America’s Thomas first hospital opens in Perkins born in Philadelphia Boston 10 Philanthropy • Winter 2013

Judah Touro Judah Touro was the nation’s first great Jewish phil - anthropist. Born in 1775 in Newport, Rhode Island, Touro was the second son of Rabbi Isaac Touro, leader of Newport’s famed synagogue. As a young man, Touro moved to , where he made a fortune—and gave it away. In 1824, he erected a free public library. Later, he purchased a Christian church building and assumed its debts, while allow - ing the congregation to use the building rent-free in perpetuity. (When a friend suggested the property might be valuable if sold for commercial purposes, Touro responded, “I am a friend to religion and I will not pull down the church to increase my means!”) Both Thomas Perkins and Judah Touro were major Influenced by the abolitionist views of his former benefactors of the Bunker Hill Monument. Boston employer, he purchased slaves in order to manumit them. He founded a home for the poor, Thomas Eddy and during a yellow fever epidemic, he established Thomas Eddy was one of City’s first a hospital. After his death, it became known as financiers, a Quaker banker who led some of the Touro Infirmary, and it remains the only nonprofit, most innovative philanthropic efforts of the early faith-based community hospital in New Orleans. republic. A leader in penal reform (he helped end whipping and branding) and a benefactor of the Thomas Perkins New York Hospital, perhaps his greatest philan - Thomas Handasyd Perkins was a wealthy Boston thropic accomplishment was the Savings of merchant who traded slaves in Hispaniola, exported New York. Largely forgotten today, the mutual Turkish opium to China, and smuggled Lafayette’s savings of the 19th century were an invalu - son out of Revolutionary France. With his wealth, able resource for the working poor. Unlike com - Perkins became one of the civic leaders of early 19th mercial banks of the era, mutual savings banks century Boston. He was an active supporter of the were open to small depositors of modest means. Mercantile Association of Young Men in Boston, the They did not pay dividends, and, rather than re- McLean Asylum for the Insane, and the Boston investing the profits in paid staff, most were run by Museum of Fine Arts. But he dedicated most of his trustees who volunteered their time. When Eddy time and funding to four causes: the died in 1827, about 10,000 passbook holders had General Hospital, the Bunker Hill Monument, and $1.4 million on deposit; ten years later, the num - the Boston Athenaeum. But his signature achieve - ber of had risen to 23,000, with $3 mil - ment is known today as the Perkins School for the lion in funds; by 1860 over 50,000 New Yorkers Blind. With his own eyesight failing, Perkins gave his had nearly $10 million on deposit. At a time when Pearl Street mansion and ample funding to the first deposits were unsecure, the SBNY offered work - American school for the disabled, the alma mater of ing Americans a safe way to save money—with rea - Anne Sullivan and, later, her student Helen Keller. sonable rates of interest.

A TIMELINE OF GREAT GIVERS

1775: Judah Touro born in Rhode Island

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 11 ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie may be (which increased the attractiveness of an academic the most influential philan - career). thropist in American his - But Carnegie is perhaps best remembered for tory. The scale of his giving the nearly 3,000 public libraries he helped build. As is almost without peer: a young man, Carnegie spent most of his evenings adjusted for inflation, his at the library of James Anderson, a prosperous Pitts - donations exceed those of burgh businessman who gave working boys free virtually everyone else in access to his 1,500-volume book collection. It was the nation’s history. The clearly a formative experience, one that Carnegie magnitude of his accom - hoped to replicate for the similar benefit of others. plishments is likewise his - Starting in 1885, he began funding the con - toric: he established dozens struction of thousands of libraries. (The precise of charitable organizations number he built is disputed; at the time of his that remain active nearly a death, the tally stood at 2,811 libraries, roughly century after his death. two-thirds of which were in the .) To And, perhaps uniquely ensure that communities were equally invested, he among businessmen, the would pay solely for buildings—and only after quality of his writing has local authorities showed him credible plans for ensured that his thoughts acquiring books and hiring staff. Carnegie on philanthropy have been This was a vivid illustration of his conviction continuously in print for that merely giving away money was not enough. more than a century, and remain widely read and “[O]f every thousand dollars spent in so-called studied to this day. charity today,” he opined, “it is probable that nine During his lifetime, Carnegie created many hundred and fifty dollars is unwisely spent—so innovative charitable institutions. A handful of spent, indeed, as to produce the very evils which it examples shows the range of his interests. In 1900, hopes to mitigate or cure.” The problem, as he saw he founded the Carnegie Technical Schools, later it, was “indiscriminate charity”—providing help to the Carnegie Institute, and known today as people who were unwilling to help themselves. Carnegie Mellon University, one of the world’s That sort of philanthropy only rewarded bad habits leading research universities. In 1904, he created rather than encouraging good ones. what he called his “pet child,” the Carnegie Hero Carnegie argued for a different kind of phil - Fund Commission, which recognizes and rewards anthropy, one that would deliberately support insti - individuals who spontaneously risk life and limb tutions that strengthen and refresh individuals so to rush to the aid of others. A year later, he they could become more independent and produc - launched the Carnegie Foundation for the tive themselves. Universities, libraries, hospitals, Advancement of Teaching, whose many accom - meeting halls, and recreational facilities—these, plishments include the Flexner Report (which rev - Carnegie believed, were the best way for philan - olutionized American medical education) and the thropy to achieve its high ambition of helping peo - provision of pensions to college faculty members ple to help themselves.

1795: George Peabody born in Massachusetts

1791: Thomas Eddy becomes New York’s first underwriter

12 Philanthropy • Winter 2013

Isaiah Williamson “It was seeing boys, ragged and bare - footed, playing or lounging about the streets, growing up with no educa - tion, no trade, no idea of usefulness,” wrote Isaiah V. Williamson, “that caused me to think of founding a school where every boy could be taught some trade free of expense.” Williamson committed $2.1 million (roughly $50 million in present value) to the project, clearly stipu - lating that in considering admissions to the school, “preference shall always be given to the poor.” To this day, the Williamson Free School for Mechanical Trades recruits young men from the toughest areas of Pennsylvania, working with ministers, guidance counselors, coaches, and other mentors to find promising young men who would benefit from learning a Every student at the Williamson Free School of trade. And to this day, the school provides a full Mechanical Trades earns a full scholarship, not scholarship for all of its students, not one penny one penny of which comes from public sources. of which comes from public sources.

