1911

Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie establishes Carnegie Corporation of New York, one of the country’s first grantmaking institutions, to “promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” Inspired by his essay The Gospel of Wealth (1889), the foundation is endowed by Carnegie with $135 million.

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Andrew Carnegie (seated, fourth from left), his daughter, Margaret, and wife, Louise, at the Corporation's first board meeting, November 10, 1911.

1911

Continuing work he began in the 1880s, Andrew Carnegie, the first president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, initiates a program to pay for the construction and development of public libraries. Over time, the Corporation funds 1,661 libraries in the U.S. and 828 in other parts of the world. This includes the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which is seeded in 1926 with the help of a $10,000 grant from the Corporation, allowing the New York Public Library to acquire collector Arturo Alfonso Schomburg’s rare manuscripts and books by Black authors.

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An exterior view of the Carnegie Public Library in Riverside, California (Detroit: Detroit Publishing Company, 1903–4)

1913

Established in 1872, what would become known as the Chinese Educational Commission was led by two Chinese citizens, who constituted the first Chinese delegation to the United States. For its first international grant, Carnegie Corporation of New York gives $200,000 (nearly $5 million in 2021) to the commission to defray the cost of support of 275 Chinese students studying at U.S. colleges and universities.

Baseball players pose on steps

A student on the Chinese Educational Mission on the baseball team at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1881. 

1918

While serving as a trustee at Cornell University, Andrew Carnegie is shocked to discover that teachers have less financial security than his former office clerks. To address this problem, he establishes the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America with a $1 million grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Now TIAA, it is one of the world’s largest financial services companies, with more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management at the end of 2019.

A group photo of the Cornell University Faculty from 1882

Cornell University faculty members pose on the steps of McGraw Hall in 1882. (Wikimedia) 

1918

Carnegie Corporation of New York commissions the Americanization Studies to ease the assimilation of immigrants and help inform policy for the federal Bureaus of Naturalization and of Education. Its ten volumes, published in the 1920s, are meant to be a first step toward developing a national immigration policy.

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A Finnish cooperative center erected in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, catered to Finns as they assimilated to life in the United States.

1920

The Corporation funds the launch of the National Bureau of Economic Research to promote greater understanding of how the economy works. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to providing unbiased economic research to public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.

Selection of a report by the National Bureau of Economic Research published in 1924.

Selection of a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, published in 1924.

1921

Carnegie Corporation of New York makes its first grant to the Tuskegee Institute in 1921 for the amount of $50,000. Prior to this, the Corporation’s founder, Andrew Carnegie, had made significant gifts to the Institute starting in 1900 with $20,000 for a new library at the request of Booker T. Washington, who founded the Institute in Alabama as a vocational and technical school for Black students. Funding from Carnegie and his foundation totals more than $1.2 million, and today, the Corporation continues its support of historically Black colleges and universities.

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In 1906, Andrew Carnegie (front row, center) visited Tuskegee Institute in Macon County, Alabama, on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the school. The Institute’s founder, Booker T. Washington, is seated on Carnegie’s right, along with Tuskegee faculty. (Frances Benjamin Johnston)

1923

The Nobel Prize in Medicine is awarded to Dr. Frederick Banting and Dr. J.J.R. Macleod for the discovery of insulin. Their groundbreaking experiments are conducted in a Corporation-funded laboratory at the University of Toronto.

Copy of a black and white photograph showing Banting sitting at a lab table, behind lab equipment, and looking toward the camera.

Physiologist Frederick Banting (1891–1941), winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in his lab ca. 1925 (University of Toronto Library)

1923

The second president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, Nobel Prize–winner Elihu Root, joins a committee of prominent teachers, judges, and lawyers in recommending the creation of the American Law Institute. The Institute was founded to clarify and simplify the law, secure better administration of justice, and encourage legal scholarship.

Elihu Root, black and white photo portrait, 1902.

Elihu Root, second president of the Corporation (Library of Congress)

1926

The Corporation funds the establishment of the American Association for Adult Education, which is dedicated to the belief that lifelong learning contributes to human fulfillment and positive social change. The Corporation is the organization’s sole funder until 1940. The AAAE was eventually merged and by 1982, it was part of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE).

