Remembering the Outer Boroughs (New York City)
In March of 2013, health-care entrepreneur Donald Rubin and his wife, Shelley, donated $500,000 to the Bronx Museum of the Arts to expand and extend its free admission policy. In Read more…
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Gates Pushes Schools to Cooperate (Boston, Denver, Hartford, Philadelphia, etc.)
With the aim of encouraging cooperation between school districts and charter schools for the good of local children, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $25 million investment in Read more…
Polishing Jewels of Columbus (Ohio)
Leslie Wexner lived the immigrant dream. Born in Dayton of Russian parents, he majored in business at Ohio State University. He continued on to law school before deciding business was Read more…
Finger Lakes Musical Theater Festival (Auburn)
The Finger Lakes Musical Theater Festival, which unfolds during summers in the small city of Auburn in the heart of New York state, is one of the largest musical-theater producing Read more…
Brisk Disaster Relief (Alabama and Missouri)
Jessie duPont’s foundation, located in Florida, hadn’t devoted much energy to neighboring Alabama until more than 60 tornadoes struck the state on a single day in 2011, killing 248 people Read more…
Loans with Integrity (Lancaster County)
When Alice Dittman was president of Cornhusker Bank, she often found herself wishing she could give out more loans than she did. Sometimes the business idea looked good, but the Read more…
Aviation School (Grand Rapids)
Dick DeVos is a businessman and former member of the Michigan State Board of Education who is keen to give families choices in the schools their children attend. He is Read more…
ArtPrize (Michigan)
Rick DeVos, grandson of the founder of Amway (and son of Dick and Betsy DeVos), wanted to boost the arts in western Michigan. He initially explored the idea of a Read more…
Boosting Boy Scout Councils (Phoenix, Lebanon, Parkersburg)
With 288 separate councils operating across the country with a great deal of autonomy, most philanthropic support for the Boy Scouts of America is local support. There have been important Read more…
Outdoor Therapy (Bozeman)
“Bozeman is the Holy Grail of fly fishing.” So says Tom O’Connor of Warriors and Quiet Waters, a Montana-based charity that takes service-injured veterans on weeklong trips to learn the sport Read more…
Taking the Ache Out of Bush Life (Alaska)
The people served by the Rasmuson Foundation are different. Many reside in very small and isolated towns. Transportation is often poor, weather frequently fierce. Because they are thinly scattered across Read more…
Perpetual Emigration Fund
Established in 1849 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Perpetual Emigration Fund distributed loans that enabled more than 30,000 Mormons to settle in the American West. Read more…
Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Throughout much of America’s early history, Catholic philanthropy was characterized by its decentralization. Nearly all giving originated in and was disbursed by individual parishes, often through religious orders supported by Read more…
Fighting Poverty in a Personal Way
When the Panic of 1837 caused widespread economic dislocation, charitable organizations in America’s growing cities experienced sharply increased demand for their services. Many Christian philanthropists became concerned that the mushrooming Read more…
Religious Colleges Come (and Go) in Waves
A majority of America’s private colleges and universities were founded with a distinct religious affiliation and aim. Yale was created by Puritan clergymen. Harvard was named for a Christian minister. Read more…
Evangelical Do-gooding by the Tappan Brothers
Arthur and Lewis Tappan first imbibed their evangelical Protestant beliefs at the Northampton, Massachusetts, church where Jonathan Edwards had preached. They were apprenticed to Boston merchants and soon began a Read more…
American Colonization Society
In the early nineteenth century, American philanthropists desperately sought peaceful solutions to the horrid dilemmas of slavery. One proposal involved buying the freedom of slaves and repatriating them to western Read more…
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The ABCFM was founded during the Second Great Awakening by several students from Williams College, with the intention of helping to spread Christianity worldwide. The organization was supported by individual Read more…
Catholic Schools Launched by the Sisters of Charity
Elizabeth Seton was raised an observant Episcopalian in New York, but after she was widowed at age 29, with five young children while living in Italy, she was exposed to Read more…
Bible Societies
Early American Christian philanthropists placed great importance on sharing the Bible through various associations—preeminent among them the New York Bible Society and the American Bible Society. The founders of the Read more…