Evening star., 1933-04-09


public purposes can be traced
i back many centuries, but the
most significant developments in
this field have occurred since about
1900. While the term foundation" in
a few cases was applied to these earlier
funds, it has come into more common
usage since the beginning Of the
twentieth century.
Coincident with the greater use of
the term has also come the introduc-
ton of two features which have tended
to give the designation special mean
ing, and which have undoubtedly
played major roles in winning for
foundations an important place among
American organizations for human
betterment. One of these was the
broadening of the chartered purposes
so that, instead of being tied up in
definitely to services which the COM
munity or nation may have outgrown,
as in the classic instance of the fund
established to help victims OF the Bar
barry pirates, foundations could change
their activities to meet changing needs,
the new boundaries to work being hung
as far and wide as "the improvement
of social and living conditions" pro
noting the advancement and diffusion
of knowledge and understanding" or
promoting the well being Of mankind
throughout the world
The second feature has been the very
great increase in the size of funds es-
tablished for these purposes, the COM
bined endowment of the 20 largest
foundations, all of them established
since 1900. aggregating more than
$3.50, ,000,0 and their total grants
from income alone since their first es-
tablishment running well up toward
$500 900, 900. Their total annual grants
approximate S60,000,000 during recent
years.
Peabody Fund First.
Probably the first foundation to be
established in this country in the broad
field of social improvement was the Pea
cipal sum of more than $2,000;000 and
discontinued in 1914, although the
Smithsonian Institution - established
for the increase and diffusion Of
knowledge among men," with a capital
fund of something more than $500 900,
and antedating the Peabody Fund by
some 20 years-might lay some claim to
first place. Then came the John F. Sla-
ter Fund in the year 1882; the Baron
de Hirsch Fund in 1890; the Thomas
Thompson Trust in 1901; the Carnegie
Institution of Washington in 1902. the
General Education Board in 1908; the
Milbank Memorial Fund In 1905; the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advance
ment OF Teaching in 1906; the Russell
Sage Foundation In 1907; the Anna T.
Jeanes Foundation and the Elizabeth
Mccormick Memorial Fund In 1911; and
In later years host of others, including
the very large endowments represented
by the Rockefeller Foundation and the
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial
the latter now consolidated with the
other Rockefeller benefactions.
Total More Than $50.
In a list of American foundations
compiled in 1880 for the Russell Sage
Foundation Library by Bertha F. HUI
seman, the total was seen to have
reached more than 150 Similar lists
compiled for that library showed %
in 1915 and SO in 1922; but the num-
bers more than doubled in the next two
years, reaching II in 1924, and in two
more years almost quadrupled, running
10 IL! In 1926. In preparing the adj
can Foundations and Their Fields" the
Twentieth Century Fund discovered 207
foundations from which it sought in
formation. this total, however, including
several community trusts.
The headquarters of most of the ma
tlonal foundations are in New York
City; the others for the most part are
round IN Chicago, Washington, Phila-
delphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit,
Buffalo. San Francisco and Cincinnati.
The community trust, which, like
the endowed foundations, receives be-
quests OF funds, and aims through
charter stipulation and its forms and
methods OF organization to keep its
program flexible and adaptable to
changing community conditions, has
also come into existence and has had
its largest development during the last
two decades. Beginning with the Cleve-
land Foundation, organized in 1914 by
the late Frederick H. Goff, these trusts
or local foundations had reached q total
OF % by 1924 and approximately rs
by 1882.
Method Of Disbursement
The usual plan is for their funds to
be held by trust companies and the dis
pursement OF income to be directed by
a committee, minority of whose mem
bers are appointed by the trust COM
pany, the others being selected by
local public officials. Some of these
trusts are as yet without funds. but
more than half of the total had re-
ceived bequests and contributions by
1882. the total of which ran upward
OF $37, ,000, 900. One of the largest is
the New York Community Trust, with
something more than 100000 of
capital, and disbursements for charit-
able purposes of $190,168 during the
year 1881. Community trusts are as
widely placed as Boston and Los An
geies, Spokane and Atlanta and are
almost entirely local in scope
While the total number of founda-
tions, plus funds and community trusts
having kindred characteristics, is seen