B/W Photo of a man in a WPA Adult Education Class Studying

A man in a WPA Adult Education Class studies a textbook (National Archives, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)

1927

Philanthropist Robert S. Brookings creates the influential nonprofit Brookings Institution by merging three research organizations. These include the Institute of Economics, established by the Corporation in 1922 with a $1.6 million grant. Brookings’s mission is to conduct in-depth public policy research aimed at solving problems facing society at the local, national, and global level.

B/W photo of Robert Somers Brookings (1850-1932), American philanthropist, businessman and founder of the Brookings Institution.

Robert Somers Brookings (1850-1932), American philanthropist, businessman and founder of the Brookings Institution. (Library of Congress) 

1932

The first Carnegie Corporation of New York Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa publishes the Poor White Study, meant to improve the status of impoverished Afrikaners. During the next two decades, the study would be used as a rationale for the establishment of the apartheid government in South Africa, which the Corporation would seek to alter over the years by funding challenges to apartheid in the courts, contributing to the country’s eventual transition to democracy.

B/W Photo of a poor white family in South Africa from The Poor White Problem in South Africa Report.

Family portrait, photograph from The Poor White Problem in South Africa. (Carnegie Archive at Columbia University) 

1938

The Corporation commissions Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal to undertake a two-year study of the condition of Black people in America, resulting in the book, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944). In 1954, the Supreme Court cites the book in deciding Brown v. the Board of Education, which ends “separate but equal” education for Black children and serves as a moral wake-up call prior to the civil rights movement. In 2019, the Corporation supports the day-long Social Science Research Council conference, An American Dilemma for the 21st Century, which brings together nearly two hundred scholars, leaders, and community members at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication. The Corporation also supports the launch of a digital platform expanding access to the Carnegie-Myrdal research archive.

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Attorneys who argued the case against segregation stand together outside the U. S. Supreme Court Building after the High Tribunal ruled that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Left to right are George E. C. Hayes of Washington, D.C., Thurgood Marshall, special counsel for the NAACP, and James Nabrit, Jr., professor and attorney at law at Howard University. (Bettmann/Bettmann via Getty Images)

1947

With Corporation support, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching helps establish the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to centralize the nation’s approach to educational testing and research and provide a means of measuring academic merit irrespective of social or economic background. Results include the GRE and TOEFL exams, among other products and services, such as the development and administration of the SAT test. 

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A transmittal sheet authorizing the grant to the Educational Testing Service in 1947. (Carnegie Archive at Columbia University)

1948

The Russian Research Center (now the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies) is founded at Harvard University, with seed money from Carnegie Corporation of New York, in hopes that the social sciences could address the nation’s need to understand its Cold War adversary. This initial grant marks the start of the Corporation’s decades-long focus on U.S. relations with the region.

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Soviet leaders (left to right) Lavrentiy Beria, Georgi Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, and Joseph Stalin cross Red Square after taking Mikhail Kalinin's coffin to the Kremlin wall. (Serge Plantureux/Corbis via Getty Images)

1956

A $100,000 grant launches the Foundation Center (now merged with GuideStar and known as Candid) to support and improve philanthropy by providing information, research, and training for grantmakers and grant seekers. This support comes after former Corporation chair Russell Leffingwell tells Congress that foundations should have “glass pockets,” to further public understanding of their role in society. Read “Transparency and Accomplishment: A Legacy of Glass Pockets” by Vartan Gregorian, the Corporation's twelfth president.

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The Foundation Center (now called Candid) relocated in 2015 to new offices in Lower Manhattan. The spaces were specially designed to reflect the organization’s mission with an emphasis on transparency. (Sean Sime)

1959

Two years after Sputnik raised fears about the quality of U.S. education, The American High School Today: A First Report to Interested Citizens is published, with Corporation funding, to build support for public schools. Author James B. Conant, former president of Harvard University, argues that a comprehensive high school offering a variety of courses, including languages and vocational training, would prepare a diverse student body most successfully for the future.

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James Conant (1893–1978), winner of the 1931 Chandler Medal for achievement in science, at work in his laboratory. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

1960

Carnegie Corporation of New York funds the creation of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard as a base for scholars in the developing field of cognitive psychology — a movement that focuses on the study of thinking and the mind rather than human behavior through conditioning — which would have a significant impact on early childhood education.