Henry Phipps Nathan Henry Phipps Jr. was a lifelong friend and business Straus partner of Andrew Carnegie. The second-largest Nathan Straus was shareholder in Carnegie Steel, he had a brilliant one of the greatest retail mer - mind for finance and accumulated one of the 100 chants in American history, a co-owner of the largest fortunes in American history. With that Macy’s department store chains. He put much of his wealth, Phipps funded research into the treatment, wealth to helping the poor in , fund - prevention, and cure of tuberculosis, an effort that ing Jewish causes at home and abroad, and pro - led him to build extensive hygienic and reduced- viding safe milk to children throughout the coun - cost housing for the working poor of New York try. During the Panic of 1893, for example, Straus City. But Phipps was best known for his efforts to provided 1.5 million buckets of coal to struggling beautify the city of Pittsburgh in the 1880s. “I families. The following year, he supplied 2 million think Mr. Phipps put his money to better use in giv - tickets for coal, food, and lodging at shelters he ing the working-men of Allegheny conservatories established. When coal was selling for 20¢ per pail, filled with beautiful flowers, orchids, and aquatic he supplied it at 5¢ to those who were poor, and plants,” wrote Carnegie, “than if he had given his gave away 2,000 tons for free to those who were surplus money to furnish them with bread.” truly desperate.

1803: Isaiah 1808: Enoch 1796: George Washington Williamson born in Pratt born in endows Augusta Academy Pennsylvania Massachusetts

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 13 ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

George Peabody But Olivia Sage is best known for launching the Rus - George Peabody was the first American widely sell Sage Foundation for Social Betterment, which known first and foremost as a philanthropist. After she endowed with $10 million in 1907. Though it a storied career in banking, his interests turned to was deeply concerned with poverty, the foundation charitable giving in the early 1850s. Headquartered had almost no direct interaction with poor people. in for the last 30 years of his life, he caused Instead, it employed experts in the emerging social a sensation in March 1862 with a letter to the sciences to study social dysfunctions and devise sys - Times of London. He announced his intention to temic solutions. Although it has not achieved its create a trust, initially funded with £150,000, to goal, the Russell Sage Foundation nevertheless rep - “ameliorate the condition of the poor and needy of resented a bold attempt to accelerate social science this great metropolis, and to promote their comfort and end poverty by studying its root causes. and happiness.” The Peabody Donation Fund (since renamed the ) was chartered Ewing Marion Kauffman to build affordable housing for the workingmen of Ewing Kauffman loved his fellow entrepreneurs. London. With gas lights, running water, subsidized Throughout his career, the founder of Marion Labs rent, and smart appointments, these dwellings were would freely offer advice and mentoring to people vastly superior to the housing stock otherwise thinking about starting a business. His early phil - available to the laboring poor. Peabody also anthropic interests were in youth substance-abuse ensured that the tenants were deserving, demand - awareness, K–12 education, and college scholar - ing punctual rent payments, instituting a night - ships. But the more Kauffman thought about phil - time curfew, and enforcing a morals code. anthropy, the more he became concerned—in the words of a Kauffman Foundation report—that Margaret Olivia Sage without good jobs in a growing economy, “all we Margaret Olivia Sage was the widow of Russell [will do] is to create a more sophisticated but a Sage, among the greatest Wall Street investors of the more highly frustrated part of the population. 19th century. When Russell died in 1906, he left $75 We’ve got to do something to help encourage the million to his wife. She proceeded to give away creation of jobs.” In 1990, Kauffman decided to Ewing Kauffman, or “Mr. K” approximately $45 million before her own death in trust his instincts. He instructed his foundation to to his employees, motivated 1918. Her donations went to a wide variety of take a chance on a new kind of philanthropy: the them with talks in his “Marion on the Move” events. causes, the bulk of them in relatively small amounts. promotion of .

Frugal Philanthropists • A passerby once spotted Nicholas Longworth working in his garden. Mistaking the ever-shabby millionaire for destitute, he dropped a quarter into Longworth’s hat and wished him better luck. • George Peabody tried to avoid the two-penny bus. Even in a drenching London rain, he would wait half an hour for a one-penny bus to come along. • Around Philadelphia, Isaiah Williamson was famous for his frugality, and was said to rely on a bread crust for a meal, and believed to make one suit last as long as most men had two. • Thrift, believed John M. Templeton , was a moral virtue, one that he practiced by using the back sides of copy paper and driving a used Kia Opirus.

1829: James Smithson dies, leaving his fortune to the United States for what would become the

1824: Leland Stan - ford born in New York

14 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 Nicholas Longworth Nicholas Longworth was born in Newark, New Jer - sey, in 1783, the son of a once-prominent mer - chant. Unfortunately for the family, his father had been a stalwart Loyalist during the American Rev - olution. After the war, virtually all of the family’s property was confiscated. Nicholas spent his boy - hood in poverty, bearing the stigma of his father’s loyalty to the Crown. When he was 19 years old, he moved west, eager to distance himself from the shame and poverty of his youth. In 1804, he arrived in Cincin - nati, Ohio, where he began to study law. In short order, Longworth passed the bar and began an energetic law practice. What money he made he used to buy real estate. The investments proved immensely profitable. By one estimate, at the peak of his fortune, Longworth’s net worth as a per - centage of GDP places him among the 40 wealthi - est Americans of all time. Longworth The great bulk of Longworth’s wealth went to his idiosyncratic program of philanthropy. Long - “Vagabonds, drunkards, fallen women, those worth, explained an 1863 obituary in Harper’s who had gone far into the depths of misery and Weekly , “had a whimsical theory that those whom wretchedness, and from whom respectable people everybody will help were not entitled to any aid shrank in disgust, never appealed to him in vain,” from him, and that he would confine his donations wrote biographer James McCabe. “He would lis - to the worthless and wretched vagabonds that ten to them patiently, moved to the depths of his everyone else turns away from.” These, he would soul by their sad stories, and would send them explain, were “the devil’s poor.” They were the away rejoicing that they were not utterly friendless. beneficiaries of virtually all of his charitable giving. ‘Decent paupers will always find a plenty to help Every Monday morning Longworth was them,’ he would say, ‘but no one cares for these poor known to give away 10¢ loaves of bread to anyone wretches. Everybody damns them, and as no one who would ask for one; most weeks he reportedly else will help them, I must.’” gave away between 300 and 800 loaves. He built a Longworth died in February 1863, 81 years four-story brick boarding house on his property, old. Tributes poured forth, praising the son of a dis - with 56 neatly appointed apartments that he rented graced Loyalist. None, it seems likely, would have below cost to poor laborers and their families. If a moved Longworth so much as the sight of his man could not afford the rent, Longworth would funeral procession, with thousands of outcasts— often allow him to stay, free of charge, for months drunkards and prostitutes, beggars and criminals— and sometimes even years. sobbing at the loss of this, their one true friend.

