American Philanthropic Foundations: Regional Difference and Change

Once largely confined to the biggest cities in the mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states, philanthropic foundations now play a significant role in nearly every state. Wide-ranging and incisive, the essays in American Philanthropic Foundations: Regional Difference and Change examine the origins, development, and accomplishments of philanthropic foundations in key cities and regions of the United States. Each contributor assesses foundation efforts to address social and economic inequalities, and to encourage cultural and creative life in their home regions and elsewhere. This fascinating and timely study of contemporary America’s philanthropic foundations vividly illustrates foundations’ commonalities and differences as they strive to address pressing public problems.

David C. Hammack is The Hiram C. Hayden Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University. His books include A Versatile American Institution: The Changing Ideals and Realities of Philanthropic Foundations (2013), American Foundations (2010), Globalization, Philanthropy, and Civil Society: Projecting Institutional Logics Abroad (IUP, 2009), and Making the Nonprofit Sector in the United States: A Reader (IUP, 1998).

Steven Rathgeb Smith is the executive director of the American Political Science Association. He has taught at several universities including the University of Washington where he was the Nancy Bell Evans Professor of Public Affairs. His most recent book is Nonprofits and Advocacy: Engaging Community and Government in an Era of Retrenchment (with Robert Pekkanen and Yutaka Tsujinaka). He is currently president of the International Society for Third Sector Research.