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Photo of the original building of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard source: Instituting the Science of Mind: Intellectual Economies and Disciplinary Exchange at Harvard's Center for Cognitive Studies by Jamie Cohen-Cole in The British Journal for the History of Science, Dec., 2007, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 2007), pp. 567-597

1960

The College Entrance Examination Board creates the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) with Corporation support. CLEP offers students of any age and educational background the opportunity to bypass undergraduate coursework through a program of subject-area exams demonstrating college-level achievement. This first attempt at taking life experience into account is now recognized by thousands of colleges and universities.

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The College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) was introduced to help students earn college credits for material they already know. They are allowed to demonstrate mastery, regardless of where the students learned the material.

1963

The Corporation funds the establishment of the Educational Resources Center at Bank Street College of Education, marking the start of a longstanding grantee relationship. The Center’s goal is to support the education of students held back by poverty or racism, consistent with the Corporation’s deep commitment to social and racial justice. Now the Bank Street Education Center, it continues to address some of the nation’s deepest challenges hindering effective and equitable teaching and learning for all.

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Established in 1916, Bank Street College of Education evolved into a leading center for research on the education of children and a significant Corporation collaborator. (Bank Street College of Education)

1964

The Carnegie Commission on Educational Television is created to study the role of noncommercial TV in society. In 1967, it publishes the landmark report, Public Television: A Program for Action, which concludes that the American people need an educational television system and makes recommendations leading to the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. A subsequent $1 million grant to PBS initiates the foundation’s commitment to national and local educational television and radio as well as nonprofit journalism.

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Alan Pifer, the Corporation's third president, at the podium addresses the crowd as President Lyndon B. Johnson stands to his left on the day of the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act, in the East Room of the White House, Washington D.C., November 7, 1967. (Yoichi Okamoto/Interim Archives/Getty Images)

1964

Often called “the nation’s report card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) begins in 1964 with a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to set up the Exploratory Committee for the Assessment of Progress in Education. Today, NAEP is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in key subject areas: mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history.

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NAEP is administered to students from public and private schools, and depending on the subject matter, it is taken during grades 4, 8, and 12

1965

Head Start is launched as part of the war on poverty, providing preschool children of low-income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs. Carnegie Corporation of New York-supported research in early childhood cognitive development proves crucial in securing and safeguarding federal funds for the groundbreaking Head Start program.

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First Lady Lady Bird Johnson reads to students at a federally funded Project Head Start at the Kemper School in Washington, DC in 1966. (National Archives) 

1965

With an early investment by the Corporation, the Chronicle of Higher Education is launched to immediate success. By its fiftieth anniversary, it has the largest online audience in higher education. In 1981, the same publishing group begins Education Week, and in 1989 it adds the monthly Teacher Magazine.

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Magazine editor Corbin Gwaltney founded The Chronicle of Higher Education and later The Chronicle of Philanthropy with the goal of providing the sector and the general public with more information about American higher education.

1967

Carnegie Corporation of New York provides funding for its sister institution, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to create the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. Clark Kerr, respected higher education leader and former head of the California University system, launches the commission, which runs through 1979 and produces over 170 books and reports targeting policy areas such as social justice, governance, and the purposes and performance of institutions.

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“Kerr’s voice of authority and integrity, along with the stage offered by the Commission, were a stunning combination that brought national attention to the idea of individual grants to provide students with greater access to college education, now known as the Pell Grants,” said the late Vartan Gregorian, past president of the Corporation, upon Kerr’s death in 2003.

1969

Groundbreaking children’s program Sesame Street debuts on PBS. The show is based on the results of a Carnegie Corporation of New York-funded study conducted by Joan Ganz Cooney, a producer of public affairs programs for National Educational Television, to determine whether television could be used to educate young children. Envisioning a new kind of children‘s program, Cooney forms the Children’s Television Workshop to produce it with further Corporation support. Sesame Street has since been viewed by hundreds of millions of children in more than 140 countries.

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Joan Ganz Cooney, founder of the Children's Television Workshop, with Sesame Street stuffed animals (Owen Franken/Corbis via Getty Images)

1970

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an outgrowth of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, creates National Public Radio (NPR) as a private, nonprofit organization with the mission of creating a more informed public. It aims to provide leadership in national newsgathering and production and offer the first permanent, nationwide network of noncommercial stations. Sixty million people now access NPR across its range of platforms every week.

