As the nature of philanthropy in Canada has changed, the purpose of gifts to higher education is evolving away from infrastructure and towards the development of knowledge and the training of young minds. In this viewpoint, reflecting on my 20 years of experience working closely with funders, including business leaders with private foundations,…

In 2018 Australia's leading national university, the Austrailian National University (ANU), decided to break off consultation with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation over a bequest to fund a course on Western civilisation. It is not every day that a university decides to turn down a $3 billion bequest to fund a humanities program (Groch,…

Martin Davies' paper seeks to vindicate the efforts of the Ramsay Centre to fund courses in 'Western Civilisation' at selected Australian universities. He begins by lamenting the rejection of vast amounts of philanthropic money for the humanities, and all too quickly dismisses the stated grounds for the Australian National University's decision to…

"Kappan"'s editor talks with Michigan State University's Sarah Reckhow about her research into the ways wealthy private philanthropies have influenced K-12 education in recent years. As Reckhow explains, not only have Gates, Broad, Walton, and other big foundations spent unprecedented amounts of money to support their favored reform…

The Robert Bowne Foundation (RBF), which published "Afterschool Matters" from 2003 to 2008 and continues to fund the journal and related projects, is closing in December. "Afterschool Matters" sat down with Lena Townsend, executive director, to talk about RBF's legacy and continuing influence on literacy work in afterschool…

The Atlantic Philanthropies funded the work of the Positive and Safe Schools Advancing Greater Equity (PASSAGE) initiative, which is a unique approach to ending discipline disparities focused on partnerships between districts and community organizations. Open Society Foundations is considering funding similar work. For this interview, "Voices…

Today powerful philanthropies exercise considerable influence over U.S. educational policy. Referred to as venture philanthropies (Scott, 2009; Saltman, 2010), foundations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation, have emphasized high-stakes accountability and…

This is the first in a series of forum articles on applying project management (PM) techniques and tools to the nonprofit sector with a focus on higher education. The authors will begin with a traditional look at project management because they believe that the integration of the tools and the processes associated with PM into many campus offices…

In this opinion piece, Michael Toscano writes that his criticism of the Common Core State Standards ultimately has very little to do with their innate quality, but rather that their relation to other social spheres is disordered. He refers to the full reordering of American education away from families and local communities--which he states are…

In 2007, the College Board's Community College Advisory Panel--a group of college presidents that advises the organization's membership on community college issues--asked these authors to write a paper describing effective remedial education programs. They never wrote the paper. The problem was not the lack of dedicated faculty and staff working…

This essay reviews two books on Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Fund and places them within the historiography of the Fund. "Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South," is a biography written by Peter M. Ascoli. The book entitled "The Rosenwald Schools of…

This article presents an interview with Diane Ravitch. Ravitch replies to the following questions: (1) What does a good secondary education look like to you?; (2) What should the role of the federal government be?; (3) U.S. public schools regularly take a pounding in the media, but do you see strengths in our system? Were there ever good old days…

America's community colleges are a key link in the chain of upward mobility, and they need more support than they're getting. This is an obvious statement for many in the community-college world, but with the growing challenges facing the system that educates almost half of the nation's undergraduates, the author contends that there is need to…

Sustainability strategies are closely tied to the logic of the donor in every institution. Philanthropies that are set up with a limited time-span tend to scale up their impact differently. The educational programs of the Open Society Institute, for example, prioritize institutionalization over any other sustainability strategy. This is how it…

The corporate annual report is the chief document that is used to disseminate information about the financial performance and other issues pertaining to an organization. The report is typically divided into two sections: the front half with long narratives and photographs describing achievements, issues, and future goals; the second half…