1835: Nettie Fowler McCormick born in New York

1834: Princess Pauahi 1839: Henry Phipps Jr. born in born in Pennsylvania

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 15 HIGHER EDUCATION

Long-term Commitment: John D. Rockefeller Philanthropic Longevity The sum total of John D. Rockefeller’s post-sec - NAME BORN DIED AGE ondary education consisted of a 10-week course at S. S. Kresge 1867 1966 99 E. G. Folsom’s Business College. For $40, the 15- John D. Rockefeller Sr. 1839 1937 97 year-old boy took introductory classes on double- St. Katharine Drexel 1858 1955 97 entry bookkeeping, basic John M. Templeton 1912 2008 96 commercial law, and the Ellen Browning Scripps 1836 1932 95 principles of finance. 1791 1883 92 Equipped with that W. K. Kellogg 1860 1951 91 knowledge, Rockefeller Eli Lilly 1885 1977 91 went on to become, by Oseola McCarty 1908 1999 91 many measures, the rich - Thomas Perkins 1764 1854 90 est man in human history. Margaret Olivia Sage 1828 1918 90 And with that wealth, the John M. Olin 1892 1982 90 graduate of a for-profit degree mill soon became first biomedical institute, soon on a par with its one of America’s greatest European models. The results were dramatic. patrons of colleges and Within a decade, it created a vaccine for meningitis universities. and had supported the work of America’s first win - Rockefeller’s interests ner of a Nobel Prize in medicine. Today, known as in higher education Rockefeller University, it is one of the leading bio - ranged widely, but he is medical research centers in the world. Twenty-four remembered for three Nobel Prize winners have served on its faculty. achievements. One of his But Rockefeller is perhaps best remembered for earliest philanthropic what was a project of lifelong interest to him: the interests was higher edu - creation of the nation’s preeminent Baptist univer - cation for African Amer - sity. Rockefeller considered several options before The University of Chicago’s icans. In 1882, he began a series of gifts to the pairing with William Rainey Harper to establish the Rockefeller Memorial Baptist Female Seminary, a struggling University of Chicago. In 1890, he made his first Chapel was Rockefeller’s school for African-American women. As Rocke - contribution—for $600,000—to the school. Over final gift to the university— and not named for him until feller gradually rebuilt the campus, the school the rest of his life, he would give it a total of $35 after his death. decided to take the maiden name of Rockefeller’s million, making it possible for the upstart school to wife: Spelman. Similar gifts were soon directed to instantly rank among the world’s leading institu - two other black colleges—the Tuskegee Institute tions of higher learning. Rockefeller insisted that his and Morehouse College. name not be used anywhere on campus, even reject - Rockefeller was similarly an early champion of ing an image of a lamp on the university seal, lest supporting higher education in order to advance it be taken as a suggestion of the influence of Stan - medical research. In 1901, he funded the Rockefeller dard Oil. Even though the school quickly lost much Medical Research Institute in New York City. Mod - of its Baptist identity, Rockefeller would later say eled on the Institut Pasteur in France and the Robert that founding the University of Chicago was “the Koch Institute in Germany, it was the country’s best investment I ever made.”

1850: Nicholas Longworth’s fortune peaks as he pays the second-highest tax bill in the nation

1855: John D. Rockefeller Sr. gets his 1856: James B. Duke born first job on September 26—a day he in North Carolina 16 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 observes for the rest of his life

Washington and Lee University’s main buildings

George Washington avail themselves of the school. When the Cooper In 1796, three years before he died, Washington Union first opened its doors in 1859, more than offered a gift to the Augusta Academy of Lexing - 2,000 people applied. Its reading room was open ton, Virginia: 100 shares of the James River and to the public and, unlike New York City’s other Kanawha Canal Company, worth at the time libraries at that time, was open until 10:00 p.m., approximately $20,000. It was then the largest again so that working people could use it. As many contribution to higher education in American his - as 3,000 people took advantage of the reading tory. Grateful for the gift, the school’s trustees room every week. Thanks to its founder’s gen - immediately renamed the college Washington Acad - erosity, —one of the premier engi - emy; today it is known as Washington and Lee neering schools in the country—remains to this day University. The contribution, according to Taylor tuition-free. Sanders, a professor at Washington and Lee, was roughly the equivalent of $20 million today. By Leland Stanford one estimate, a little more than $11 of every current Leland Stanford was a railroadman when the rail - student’s tuition is underwritten by the generosity roads meant ruthless politics and crony capitalism. of George Washington. But the hardest thing this hard man ever faced was the death of his only child, Leland Stanford Jr., at Peter Cooper the age of 15. To honor their son’s memory, Stan - Peter Cooper was the ford and his wife decided to found a private, co-edu - great inventor of the cational, non-sectarian, and tuition-free university. early republic, a sort of It was intended to broaden the geography of Amer - early-19th-century Edi - ican higher education, bringing a great university to son. In 1853, he the shores of the Pacific. The Stanfords were inti - launched a revolution - mately involved in virtually all aspects of the uni - ary experiment in versity’s planning, personally funding the entire higher education: the operations of the university during its early years. Cooper Union. Cooper “Perhaps the greatest sum ever given by an indi - Cooper intended for his school vidual for any purpose is the gift of Senator Stan - to provide a practical ford,” wrote Andrew Carnegie in 1889. Impressed education, free of charge, offering many of its by Stanford’s philanthropy, Carnegie simply con - classes at night so that working men could fully cluded: “He is to be envied.”