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NPR Radio Debate by Franklin McMahon (Franklin McMahon/Corbis via Getty Images)

1971

A grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York helps create the Project on the Status and Education of Women, one of the first programs to focus on gender equity in higher education. Administered by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, it works to improve access and advancement for women by addressing issues such as women’s studies, affirmative action, and the hiring of women faculty.

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The magazine On Campus With Women was published by the Project on the Status and Education of Women between 1971 and 2001. The collection is accessible via the Internet Archive.

1972

Following the recommendations of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, the federal government institutes Basic Educational Opportunity Grants, known as Pell Grants — the largest college financial aid program in the United States — to offer tuition assistance to college students on the basis of need. Unlike loans, Pell Grants do not need to be repaid.

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1972

The Corporation undertakes a new strategy to protect the rights of minorities and secure social change via the courts, supporting the Native American Rights Fund, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund to attain greater equality while building minority leadership.

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The East LA Walkouts of 1968 involved hundreds of students who were frustrated over inequality and racism in the educational system. (MALDEF)

1972

The Carnegie Council on Children reflects the Corporation’s concern for the psychological aspects of child development. Formed to research social, economic, and educational influences on children and related public policy, the Council publishes All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure. The report raises public awareness of the social forces shaping children’s lives, including the growing problem of income inequality, and offering public policy recommendations to benefit children and families.

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Conclusions reached by Council members and associates were published in several background studies and summarized in the Council's final report, All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure (1977).

1973

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a research and advocacy nonprofit led by Marian Wright Edelman, is established with support from the Corporation. Its mission is to work toward the betterment of children’s lives — particularly poor children, children of color, and those with disabilities. Working closely with the Corporation, CDF takes the lead on landmark legislation such as the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act, and the 1977 Children’s Health Insurance Program.

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Picture shows children's activist, author, Marian Wright Edelman, holding a book sponsered by the Children's Defence Fund. Undated photo circa 1970s.

1974

The Corporation provides start-up funds to create the pioneering television program NOVA. Produced in cooperation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, NOVA becomes the longest running, most-watched, primetime science series on American television.

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1975

Carnegie Corporation of New York supports the United States-South Africa Leader Exchange Program to train Black professionals for civil participation and promotion of peaceful change. Having withheld support for projects in South Africa under apartheid, the Corporation, in response to increasingly brutal government repression, begins funding public interest law projects to challenge apartheid policies in the courts.

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According to the US Department of State, years of violent internal protest, weakening white commitment, international economic and cultural sanctions, economic struggles, and the end of the Cold War brought down white minority rule in South Africa.

1977

At the request of the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio, the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting is formed to reappraise the status of this sector in the United States. The Commission publishes its recommendations for reshaping the country’s public broadcasting system in its 1979 report, A Public Trust.

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In 1975, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer cofounded what soon became The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, the signature news program of PBS at that time and the precursor to PBS NewsHour.

1982

Based at the University of Cape Town, the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty & Development in Southern Africa, directed by Francis Wilson, is conducted over a period of eight years. Intended to reveal what life under apartheid really means, it finds most Black South Africans endure far more acute poverty than did the Afrikaners studied 50 years earlier. The findings are disseminated widely and draw international condemnation, and many of the study’s investigators assume leadership positions in the post-apartheid government. 

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A 1984 photograph by Omar Badsha of a funeral in KwaMashu of two ANC soldiers killed in clashes with the police outside Stanger. The photo is part of South Africa: The Cordoned Heart, a seminal photographic exhibition and book project of the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa.

1983

Carnegie Corporation of New York, mindful of the escalating dangers of confrontation between nations with nuclear arsenals, begins the Avoiding Nuclear War program to help fill gaps in knowledge about the U.S.-Soviet relationship and nuclear policy. The program fosters independent research, policy analysis, and dissemination among scientists and policymakers, and supports public education about the nuclear threat.

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Anti-war demonstration in New York, 1983. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

1984

The Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy convenes a task force to respond to the federally sponsored study, A Nation at Risk, which describes a rising tide of mediocrity in education that threatens America’s future. The task force calls for strengthening standards in teaching and professionalizing the teaching workforce. The Forum’s major report, A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century (1986), leads to establishment of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

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A Nation Prepared presents an integrated plan for restructuring schools and redefining teaching as a career in order to support a vibrant democracy, avert the growth of a permanent underclass, and enable a high-wage economy.

