Jacob Schiff’s Philanthropy
Jacob Schiff was born in Germany in 1847, the son of a prominent rabbinical family. Over the objections of his father, he traveled to New York City in 1865 to Read more…
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Salvation Army Marches to America
Methodist minister William Booth and his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army in London in 1865 to help prostitutes, drunks and drug addicts, and the poor—using his “three S’s” approach: Read more…
Seventh-day Adventists Create Health Food
During the nineteenth century there was much experimentation in the U.S. at combining religious observance with new dietary practices. Seventh-day Adventism had a significant effect in this area through its Read more…
Spiritual Growth On Chautauqua Lake
The Chautauqua Institution is a quintessentially American organization where citizens have been trooping for a century and a half to fire their spirits and refine their souls. Founded in 1874 Read more…
Temperance Movement
The anti-alcohol movement, which was rooted in America’s Protestant churches, powered by philanthropy and female volunteers, and ultimately a powerful political force, was an organic response to a real problem. Read more…
Baptist Colleges Bolstered by Rockefeller
From childhood, John Rockefeller was a devout Baptist. Even before he made his fortune with Standard Oil he consistently tithed 10 percent of his income to religious causes. Starting around Read more…
United States Christian Commission in the Civil War
The carnage at the First Battle of Bull Run (just a preview of the destruction to come in our Civil War) stirred the hearts of many Americans. Among those summoned Read more…
Judah Touro, Friend to Religion
New England merchant Judah Touro set up shop in New Orleans in 1801, and he profited handsomely from the growth of the Crescent City and eventual addition of Louisiana to Read more…
Jewish Community Centers
In 1854, the first Hebrew Young Men’s Literary Association opened its doors in Baltimore to serve Jewish immigrants. Other branches soon opened in additional cities, serving as libraries, cultural centers, Read more…
New York Children’s Aid Society
With the massive influx of poor immigrants to New York in the mid-nineteenth century came an unprecedented number of homeless and orphaned children in need of care. Unsatisfied with the Read more…
YMCA Comes to America
In the late 1840s, Thomas Sullivan had retired after a long career as a sea captain, but he continued to sail as a marine missionary. While in London, he admired Read more…
Pew Builds the Evangelical Parachurch
Longtime Sun Oil president and Pennsylvania philanthropist Howard Pew had a multipronged approach to his religious philanthropy. He served as president of the board of trustees and chair of the Read more…
Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Don McClanen was a 29-year-old basketball coach at a small Oklahoma college nursing a big idea. It would be good for young athletes and good for America if some of Read more…
Giant Mainz Bible
At the very same time Johannes Gutenberg was creating his historic first printed Bible, and perhaps in the very same town, one of the last great handwritten and illustrated Bibles Read more…
Religious Fellowship on Campus
Campus Crusade for Christ (more recently known as Cru) is one of the largest evangelical organizations in the world, ministering not only to 64,000 college students but also to members Read more…
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Billy Graham was one of the most influential men of the twentieth century, but in his early years Graham owed his success to two wealthy newsmen: William Randolph Hearst and Read more…
World Vision
Bob Pierce was a Baptist minister helping the group Youth for Christ hold evangelical rallies in China, where the depth of misery he witnessed among the poor had a powerful Read more…
Weyerhaeuser’s Stewardship Foundation
Dave Weyerhaeuser, an executive of Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, created a family trust in 1947 to “contribute to the propagation of the Christian Gospel by evangelical and missionary work.” With it, Read more…
Catholic Relief Services and the Raskob Family
The Second World War reduced much of Europe to a shadow of its former glory. Cities and villages across the continent were destroyed, churches lay in ruins, millions of people Read more…
Young Life
When he was in seminary, a local minister challenged Jim Rayburn to consider the local high school his parish and figure out ways of connecting with kids who had no Read more…