1862: Julius Rosenwald born in Illinois

1869: Margaret Olivia Slocum marries Russell Sage 1859: Peter Cooper opens the Cooper Union in New York

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 17 HIGHER EDUCATION

James B. Duke Eastman Duke built two massive for - tunes—one in tobacco and the other in hydroelec - tric generation—which he dedicated to hospitals, rural Methodist churches, orphan care, and four specific colleges. Foremost among his beneficiaries was Trinity College, which Duke had designated to receive the gifts that would transform it into Duke University, a memorial to his father and brother. He intended that Duke University attain “a place of real leadership in the educational world.” In the years before his death in 1925, he took great plea - sure in the design of Duke’s Gothic campus. “Don’t disturb me now; I am laying out the university grounds,” he said to his nurse days before he died. “I am looking to the future, how they will stand and appear a hundred years from now.”

Edward Harkness A deep concern for collegiality informed Edward (“Ned”) Harkness’ extensive giving to higher edu - George Eastman cation. The only surviving heir of ’s The founder of Eastman Kodak was a prolific fun - first major was a lifelong philanthropist der of higher education. A native of upstate New who took a special interest in elite schools. Bene - York, he settled in Rochester, and his $51 million ficiaries of his generosity included (among many in gifts made the University of Rochester into a top- others) Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Columbia. At tier school. In addition, Eastman gave hefty sums, the turn of the 20th century, Harkness saw Amer - without solicitation, to black colleges like Tuskegee, ican universities adopting the model of the large Hampton, Howard, and Meharry. (Between his German research institutions. He came to fear that college and lower-school gifts, George Eastman students would miss the refined sociability of col - was one of the very largest donors to African- legiate life. His preferred solution was to promote American schooling of the early 20th century). But the British model, in which a university was divided he is perhaps best remembered for his pseudony - into smaller residential houses where students mous support—some $20 million in all—of the would live, dine, study, and gather. First at Har - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was East - vard, then at Yale (and elsewhere), Harkness man, more than any other individual, who made funded the construction of residential colleges, possible MIT’s transformation from commuter which remain an integral part of campus life. school to international powerhouse.

1885: Andrew Carnegie funds his first public library (of nearly 3,000)

1874: Edward Harkness born in Ohio 1878: Nicholas Brady 1885: Eli Lilly born in Indiana born in New York

18 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 Mary Elizabeth Garrett Mary Elizabeth Garrett was the third child (and only daughter) of railroad tycoon John Garrett, the president of the & Ohio Railroad. Her father’s favorite, Mary often accompanied him on business trips, recording his correspondence and meeting some of the era’s most powerful business - men. But John also taught his daughter philan - thropy. He was an intimate of George Peabody, and he maintained close ties with , serv - ing as a trustee of both Hopkins’ university and hos - pital. Upon her father’s death in 1884, Mary inherited nearly $2 million. Within a few years, she embraced the cause of opening Johns Hopkins University to women. In 1887 she offered the university $35,000 to establish a co-educational school of science, but the university president and trustees rejected her pro - posal. A few years later, however, Johns Hopkins found itself on unsure financial footing. The open - ing of the medical school had been delayed due to insufficient funds. Garrett spotted her opportunity. Garrett enlisted her friends and sought support from other influential women around the country (including Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan, Mrs. Leland Stanford, and First Lady Mrs. Benjamin Harrison) to raise funds and approach the university with a new offer. She offered the trustees $100,000 (half of which she contributed personally) to pay for the Garrett opening of the medical school on one condition: s n that men and women would be admitted on equal Garrett’s funds not only opened medical edu - o i t u t i t standing. The board agreed in principle to admit - cation to America’s women, which would have s n I l a ting women, but told the group that the school been accomplishment enough. They also turned c i d e

M Johns Hopkins into the first modern medical school could not open with less than $500,000. s n i k p When the university and the newly formed in the United States. In his history of the school, o H s n Women’s Medical Fund Committee struggled to Alan Chesney concludes: “To this lady, more than h o J e

h approach this number, Garrett stepped in and cov - any other single person, save only Johns Hopkins t f o s

e ered the difference with $307,000. But her addi - himself, does the School of Medicine owe its being.” v i h c r tional funding came with additional conditions. For her bargain with the Johns Hopkins med - A l a c i

d She demanded that the medical school be a gradu - ical school, Garrett is sometimes called America’s e M y e ate-level program for advanced medical studies, greatest “coercive philanthropist.” William Osler, n s e h

C requiring a bachelor of science for admission. Both one of the school’s four founding physicians, n o s a stipulations were unprecedented. famously quipped: “It was a pleasure to be bought.” M n a l A e h t f o y s e t r u o c o t o h P

1891: Katharine Drexel 1893: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine founds the Sisters of the opens as first to admit women, with Blessed Sacrament funding from Mary Elizabeth Garrett

1886: J. P. Morgan 1898: Nathan Straus launches appointed to committee pasteurized milk campaign as to revise Book of head of NYC Board of Health Common Prayer

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 19 RELIGION tional training. Unlike many religious mission schools, students did not have to be or become Catholic to St. Katharine Drexel enroll. Katharine Drexel was born to one In 1915, with a $750,000 grant of America’s wealthiest and most from Drexel, the Sisters founded distinguished families. (Her Xavier University in New Orleans. grandfather was the senior part - The only historically black ner to a young J. P. Morgan; her Catholic college in the United distant nieces included Jacqueline States, Xavier was designed to train Kennedy Onassis.) Katharine led a teachers who could staff the order’s pampered childhood, and few expected burgeoning network of schools. Much of more from her than a world tour, marriage, the cost of opening these schools, as well as children, and fashionable pursuits. Xavier, was covered by Drexel’s personal fortune, When their parents died, the three Drexel sis - and it is estimated (there is no official figure) that ters inherited the bulk of their massive estate. To she gave nearly $20 million during her lifetime to the disbelief of Philadelphia society, Katharine support the work of her order. Katharine’s travels decided to become a Catholic nun. Drexel entered and work continued until 1938, when a stroke left religious life in 1889, and two years later she her almost completely immobile and forced her to founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for give up leadership of the Sisters. Negroes and Indians. In October 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized The bulk of the order’s efforts went into devel - Drexel, the second native-born American to be oping a network of 145 missions, with 12 schools named a saint. The ceremony would likely have for Native Americans and 50 schools for AfricanDrexel pained Katharine Drexel, servant of the poor, Americans throughout the American South and whose only request when Xavier University was West. These Catholic schools were staffed by founded was that the school make no mention of laypersons, often attached to a local church or her donation, and who, at the college’s dedication, chapel, and offered religious instruction and voca - sat in the back of the room, quiet and unnoticed.