1985

Under the leadership of President David Hamburg, Carnegie Corporation of New York provides a grant that launches the nongovernmental Aspen Institute Congressional Program to educate lawmakers about U.S.-Soviet relations. Among the earliest nonpartisan educational retreats of its type, the program continuously expands its agenda while becoming known as a way to look for common ground among lawmakers.

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1986

The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development is established to address this critical growth stage. The Council’s publication, Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century (1989), focuses national attention on the developmental needs and growing cognitive abilities of young adolescents and the critical importance of creating schools to maximize their positive transitions, close relationships, and full participation in society. These findings contribute significantly to middle school reform.

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The Turning Points report examines the condition of America's young adolescents and how well middle grade schools, health institutions and community organizations serve them.

1989

With funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the American Association for the Advancement of Science recruits expert panels of scientists, mathematicians, and technologists to address science and technology literacy, identifying what is most important for the next generation to know and be able to do in these fields. Their work results in two groundbreaking reports: Science for All Americans (1990) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993). Recognizing that science taught in the nation’s schools needs to adequately prepare students for an increasingly complex science- and technology-driven world, the reports recommend a common core of learning to make all citizens science literate.

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“The terms and circumstances of human existence can be expected to change radically during the next human life span. Science, mathematics, and technology will be at the center of that change—causing it, shaping it, responding to it. Therefore, they will be essential to the education of today's children for tomorrow's world.” Science for All Americans, 1989.

1990

The Corporation initiates a series of grants to bring together experts concerned with post-Soviet nuclear nonproliferation. The Committee on Reducing the Nuclear Danger is formed first, then the Prevention of Proliferation Task Force (through grants to the Brookings Institution). The task force report is instrumental in the development of the 1991 Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which, by 2014, achieves the deactivation of 7,600 nuclear warheads and 2,500 missiles in the former Soviet Union.

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Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar leaving in the White House in November 1991 after briefing President George H. W. Bush on the Nunn-Lugar legislation that was an outcome of the Committee on Reducing the Nuclear Danger.

1991

Carnegie Corporation of New York creates the Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children to devise a coherent strategy to ensure that children are provided with a healthy start during the first three years of life. Its report, Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children (1994), presents a strong case for responsible parenthood, improved preventive care, and ample community support for families.

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Starting Points documented the "quiet crisis" that young children faced due to issues such as poor prenatal care, low immunization rates, the rising incidence of child abuse, and increasingly unstable families.

1993

With funding from the Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace establishes the Carnegie Moscow Center as the first independent think tank in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Offering in-depth analysis and insight on the complex issues facing countries of the former USSR, the center’s priority areas are foreign policy and security strategy, domestic politics and economics, and societal trends.

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Carnegie Moscow was established at a time when Boris Yeltsin, first president of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999, was introducing numerous reforms, including a free market economy.

1995

A grant from the Corporation supports the founding of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. An independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization, the center’s activities range from advancing voting rights and campaign finance reform to racial justice in criminal law and presidential power in the fight against terrorism. A living memorial to Justice William Brennan’s belief in standing up for the downtrodden, the center remains a longstanding grantee.

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The Corporation’s first grants to the Brennan Center funded a public education initiative about campaign finance reform.
1997

The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict issues the last in a series of 59 publications resulting from research and discussion of new ideas on this critical topic among world leaders, policymakers, scholars, and informed members of the public. Operating since 1994, the commission’s findings on interstate and intrastate conflicts are largely responsible for the UN’s adoption of a worldwide culture of prevention meant to shape decent human relations at every level.

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1999

The Carnegie Scholars Program is established to support individual scholarship. Fellowships, with grants of up to $100,000, are awarded annually to support significant scholarly activity in U.S.-based universities. 

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Past president Vartan Gregorian inaugurated the Scholars Program to renew and invigorate the Corporation’s commitment to promising research — a priority throughout his tenure — saying “We believe that excellent scholarship is a prerequisite for solid policy research and, ultimately, social change.”
1999

Carnegie Corporation of New York launches the Higher Education in the Former Soviet Union (HEFSU) initiative in response to the deterioration of Russian academia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. HEFSU seeks to establish nine university centers for interdisciplinary area studies, network building, and scholarly communications in Russia, Eurasia, and the United States, and to provide training to build up the administrative capacity of institutions of higher learning.

