For four decades U.S. foundations have had the ability to make below-market-rate investments in activities consistent with their missions, and count these investments as part of their annual charitable distributions. Program-related investments, or PRIs, provide the opportunity for a philanthropic multiplier effect, as foundations invest the…

This document is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focused on the question: "How could a philanthropist make the biggest improvement on social mobility with an investment of $1 billion?" In answering this question, the authors have sought to understand "what matters most" for improving social mobility outcomes.…

The long-time Prussian/German Crown Princess Victoria (1840-1901), known after her husband's death as the Empress Frederick, played an important role as patroness of and advocate for many forms of academic and vocational education for girls and women. This article examines her work for various institutions in Berlin as well as her homeland. It…

In this article, the author discusses how campaigns soar, in ambitions and scope, as donor requirements grow more exacting. For a glimpse at the direction in which college and university fundraising campaigns are headed, take a look at the University of Colorado. The university system's foundation is conducting its most ambitious campaign, joining…

Within a 20-year period from the late 1850s to the late 1870s, most European countries created programmes in response to what appeared as a new social problem: unwed daughters of the middle classes in need of jobs. Taking off from the 150th anniversary of the English Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, this paper examines the diffusion…

Generation of voluntary support for colleges and universities has become an ever more important function that is key to the success of all postsecondary institutions. This is true even for public institutions, which have shifted from primarily focusing on alumni relations activities to executing billion dollar campaigns that equal those conducted…

In recent years, when a university may earn well over $10 million per year from fees for sports-broadcast rights, half of the teams still lose. Collegiate athletic competition is a zero sum game: The number of winners equals the number of losers. So why do universities spend growing sums of scarce resources on an activity when the odds of winning…

Just two decades ago, the United States was the epicenter of wealth and philanthropy. U.S. fundraisers seemed justified in sticking close to home, since most of the prospects were in their own backyard. Now more than ever, fundraisers in the United States and other mature philanthropic marketplaces need to look beyond their own national and…

Data on student aid for 2015-16 confirm that the dramatic increases in aid awarded in 2009-10 and 2010-11 were products of extreme economic circumstances, not harbingers of long-run changes in financing for postsecondary education. Both total federal education loans and federal loans per full-time equivalent (FTE) student declined for the fifth…

Institutions of higher education are increasingly engaging in partnerships with local communities. Within a sport context, the creation of the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills Program has emphasized partnerships between athletic departments and local community service organizations (CSOs). Prior studies, however, have used student-athletes rather than the…

Strengthening after-school programming for city youngsters has long been an objective of The Wallace Foundation, a national philanthropy based in New York City. In its work over the years, Wallace has found that weak financial management of the nonprofits running many high-quality programs hampers their ability to improve and expand. In 2009,…

Research on philanthropy has not sufficiently examined whether charitable giving to religious causes impinges on giving to secular causes. Examining three waves of national panel data, we find that the relationship between religious and secular giving is generally not of a zero-sum nature; families that increase their religious giving also…

In an era of diminished state and community resources for higher education, community college alumni are increasingly viewed as an undefined and untapped source of support by their alma maters. Community college presidents and advancement professionals find themselves faced with the dilemma of how to develop and define meaningful and philanthropic…

During the 1960s a paradigm shift occurred within Irish education thanks to the penetration of the Republic's system by the OECD-sponsored economics of education. The 1965 publication of "Investment in Education" was the key event in this change. The document reproduced and contextualised here demonstrates how this penetration process…

This study investigated whether family structure transition and low income are risk factors in the development of prosocial behavior. Models of young adults' prosocial behavior--charitable giving and volunteering--were estimated as functions of their family structure and income during the stages of childhood. Participants were a representative…