Inspired Giving Baptist Methodist Roman Catholic Oseola McCarty James B. Duke Nicholas Brady John D. Rockefeller Sr. Nettie Fowler McCormick Katharine Drexel John D. Rockefeller Jr. Madam C. J. Walker William E. Simon Episcopalian Presbyterian Unitarian Edward Harkness Margaret Olivia Sage Peter Cooper J. P. Morgan J. Howard Pew George Peabody Henry Phipps John M. Templeton Thomas Perkins Jewish Quaker Julius Rosenwald Thomas Eddy Nathan Straus Herbert Hoover Judah Touro Isaiah Williamson

1903: Milton Hershey breaks ground 1910: Madam C. J. Walker on the first milk chocolate factory founds her cosmetics company 1903: Ellen Browning 1906: Scripps co-founds what will W. K. Kellogg become the Scripps Institu- begins selling tion of Oceanography corn flakes

20 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 J. Howard Pew J. Howard Pew was a lifelong member of the main - line Presbyterian Church, which he supported to his dying day. Inspired by the Reformed doctrine that church councils should not take up secular causes, he fought church resolutions to endorse collective bargaining, promote birth control, and oppose cap - ital punishment. He supported Billy Graham’s min - istry, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the International Congress on World Evangeliza - tion. He gave millions to create Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and contributed $150,000 to launch Christianity Today magazine. Perhaps most notably, Pew sought to educate Christian ministers about the perils of left-wing politics, launching the Christian Freedom Foundation, which sent the Christian Economics newsletter twice monthly to

180,000 ministers. As president of the Presbyterian Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh (right), greets (from left) John M. Templeton, Church’s board and chair of its National Lay Com - Ruth Graham, and Templeton Prize winner Billy Graham. (Photo courtesy of the mittee, he unflinchingly opposed what he called John Templeton Foundation) “the same ideological mistake as was made by com - munism: that of attempting to change society by John M. Templeton changing man’s environment.” One of John M. Templeton’s signature philan - thropic initiatives was the Templeton Prize for Nettie Fowler McCormick Progress in Religion, which he created in 1972. Nettie McCormick was married to Cyrus Convinced that Alfred Nobel’s prizes neglected McCormick, one of the most successful inventors metaphysical wisdom, and specifically the role of and entrepreneurs of the 19th century. When the religion in progress, he offered a purse calculated to Great Fire of Chicago destroyed the company’s be larger than that of the Nobel Prizes. He also stip - manufacturing plant, Nettie rebuilt the business; ulated that the award was to be ecumenical, with after Cyrus died, Nettie showed equal resolve in giv - at least one judge from each of the five major reli - ing away their fortune. Orphanages, schools, col - gions “so that no child of God would feel leges, hospitals, and relief agencies were all benefi - excluded.” To maximize attention to the winners, ciaries of her generosity, and she supported religious Templeton arranged for Prince Philip, the Duke of causes at home and abroad. She was a major fun - Edinburgh, to award the Templeton Prize at Buck - der of the Moody Bible Institute, helped establish ingham Palace. The first honor was given to Mother hospitals in Persia and Siam, and gave large gifts to Teresa of Calcutta, who six years later would win Christian colleges overseas, including Alborz Col - the Nobel Peace Prize. Other notable Templeton lege in Tehran and a theological seminary in Korea. laureates have included Frère Roger, Cicely Saun - Nettie’s obituary in the Chicago Daily Tribune cred - ders, Billy Graham, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Stan - ited her with supporting six religious schools. Since ley Jaki, Baba Amte, Charles Colson, Michael then, it has come to light that she was a lead fun - Novak, and the Dalai Lama. der of at least 46 schools, and possibly more. God alone, as Nettie would have wanted it, knows.

1916: MIT moves to its present-day 1927: Charles Lindbergh Cambridge campus, given anonymously wins $25,000 Orteig Prize by George Eastman

1929: Henry Ford opens Greenfield Village, his collection of historic 1926: John D. Rockefeller Jr. begins American buildings and artifacts restoration of Colonial Williamsburg Philanthropy • Winter 2013 21 PUBLIC POLICY

John M. Olin In philanthropy as in business, John M. Olin’s par - ticular genius was his brilliant strategic vision—a Madam C. J. Walker genius that paid spectacular dividends in his efforts When she died in 1919, Madam C. J. Walker was to shape 20th-century public policy. Olin’s philan - eulogized in as the first thropy was dedicated to building the long-term woman in American history to become a self-made (but not perpetual) challenge of building the intel - millionaire. (Born Sarah lectual capacity of modern conservatism. Recog - Breedlove in 1867, Walker nizing that achieving his goals was a generational changed her first name to project, he clearly defined a mission, strategically “Madam” to keep people from established a time-frame, and carefully selected calling her “Auntie.”) She made dedicated partners who shared his vision. By the her fortune by introducing a line time he stepped down as the foundation’s president of hair-care products created in 1977, Olin had assembled a committed group of specifically for like-minded associates, willing and African-Ameri - Mr. Anonymous eager to take on the tasks he can women. Her assigned them. Over the next three Madam C. J. Walker Since their deaths, it driving her automobile philanthropy decades, his colleagues dispensed ranged widely, has come to light hundreds of millions of dollars to from caring for black orphans to that these philan - scholars, think tanks, and publi - funding the YMCA and leading the thropists made sub - cations, underwriting the devel - effort to preserve the home of Fred - stantial gifts either opment of the conservative move - erick Douglass in the Anacostia pseudonymously or ment and intelligentsia. Among neighborhood of Washington, D.C. anonymously: their signal achievements were Perhaps her most significant fund - St. Katharine Drexel early funding of the Law and Eco - ing centered on securing civil rights George Eastman nomics programs at colleges and for African Americans. She was a Herbert Hoover universities, supporting scores of major funder of anti-lynching pro - Nettie McCormick right-of-center public intellectuals, grams run by the NAACP and the J. P. Morgan and backing right-of-center cam - National Association of Colored William Volker pus newspapers. Perhaps most Women. It was her life’s great call - Isaiah Williamson memorably, in 1982, the founda - ing, even if she did not see her tion sponsored an academic con - efforts come to fruition. In 1918, ference for law students and pro - even with her health failing, Walker joined a dele - fessors, giving rise to the Federalist Society, a gation of Harlem leaders who went to Washington membership organization of conservative and lib - to advocate for full civil rights at the cessation of ertarian lawyers, judges, and professors who went hostilities. The patriotic African Americans who on to transform legal education and shape the fed - had volunteered to fight for democracy abroad, eral judiciary. Many of the foundation’s achieve - Walker argued, ought to be able to participate in ments occurred after Olin’s death; few would have democracy at home. occurred without his strategic vision.