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The flagship effort of HEFSU was the Centers for Advanced Study and Education (CASE) established at nine leading state universities in all nine regions, including The Ural State University in Yekaterinburg.

1999

To bridge the knowledge gap regarding the UN's contribution to world peace and progress, the Corporation funds the United Nations Intellectual History Project at the request of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Comprising a series of oral histories and scholarly books, the project aims to build public awareness of the UN as an incubator of world-changing ideas in such areas as finance, gender roles, poverty elimination, and human rights. Funding is also provided by the Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur, Dag Hammarskjold, and UN foundations, and by several donor countries.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (second from left) holds a meeting with Richard Jolly (right) and Thomas Weiss (second from right), members of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.
2000

As charter members, the Corporation and the Ford, MacArthur, and Rockefeller foundations form the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA). The collaboration, whose mission is to improve the educational capacity of selected universities in nine African countries, announces a goal of providing $100 million in support over five years, which it exceeds by $50 million. Among PHEA’s accomplishments are improvements in technological capacity, gender equity, access for marginalized groups, and policy research and advocacy.

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The main building of Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, in 2018. (Michele Sibiloni/AFP via Getty Images)

2000

The first Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State is appointed to enhance the role of science and technology in the State Department by offering evidence-based advice on emerging issues in the field and helping to shape policy with a global perspective. This appointment fulfills a concept proposed in 1993 in the concluding report of the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, formed in 1988.

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Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John D. Holum (left) congratulates Dr. Norman P. Neureiter upon his swearing-in on September 19, 2000, as the nation’s first Science and Technology Adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.
2000

Carnegie Corporation of New York creates a new program, Schools for a New Society, with a $40 million commitment. The focus is on putting system-wide high school reform on the agenda of urban districts nationwide and advancing knowledge about the changes needed to substantially increase graduation rates.

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Boston Public Schools were among seven school districts nationwide selected as partners in transforming factory-like schools into places offering personalized academic opportunities.
2000

The Corporation partners with the Russell Sage Foundation to conduct the Social Dimensions of Inequality Study. Forty-eight social scientists, in six working groups, examine whether recent increases in economic inequality exacerbate social inequities in a way that might make the widening gap between rich and poor Americans difficult to reverse.

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The Social Dimensions in Inequality Study resulted in a book title Social Inequality, published in 2004.
2000

Carnegie Corporation of New York joins with the MacArthur Foundation to support the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Launched by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, this project of the Canadian government is created to engage the world's leaders in an effort to bring officials, scholars, and researchers together and stimulate new scholarship on the "right of humanitarian intervention": the question of when, if ever, it is appropriate for states to take coercive  – in particular military  – action, against another state for the purpose of protecting people at risk in that other state.

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The Commission produced a report known as the ICISS report that underlines the primary responsibility of sovereign states to protect their own citizens from mass murder and large-scale loss of life as well as the responsibility of the broader community of states to prevent genocides as seen in Rwanda and Srebrenica.

2001

Teachers for a New Era (TNE) is launched with a $40 million investment from the Corporation to stimulate reforms in teacher education and develop state-of­ the-art schools of education, beginning at eleven institutions. The major design principles of TNE are practices driven by evidence, instruction that includes the arts and sciences, and teaching as an academic area with clinical preparation such as residencies.

2001

In partnership with the MacArthur Foundation and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, Carnegie Corporation of New York funds Centers for Advanced Study and Education to enable universities in Russia to create vibrant academic hubs for scholars in the social sciences and humanities, and to promote interaction with academic communities in the West.

2001

The international family of Carnegie institutions establishes the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. Awarded every two years, it recognizes outstanding individuals who, in the spirit of Andrew Carnegie, have dedicated their private wealth to the public good.

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2001

Corporation support helps create the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. A joint research project between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, it aims to develop new voting technologies for a secure and affordable uniform voting system. The project’s report calls for federal investment in this system and an independent agency to oversee performance and testing.

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The Voting Technology Project was established to prevent a recurrence of the problems that threatened the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election when problems with the voting machines in Florida led to a ballot recount that ultimately led to the election of George W. Bush over Al Gore.
2002

As part of its work on strengthening African universities, the Corporation commits full funding to provide scholarships for three cohorts of young women as part of its International Development program, and its strategy of enhancing women’s educational opportunities at African universities. The scholarship programs serve female undergraduates in South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana, as well as gender equity efforts within select universities. The two-pronged strategy aims to help individual women while making support for women students, professors, administrators, and staff part of the culture of African universities.

