Long-Established Foundations Seek New Roles

As venerable, old-time foundations have been surpassed in size and attention by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and innovative, new-money philanthropic groups, they have had to carve out different charitable missions, reports The New York Times.

The article notes that the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations—last century’s wealthiest grant makers—have argued that asset size is not a good measure of a foundation’s worth.

Leaders of those foundations say their inability to match other groups’ eight- and nine-figure grants has not diminished their ability to engage in meaningful giving. The Ford Foundation, for instance, gave a $20,000 grant that helped establish the Grameen Bank, in Bangladesh, whose founder won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

The article also notes that “large and diffuse” foundations, which often operate as many largely independent “silos,” have had to tighten programs and cut jobs to maintain their focus.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage of changes at the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as Chronicle opinion pieces about the habits of ineffective foundations and how best to measure a foundation’s impact.

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