1945: William Volker 1949: H funds the first meeting of launche the Mont Pelerin Society dation 1933: Herbert Hoover donates his fishing camp to form part of Shenandoah National Park 1937: Andrew Mellon gives his art collection to form the National Gallery of Art 22 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 William Volker Early every morning, William be entrusted to the worst citizens, Volker arrived at his Kansas not the best.” City offices and made himself Volker returned to his available to callers in need extensive program of pri - of assistance. The home- vate philanthropy, which furnishings magnate he continued until his gave many thousands death in 1947. When of small gifts—a pair F. A. Hayek’s The Road of new dentures for an to Serfdom was pub - elevator operator, lished in 1944, Volker tuition for a hard - discovered a thinker working college stu - who made sense of his dent. He also sup - experience. Disillu - ported scores of sioned by the failures institutions and causes, of the Board of Public building a research lab - Welfare, he began fund - oratory, diagnostic clinic, ing scholars who champi - and nurse’s residence at the oned the cause of free Research Hospital, acquir - enterprise, individual initia - ing a collection of Chinese art tive, and limited government. for the Nelson-Atkins Museum— He started supporting free-market even purchasing two camels for the Volker and libertarian institutions, includ - Swope Park Zoo. Perhaps his most visi - ing the Foundation for Economic Educa - ble contribution was to the University of Kansas tion, the Institute for Humane Studies, and what City, to which he donated 40 acres for the campus became the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He and made lead gifts for the university library, pres - underwrote Hayek’s salary at the University of ident’s house, and science building. Chicago, and paid a stipend that enabled Ludwig In 1910, Volker led the creation of the Board von Mises to teach at . of Public Welfare, the first municipal welfare depart - Perhaps the most consequential check William ment in the country. Excited about conducting phil - Volker ever wrote was dated May 7, 1945. Made anthropy through the new public agency, Volker to Friedrich A. Hayek for $2,000, it underwrote the was surprised to learn that the city failed to ade - travel expenses for 17 American scholars to attend quately fund its commitments. (He quietly con - the first meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society. The tributed $50,000 to make up the difference.) Almost international network became a bulwark for clas - immediately, local politicians—most notably, Tom sical liberalism throughout the Cold War. Accord - Pendergast, the machine boss in Kansas City— ing to Nancy Hoplin and Ron Robinson, over one- began using the funds to further their partisan inter - third of Ronald Reagan’s economic advisors were ests. After Volker retired in 1918, the board became members. In Western Europe, three members of an all-but-openly political enterprise. The episode the Mont Pelerin Society became heads of state. taught Volker, he later explained, that “political Eight members of the Mont Pelerin Society went on charity isn’t charity.” He concluded that “govern - to win the Nobel Prize in economics—four of whom ment must be restricted to those activities which can attended the first meeting, thanks to William Volker.

Harry Earhart re- es Earhart Foun - 1962: S. S. Kresge Corp. with new board opens the first Kmart store 1949: J. Paul Getty 1956: J. Howard Pew strikes oil in northeast funds the launch of Saudi Arabia Christianity Today

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 23 ART AND CULTURE

Andrew Mellon brothers Will and Mike in the River Oaks neigh - Andrew Mellon loved art, and was, in effect, an borhood of . Nearly 30 years later, after artist in the field of philanthropy. Nowhere is this the deaths of both brothers, she decided to give the clearer than in his crafting of one of the world’s house to the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts, great museums: the National Gallery of Art. The along with a $750,000 endowment. It opened as banker-turned-Treasury Secretary chose only top the MFA Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens in paintings for his collection, like the Alba Madonna 1966. of Raphael and Pietro Perugino’s triptych. With fewer than 200 objects in his gift, Mellon had cre - ated “an art museum six blocks long on his hands, and enough paintings to decorate a good-sized duplex apartment,” the critic S. N. Behrman quoted a Mellon friend as saying. Mellon wagered that if he gave samples of the highest-quality work from many periods, those would become the seeds for a full collection. And his gift did indeed draw other gifts. By the time President Roosevelt dedi - cated the gallery in 1941, several other great busi - ness leaders—Samuel Kress, Joseph Widener, and Lessing Rosenwald—had likewise made major Getty Villa contributions. J. Paul Getty Ima Hogg “If I were convinced that by giving away my for - The woman often called the First Lady tune I could make a real contribution toward solv - of did not, pace the joke, have sis - ing the problems of world poverty, I’d give away ters named “Ura” and “Hoosa.” She 99.5 percent of all I have immediately,” wrote oil - did, however, make enormous efforts to man J. Paul Getty. “But a hard-eyed appraisal of the bring the fine arts to the Lone Star State. situation convinces me this is not the case.” If char - In 1913, she helped to found the Hous - itable giving could do little to remedy poverty, to ton Symphony Orchestra, organizing a Getty’s mind it still had one distinct advantage: it subscription series of three concerts could help preserve the artistic achievements of over the course of a year. In 1917, she Western civilization. Philanthropy provided the became president of the symphony’s means by which his private collection could become board. She continued to support the a public resource. “In learning about ancient Greek symphony for the rest of her life and and Roman art,” Getty wrote, “one cannot help worked to increase public exposure to but also learn about the civilizations and the peo - music and the arts. The avid collector of ple who produced the art. This will unquestionably early American antique furniture and serve to broaden the individual’s horizons and, by decorative art placed much of her col - increasing his knowledge of past civilizations, lection at Bayou Bend, a house she built greatly aid him in knowing and understanding his Hogg in 1927 as a home for herself and her own.”

