RE:source is a publication of the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC), where a team of archivists, educators, and historians share stories, photo essays, timelines, educational resources, and updates on new research in RAC collections.
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Just published
“A Reverse Technology Transfer:” The Ford Foundation, Grameen Bank, and Microlending in the US
In the late 20th century, the Ford Foundation’s attempt to translate microlending methods from Bangladesh to the United States revealed false assumptions about poverty, social context, and individual entrepreneurial spirit that undergirded microlending experiments.
Philanthropy and the Private Sector
A “Constructive and Important Failure”: A Foundation Funds Job Training in the 1970s and 1980s
Prompted by Reagan-era budget cuts, a new program serving low-income single parents receiving public aid failed to meet its constituents’ needs.
The Birth of the Modern MBA
Why would an American foundation transform the field of business education?
“Investment Philanthropy” Investing for Social Good, a Century Ago
An early twentieth-century foundation tried using its endowment to support for-profit projects that also would achieve a social goal.
Philanthropy’s Search for an HIV Vaccine: Building Public-Private Partnerships in a Global Pandemic
How a meeting of scientists and health experts sparked a new international campaign to find a way to prevent AIDS.
Photo Essay: Supporting Minority Enterprise in the late 1960s
In 1968, the Ford Foundation began to make social investments using a new tool borrowed from the for-profit world, the Program-Related Investment.
Supporting Economic Justice? The Ford Foundation’s 1968 Experiment in Program Related Investments
How the largest US foundation began supporting market-based projects in the late 1960s.
Understanding the Business Cycle: Funding Economics Research
In nearly a century of activity in the field of economics, the Foundation initiated new research centers and training programs around the world.
American Foundations in Times of Global Conflict
“Distasteful Regimes”: Authoritarianism, the Ford Foundation, and Social Sciences in Brazil
When the restrictive military regime that had taken power in Brazil in 1964 became even more repressive by 1969, staffers at the Ford Foundation found themselves facing a conundrum.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Refugee Scholar Program
Saving scholars threatened by Nazis was not easy, but choosing which ones to save was even more difficult.
Documenting Injustice: Recording the Histories of the Japanese American Incarceration
The origins and legacy of a research project conducted in the American concentration camps for Japanese Americans.
Rebuilding a Cathedral: The Media, American Money, and French Heritage
Stepping in to save French monuments without stepping on French pride.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Role in Creating the Atomic Bomb
In the aftermath, Foundation staff struggled to rectify their organization’s involvement with this weapon of mass destruction.
Rebuilding Asia and Europe: the Rockefeller Foundation’s Role in Post-World-War II Reconstruction
Foundation policy toward reconstruction was shaped by uncertainty over Europe’s — and in particular Germany’s — future
Preserving Scholarship During World War II: the Rockefeller Foundation, Libraries, and Microphotography
Using new technology to save threatened world resources and keep free inquiry alive under threat of fascist destruction.
Explore Timelines
Timeline: American Philanthropy, Agriculture, and the Challenges of Feeding the World
From demonstration farms launched when farming was still unmechanized to confronting climate change in the twenty-first century, American philanthropy has played a key role in shaping and supporting efforts to lift rural communities out of poverty through agriculture.
Timeline: A Century of American Philanthropy’s Engagement with Race and Racism
Delving into a century of philanthropic engagement with race, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era.
Timeline: American Foundations and the History of Public Health
Key points in the history of American foundations’ engagement with public health.
Timeline: Philanthropy and World War I
The onset of World War I created new demands on American foundations and donors.