Teach for Australia was announced by the Australian Government in 2008, at a corporate dinner sponsored by Swiss multinational investment bank UBS, hosting New York Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. Conceptualising Teach for Australia as a polycentric policy network anchored in venture philanthropy, this paper examines how networks mobilise major…

Purpose: New philanthropy develops new forms of policy "problem-solving" through the influx of private actors' money and ideas. It adopts singular configurations across different policy spaces, with implications for education governance. We address this phenomenon by analyzing the Varkey Foundation's (VF) "landing" and…

Public funding to higher education has declined over the years and many states have experimented with policies to encourage private sector donations to public universities. Building on research that examines the intersection of state policy and philanthropy, we examine the influence of a state policy on endowment gifts to the University of Wyoming…

Global narratives of educational philanthropy tend to emphasise the significant influence donors have in shaping public school policy and practice. In Australia, however, tax laws work to narrow the possibilities for philanthropy to exert influence over public schooling. Indeed, public schools (unlike private schools and Higher Education…

In the countries that receive aid from donor agencies, the educational policymaking process is not straightforward because the power and interest of donors contradict with national contexts. This qualitative study aims to investigate how educational policy decisions in Nepal, a country that receives foreign aid for its educational projects, are…

This paper uses critical archival analysis, paired with textual analysis of grant descriptions, to understand how nine foundations -- all with endowments derived from the student loan industry -- have motivated their college completion work and the relationship between these commitments and grantmaking over time (2000-2019). Mobilizing concepts of…

We examine the impact of the Texas Research Incentive Program (TRIP), a state policy that offers matching funds to incentivize private-sector donations to certain public universities. We use a national dataset and employ a generalized difference-in-differences approach with matching procedures to estimate the treatment effect of TRIP on revenues…

This paper addresses the ways through which new philanthropy in education is being enacted in Portugal, focusing on one of its significant imaginaries: social inclusion. We analyse EPIS (Entrepreneurs for Social Inclusion), a top association dedicated to corporate philanthropy with a growing presence in the education system. Drawing on Popkewitz's…

Over the past several decades large philanthropies have adopted aggressive approaches to education reform that scholars have labeled "venture philanthropy." These efforts focused on broad changes to schooling and education policy, borrowing techniques from the venture capital world. But many foundations have recently become convinced…

Philanthropic initiatives incorporating prescriptive practices have become prominent in K-12 education. This study provides evidence on the reach, character, and impact of the Broad Superintendents Academy, a controversial initiative designed to transform district leadership. A novel data set on Broad trainees linked to data on large districts…

As the role that publicly owned and private think tanks play in evidence-based governance grows, several parameters that have a bearing on the agenda, schedule and timetable of the think tanks have already been studied. Here we look at the interplay between the funding model (public vs. private) and the analysis intention (the temporal outlook;…

The paper studies the emergence of venture philanthropy in public schools in Australia, focusing on policy networks and policy mobility. It seeks to analyse how policy is mobilised and leveraged via networks, focusing on the initiative of a national education charity with deductible gift recipient status, and a national research education…

In this study, we address the question of whether and how the internationalization of higher education, particularly its study abroad aspect, has contributed to the common good. Much of the past discussion on study abroad impact has been largely concentrated on outcomes at the personal level. Using qualitative data from the Study Abroad for Global…

The American Enterprise Institute, EducationCounsel, and The Century Foundation undertook a joint process to examine--across ideological lines--the nature of the existing system that finances graduate education, including its benefits and downsides, and to design a framework that should guide the improvement of federal policy regarding graduate…

This article combines theories of racialized organizations with insights on institutionalization to empirically analyze the role of grantmakers in unsettling postsecondary racial inequity. Using longitudinal data on federal grantmaking to institutions of higher education, we examine whether and how grantmaking policies (re)produce or diminish…