Overview

In an era of declining state support for colleges and universities, the role of private philanthropy in helping to shape the future direction of higher education has become even more crucial and significant than in the past. Knowing about philanthropy’s historic influence on higher education and what philanthropy currently prioritizes is now virtually a prerequisite for presidents and academic leaders in both public and private institutions. This book discusses the complex relationship of philanthropy to higher education both in historic perspective and in the present. It is not a primer on how to write a successful grant. Rather, it provides a road map for understanding philanthropy’s influence on American higher education. It will be of interest to academic leaders, advancement professionals, students of higher education and philanthropy, and others concerned with the future of colleges and universities.

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9781475804065

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Reviews

This historical overview of philanthropy's impact on higher education offers both inspiration and warnings for the future. A thoughtful, comprehensive and even-handed account, it will be a welcome resource for those on both sides of the relationship, as well as for others concerned with how to improve the quality of education in our nation. -- Judith Shapiro, president, The Teagle Foundation; president and professor of anthropology emerita, Barnard College Writing both as an historian and as a major figure in foundation philanthropy, Bernstein traces the role twentieth century foundations played in developing the hallmark strengths of U.S. higher education - especially its world-wide standing as a leading source of scholarly creativity, generative social solutions, and the expansion of educational access for women and minorities. But she also boldly tracks the role foundations are playing today - both on campus and in policy priorities - in what many see as the corporatization of higher education. Current developments illustrate a metrics-minded focus on degree production and economic return on investment rather than the quality of learning, democracy's return on the expansion of knowledge, inclusive excellence, and social justice. I hope that Bernstein's sober critique will prompt wide-spread philanthropic re-engagement with the role twenty-first century foundations may yet play in creating new connections across scholarship, faculty work, student learning, and democracy's still-emerging global promise. -- Carol Geary Schneider, president, Association of American Colleges and Universities Alison Bernstein is one of the nation's most experienced and foresighted philanthropy leaders in the field of higher education. This book is an eloquent and timely review of where we've been in higher education philanthropy, where we are headed, and why this work is more important than ever. Bernstein's provocative insights and recommendations should be required reading for all of us who have the privilege of working to advance the important economic, social, and cultural benefits that come from the nation's higher education system. -- Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO, Lumina Foundation Published at a time when higher education is under intense scrutiny, Alison Bernstein's comprehensive analysis of the history and future of philanthropic support combines a seasoned practitioner's insight and passion with astute reflection on existing scholarship. Student access increased and the curriculum broadened, she notes in this provocative study, as the source of largesse migrated from individual donors and church subsidies to secular foundations. These benefactors once used incentives to demonstrate the viability of inclusive reforms, proposed or at least welcomed by the colleges. But, Bernstein asserts, today's largest foundations challenge, rather than support, the self-defined missions of postsecondary institutions. Higher education, she concludes in this important book, may therefore be losing a key ally at a time of great need. -- Harold Wechsler, University of Rochester

This historical overview of philanthropy's impact on higher education offers both inspiration and warnings for the future. A thoughtful, comprehensive and even-handed account, it will be a welcome resource for those on both sides of the relationship, as well as for others concerned with how to improve the quality of education in our nation. -- Judith Shapiro, president, The Teagle Foundation; president and professor of anthropology emerita, Barnard College

Author Information

Alison R. Bernstein is the Director of the Institute for Women’s Leadership and a professor of history at Rutgers University. She formerly served as a Vice President of the Ford Foundation from 1996 to 2010, where she directed the division focused on higher education, the arts, media, human sexuality and religion.

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