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African universities have long struggled with attracting and retaining female students. Through the scholarship program, more than 5,000 women received support over a 10-year period.
2002

Recognizing that underfunding hinders most African libraries’ ability to provide essential services, Carnegie Corporation of New York undertakes the Revitalizing African Libraries program. It revamps public libraries in South Africa and strengthens libraries in selected universities there as well as in Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Nigeria.

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Students use the library at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Per-Anders Pettersson/Corbis via Getty Images)

2002

Carnegie Corporation of New York conceives and develops the Biosecurity Integration Initiative, a cluster of projects facilitating interaction between policymakers and scientists within the U.S., to inform researchers about the potentially dangerous dual-use aspects of their work. Comprising an array of educational programs and forums at five partner universities, this initiative builds on the Corporation’s wide-ranging efforts regarding chemical and biological weapons.

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The initiative produced upwards of 200 scientifically competent experts versed in both policy formation and security concerns, some of whom entered the policy realm.
2003

The Corporation, in partnership with MacArthur Foundation, funds the National Academy of Science’s Jefferson Science Fellows Program. Its mission is to engage American science, technology, and engineering communities in formulating and implementing U.S. foreign policy. Each Jefferson Fellow, a tenured academic scientist or engineer from a U.S. institution of higher learning, spends one year advising the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Agency for International Development on rapidly advancing areas of science and technology. The Department of State later institutionalizes the program.

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2003

The Corporation joins a group of funders to create the pioneering Four Freedoms Fund to grow and strengthen the network of immigrant rights organizations working at state and local levels across the country. The Fund makes it possible for grants totaling tens of millions of dollars to be distributed to advocacy work promoting integration of immigrants into their communities.

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The 2021 report, The Four Freedoms Fund: A Philanthropic Partnership Helps Build a Movement, provides an overview of the fund’s history, mission, and recent achievements.

2003

Vartan Gregorian’s “Report of the President” in Carnegie Corporation of New York’s 2001 Annual Report is published separately by the Brookings Institution as Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith. The book provides direction for the development of a new program area addressing Islam and the Middle East as well as the Carnegie Scholars Program, which funded over 125 books by a new generation of researchers and educators covering the diversity of Muslim societies.

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Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith,which focuses on Muslim diversity and division, begins with an accessible overview of Islam's tenets, institutions, evolution, and historical role. Gregorian pays particular attention to the intense struggle between modernists and traditionalists, interaction between religion and nationalism, and key developments that have caused divisions among Muslim nations and states.

2003

In partnership with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland, Carnegie Corporation of New York publishes The Civic Mission of Schools. The report makes specific recommendations on restoring civics to the K–12 curriculum nationwide.

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The report stated that schools are important venues for civic education noting, “Schools are the only institutions with the capacity and mandate to reach virtually every young person in the country. Of all institutions, schools are the most systematically and directly responsible for imparting citizen norms.”
2004

The Carnegie Advisory Council on Reading to Learn is formed to promote better literacy practices beyond grade three and to help close the performance gaps in intermediate and adolescent literacy. It produces Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy to inform educators, policymakers, and the general public about the country’s literacy crisis and to identify the key elements of effective adolescent literacy programs.

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In Reading Next, the authors outline 15 key elements of an effective literacy intervention and call on public and private stakeholders to invest in the literacy of middle and high school students today, while simultaneously building the knowledge base.

2004

Carnegie Corporation of New York grantee the Bipartisan Policy Center releases The 9/11 Commission Report, the public report of the independent, bipartisan commission chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission, chaired by former Governor Thomas Kean, is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.

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A bookstore display in New York City for The 9/11 Commission Report on July 22, 2004, when it was made available to the public. The 10-member bipartisan panel was established by Congress to investigate the events surrounding the September 11, 2001, attacks. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

2004

The Corporation supports the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, which ensures that the recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) continue to be disseminated, discussed, and debated.

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Members of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project hold an event on June 28, 2005, to discuss homeland security and how far the U.S. has come in improving border security, transportation security, and emergency preparedness since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

2005

The Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education is launched in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Its goal is to revitalize journalism education through curriculum enrichment, news training, experimentation, and other innovations needed to prepare future generations of journalists.