1966: Ima Hogg gives her home 1973: Joseph Coors co-founds and gardens to the Museum of the Heritage Foundation Fine Arts, Houston

1973: John M. Olin 1973: First Templeton 1977: Daniel C term-limits his foun - Prize awarded to Moth - Donald Rumsfe dation and dedicates er Teresa of Calcutta G. D. Searle & it to free enterprise

24 Philanthropy • Winter 2013

J. P. Morgan considerable wealth and energy to a few, favored John Pierpont Morgan was a central figure in many causes, ranging from New York’s Museum of Nat - of the most important transactions of the Industrial ural History to his beloved Episcopal Church. Revolution. He arranged the merger of Edison Gen - But Morgan is perhaps best remembered eral Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric, lead - for being his era’s greatest patron of the fine ing to the creation of General Electric. In 1901, he arts. He began collecting art while touring led the consolidation of Carnegie Steel Company Rome, not long after finishing at Göttingen at with several other similar concerns, creating his - the age of 19. It was the start of a lifelong love tory’s first billion-dollar corporation in U.S. Steel. affair. He was the driving force behind the rise When a financial panic gripped Wall Street in Octo - of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, serving ber 1907, Morgan took charge, convincing New as president and donating extensively from his York bankers and businessmen to pledge their own personal acquisitions. His reputation, however, assets to provide liquidity to the faltering financial was established by a bitter enemy, the artist and system. Thanks to his intervention, the crisis was critic Roger Fry. Fry belonged to the Bloomsbury averted, and by November, financial markets Set, and had once been a curator of paintings at the returned to relative stability. Met. He suspected—not without reason—that Morgan was among the most maligned of the Morgan was behind his firing. “A crude historical so-called “Robber Barons.” He is remembered as imagination,” Fry icily pronounced, “was the only a beefy, red-faced bully, fierce and lonely, possessed flaw in his otherwise perfect insensibility.” of small ideas and consumed by enormous greed. As Strouse notes, the letters Fry wrote to his All of this is deeply unfair to Morgan. Recent biog - wife during a purchasing tour of Europe in 1907 tell raphers—most notably Jean Strouse—have looked a rather different story. They praise at surprising at Morgan with fresh eyes, finding a much more length the artistic sensibilities of the “Big Man.” subtle and interesting character than his caricature Contemporary critics increasingly agree with Fry’s would allow. earlier assessment. “Almost single-handed, Morgan He was a genuine polymath, fluent in French turned the Metropolitan from a merely notable and German, steeped in literature and the arts, collection into one of the three or four finest any - whose aptitude for mathematics prompted one of where,” writes historian Paul Johnson. “Morgan his professors at the University of Göttingen to obviously employed experts . . . but it is astonish - encourage him to consider an academic appoint - ing how few mistakes he allowed them to make on ment. He was remarkably generous, and devoted his his behalf.”

1982: Zachary Fisher opens the Intre- 1989: Ewing Kauffman sells Marion pid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New Labs and funds a foundation for York City entrepreneurship

. Searle hires 1987: Bill Daniels launches Young 1984: ld as CEO of William E. Simon Americans Bank in Denver Co. founds U.S. Olympic Foundation

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 25 K–12 EDUCATION

Julius Rosenwald During the summer of 1910, Julius Rosenwald read Americans, and many residents of the rural South the autobiography of the great black educator in general, were miserably inadequate. Soon he Booker T. Washington. The part-owner of Sears, and Washington were ramping up the program, Roebuck was strongly affected, and within a year, eventually building schools all across the South he and Washington were visiting each other’s homes. over more than 20 years. There were correlated To celebrate his 50th birthday in 1912, Rosenwald efforts to train teachers to serve in the new schools, gave $25,000 to Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. and funds to provide libraries and workshops for Washington shrewdly set aside part of it to students. These facilities would never have materi - launch an experiment—a $2,100 effort to build alized absent this aggressive philanthropy. new schools in parts of where little or no Rosenwald insisted that beneficiaries do their education was being offered to rural blacks. Wash - own large part in improving their lot. And despite ington documented progress on the schools with their limited resources, thousands of rural black photos and careful accounting, including descrip - communities succeeded in pulling together the funds tions of the community enthusiasm the erection of to match Rosenwald’s gift. Sharecroppers set aside the new schools created among locals of all races. a “Rosenwald patch” when they planted their cot - Rosenwald was captivated. During this Jim ton. Innumerable pie sales and fried chicken suppers Crow era, the educational offerings to African were organized to raise matching funds. During construction, many black families donated materi - als or invested sweat equity via their labor. Retrospective calculations show that, in the end, black families contributed slightly more than Rosenwald to the schools—16 percent of total costs, versus 15 percent from his fund. And lever - aging the remainder from state and county educa - tion authorities was a game-changing triumph. Washington credited Rosenwald with starting the entire program of state funding for black education in the South. And during this segregated era, that in turn initiated additional resources to improve substandard white schools. By 1932, the year Julius died, an astonishing 4,977 Rosenwald schools, and 380 complementary buildings, had been erected in every Southern locale with a significant black population. Fully 35 per - cent of all black children in the South (and 27 per - cent of black children period) were educated that year in a Rosenwald school. America would be a Julius very different, and lesser, nation absent his philan - Rosenwald and Booker T. thropic inspiration. Washington

1995: Don Fisher begins funding 1998: John T. Walton K–12 education by scaling up co-founds Children’s Teach for America and KIPP Scholarship Fund

2008: Restoration of ’s Montpelier completed 1995: Oseola McCarty’s life with major funding from savings entrusted to the University 26 Robert H. Smith Philanthropy • Winter 2013 of Southern John T. Walton John T. Walton served in combat with the Green Berets during the Vietnam War, but the great bat - tle of his life was reforming American K–12 edu - cation. One of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton’s four children, he founded the American Education Reform Foundation in 1991, which ultimately became one of three organizations that merged to form the Alliance for School Choice. With financier Ted Forstmann, he launched the Children’s Schol - arship Fund in 1998. Each man pledged $50 mil - lion to underwrite scholarships that would enable low-income students to attend private schools, an effort that funded 40,000 scholarships and intended to spur interest in school vouchers for low-income families. An early backer of charter schools, he led the Walton Family Foundation to provide seed cap - ital of up to $250,000 each to more than 500 char - ter schools. Through it all, he remained humble. Once, on an unannounced visit to a charter school, he asked the principal how he could be of service. The principal didn’t recognize him, and told Wal - ton that the bathrooms needed cleaning. “Where’s the mop?” he asked. The fourth-wealthiest person in America then spent 25 minutes swabbing the floors, happy to help.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Don Fisher Don Fisher with students at Bernice Pauahi Bishop was a Hawaiian princess, the Don Fisher was among the very first donors to find KIPP’s San Francisco Bay Academy. (Photo by Anne last direct descendant of the Royal House of Kame - and fund the most promising school reforms of the Dowie) hameha. With her husband, Charles Reed Bishop, last 50 years. In 1995, Fisher stepped down as CEO she is remembered as one of the Gap, the upscale clothing retailer he founded of the most remarkable in San Francisco. As he mulled over ways to improve philanthropists in the his - K–12 education, he discovered the “Knowledge Is tory of the Islands. Her Power Program,” or KIPP, then a small program at carefully constructed two middle schools, one in Houston and the other bequest, faithfully exe - in the Bronx. Over the next decade, Fisher donated cuted by Charles, more than $70 million to KIPP, which now includes endowed the Kame - 125 schools in 20 states and produces some of the hameha Schools, which most impressive results chronicled among low- to this day specialize in income students. Recognizing that the KIPP net - educating the children of work would succeed only if it could recruit talented native Hawaiians. In educators, Fisher turned his attention to Teach for November 1887, 39 stu - America, eventually donating more than $100 mil - dents formed the first lion to the organization that enticed some of Amer - class at the boys’ school; ica’s best students into teaching careers. To make

