American Foundations: An Investigative History

Mark Dowie

MIT Press, Sep 9, 2002 - Social Science - 320 pages

In American Foundations, Mark Dowie argues that organized philanthropy is on the verge of an evolutionary shift that will transform America's nearly 50,000 foundations from covert arbiters of knowledge and culture to overt mediators of public policy and aggressive creators of new orthodoxy. He questions the wisdom of placing so much power at the disposal of nondemocratic institutions.As American wealth expands, old foundations such as Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Pew, and MacArthur have grown exponentially, while newer trusts such as Mott, Johnson, Packard, Kellogg, Hughes, Annenberg, Hewlett, Duke, and Gates have surpassed them. Foundation assets now total close to $400 billion. Though this is a tiny sum compared to corporate and government treasuries, and foundation grants still total less than 10 percent of contributions made by individuals, foundations have power and influence far beyond their wealth. Their influence derives from the conditional nature of their grant making, their power from its leverage.Unlike previous historians of philanthropy who have focused primarily on the grant maker, Dowie examines foundations from the public's perspective. He focuses on eight key areas in which foundations operate: education, science, health, environment, food, energy, art, and human services. He also looks at their imagination, or lack thereof, and at the strained relationship between American foundations and American democracy.Dowie believes that foundations deserve to exist and that they can assume an increasingly vital role in American society, but only if they transform themselves from private to essentially public institutions. The reforms he proposes to make foundations more responsive to pressing social problems and more accountable to the public will almost certainly start an important national debate.

What people are saying

User Review -

从公众视角考察了慈善基金会

Review: American Foundations: An Investigative History

User Review  - Abraham Darius Llave - Goodreads

Political impact A major critic[citation needed] of the Green Revolution, US investigative journalist Mark Dowie, writes:[citation needed] The primary objective of the program was geopolitical: to ...

Contents

• History: 1
• Knowledge: 23
• Science: 47
• Health: 73
• Environment: 89
• Food: 105
• Energy: 141
• Art: 167
• Civility: 185
• Imagination: 221
• Democracy: 247
• Epilogue: 265
• Passive Dissonant or Making a Difference Which Way for Foundation Investing?: 271
• Notes: 285
• Index: 303

About the author

Award-winning journalist Mark Dowie is the author of Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century, American Foundations: An Investigative History (both published by the MIT Press), and four other books.

Bibliographic information

• Title: American Foundations: An Investigative History
• Author: Mark Dowie
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: MIT Press, 2002
• ISBN: 026226238X, 9780262262385
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies); Social Science / Philanthropy & Charity; Social Science / Social Work