Bishop in 1894, 35 students filled sure that excellent charter schools grew beyond the out the first class at the occasional curiosity, he co-founded the Charter girls’ school. Today the schools have campuses on School Growth Fund, which makes early-stage Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui, educating nearly 7,000 investments in high-promise charter school net - children annually. Thus did Charles and Bernice works. Fisher was not the biggest funder of educa - Pauahi Bishop, childless themselves, become the tion reform in the last century, but he was certainly greatest patrons of Hawaii’s children. among the most consequential.

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 27

John D. Rockefeller Jr. In 1926, John D. Rockefeller Jr. visited Williams - burg, Virginia, then little more than the College of William and Mary surrounded by a few crumbling churches. Always something of a historical roman - tic, Rockefeller warmed to the idea of reviving the town, one building at a time, recapturing the lost world of the Old Dominion. He insisted on scrupu - lous historical accuracy—“no scholar must ever be able to come here and say we have made a mis - take,” he often instructed his subordinates—and he immersed himself in antiquarian scholarship to inspectors originally treated the Intrepid as a multi- ensure his own comfort with the work. In what ulti - story skyscraper lying on its side.) Since it opened mately became a nearly $60 million gift, he brought in 1982, the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has the colonial village back to life, even buying a greeted more than 10 million visitors. manor house where he and his wife would spend two months every year. The entire project became Robert H. Smith a labor of love. “I really belong in Williamsburg,” Robert H. Smith made a fortune developing mod - he once said, wistfully. ern commercial buildings in the greater Washing - ton metropolitan area, and dedicated much of that Zachary Fisher fortune to preserving historic sites near the nation’s In the late 1970s, Zachary Fisher learned that the capital. In the mid-1990s, he began funding the USS Intrepid , a storied aircraft carrier with service restoration of Montpelier, the bucolic plantation in the Pacific during World War II, as well as Korea home of James Madison. In 2000, Smith took on and Vietnam, was scheduled to be retired and sold another preservation project: Mount Vernon. for scrap metal. Fisher hated the idea that the Working closely with other donors, Smith helped nation would “cut up our own history for razor greatly expand the educational content at George blades.” He decided to acquire the Intrepid and Washington’s historic home. He was similarly a convert it into a floating museum moored off the major benefactor of Jefferson’s Monticello, Get - banks of . It was a monumental under - tysburg National Military Park, and the New-York taking. He put up the first $25 million. Then he Historical Society. He took charge of restoring the shepherded along an act of Congress. (Since it was Benjamin Franklin House in London, which the first time an aircraft carrier had been sold to a opened on January 17, 2006—just in time for Ben’s private party, it required a federal statute to com - 300th birthday. When ’s summer plete the transaction.) Next he battled the New cottage in northern Washington, D.C., was re- York City building commission. (Lacking any opened to the public in February 2008, Smith was precedent for an aircraft-carrier museum, the city again the lead funder, contributing more to the project than the federal government. “I consider myself,” Smith said, “a grateful American.”

28 Philanthropy • Winter 2013 Oseola McCarty Oseola McCarty was born into the world in 1908, Setting aside just enough to live on, McCarty and it was a raw start. She was conceived when her donated $150,000 to the University of Southern mother was raped on a wooded path in rural Mis - Mississippi to fund scholarships for worthy but sissippi as she returned from tending to a sick rel - needy students seeking the education she never had. ative. Oseola was raised in Hattiesburg by her When they found out what she had done, over 600 grandmother and aunt, who cleaned houses, men and women in Hattiesburg and beyond made cooked, and took in laundry. She donations that more than tripled her dropped out of sixth grade to care for original endowment. Today, the uni - her aunt, taking up work as a wash - versity presents several full-tuition erwoman. She never returned to McCarty scholarships every year. school. Oseola McCarty deserves to be rec - McCarty scrubbed laundry by ognized not only for her own accom - hand on a rub board. “Work became plishments, but as a representative of the great good of her life,” explained millions of other everyday Americans one person who knew her. McCarty who give humbly of themselves, year herself put it this way: “I knew there after year. There are Oseolas all across were people who didn’t have to work the U.S. as hard as I did, but it didn’t make me McCarty Gifts like hers cumulate with mil - feel sad. I loved to work, and when lions of others from ordinary Ameri - you love to do anything, those things don’t bother cans in a powerful way. Sixty-five percent of U.S. you.” households make charitable contributions every She had a strong and virtuous character and year, with the average household contribution being good habits. She lived frugally, walking almost $2,213. That is three to seven times as much gen - everywhere, including more than a mile to get her erosity as in equivalent Western European nations. groceries. In addition to the dignity of work, In addition, half of all U.S. adults volunteer their McCarty’s satisfactions were the timeless ones: faith time to charitable activities, totaling an estimated in God, family closeness, and love of locale. 20 billion hours every year. These sturdy habits ran together to produce The result: A massive charitable flow of more McCarty’s final secret. When she retired in 1995, than $300 billion per year, with more than 80 per - her hands painfully swollen with arthritis, the wash - cent coming from generous individuals. One may erwoman who had been paid in little piles of coins quite accurately say that it is Oseola McCarty and and dollar bills her entire life had $280,000 in the similar partners who make America the most gen - bank. erous nation on earth. P

Zachary Fisher transformed the USS Intrepid into the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.

Philanthropy • Winter 2013 29