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The Initiative grew to include journalism schools at 12 universities including the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
2006

Building upon its Cold War-era achievement of an informal communications network among Soviet and American leaders, Carnegie Corporation of New York marks the start of a significant role in supporting Track II Diplomacy. The Corporation funds a series of unofficial, diplomatic dialogues with representatives of the United States, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and other regional powers, leading to improved communication and cooperation among nuclear weapons states.

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The Democratic Republic of North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT in 2003 and remains one of the most intractable and potentially dangerous foreign policy challenges on the global security agenda.
2006

On July Fourth, Carnegie Corporation of New York launches its annual Great Immigrants, Great Americans recognition program, a tribute to naturalized citizens like Andrew Carnegie who have made exemplary contributions to American society. Born in Scotland, Carnegie founded more than 20 philanthropic organizations, including the Corporation — a grantmaking foundation established in 1911 to advance the causes of democracy, education, and international peace.

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Dr. Madeleine Albright was among the naturalized U.S. citizens named to the first class of Great Immigrants. The first woman to serve as Secretary of State, she is pictured with Lee Iacocca at the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards in 2006.
2007

The Carnegie China Program is established by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with $3 million in support from Carnegie Corporation New York and others. The mission of the global think tank, based in Beijing and Washington, is to advance research on the impact of globalization on foreign policy and promote scholarly exchange among China, the U.S., and other countries.

2007

The Corporation provides $10 million for the second phase of its New Century High Schools Consortium for New York City initiative. Its goal is to redesign low-performing schools through leadership development and more academically rigorous curriculum, improving outcomes for more than 30,000 New York City students by preparing them for college and meaningful employment.

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Juilia Richman Education Complex in Manhattan — a member of the New Century High Schools Consortium – was considered a successful example of the small-schools movement as urban districts moved away from large, factory-like high schools.
2007

Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Institute for Advanced Study create a Commission on Mathematics and Science Education to assess these fields in the U.S. and develop actionable recommendations that prepare American students for the rapidly changing world. The Commission’s publication, The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy(2009), supports the creation and adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the evolution of Next Generation Science Standards.

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A report from the Corporation's Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and Science Education urges the United States to mobilize for excellence in mathematics and science education so that all students, not just a select few or those fortunate enough to attend certain schools, achieve much higher levels of math and science learning.

2008

Carnegie Corporation of New York supports the establishment of the Africa Regional Initiative in Science and Education to help increase the number of well-trained university faculty prepared to teach the next generation of African scientists and engineers. The initiative underscores the importance of indigenous science, technology, and engineering capacity to the reduction of poverty and to the advancement of economic and social development in Africa. It strives to ensure that more young African scientists will build the research and teaching careers needed in their home countries or regions.

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The RISE networks linked researchers who were isolated professionally and geographically and provided them with a comprehensive graduate education.
2008

With the first in a series of grants, the Corporation funds the National Bureau of Asian Research, aiming to strengthen the field of China studies in the United States. The institution trains the next generation of Asia specialists and brings distinguished scholarship to bear on the evolving strategic environment in Asia through original, policy-relevant research.

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The Corporation’s focuses on US–China relations at a time of growing interdependence between the two countries. In 2009, President Barack Obama traveled to China to meet with President Hu Jintao to discuss trade tensions. (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
2008

The Corporation partners with the American Library Association and the New York Times to create the national I Love My Librarian award. Each year, the award recognizes 10 exceptional librarians, nominated by patrons, for their expertise, dedication, and profound impact on the people in their communities.

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Since the award was established in 2008, library users nationwide have nominated librarians for going above and beyond in their commitment to inclusivity, literacy, and digital access. Illustration depicts Vartan Gregorian (center) with honorees. 

2009

The Corporation provides an initial grant to Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria) to reissue and digitize modernist publications from Muslim societies. This funding represents part of a growing focus on the large-scale digitization of significant materials at libraries in the Middle East as well as in the United States, including at the Library of Congress.

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A general view of the exterior of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina library in Egypt's northern coastal city of Alexandria. Established in 2002, the Bibliotheca serves as a modern-day commemoration of the Library of Alexandria of antiquity and a modern-day public library and educational center. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images) 

2009

President Barack Obama appoints Vartan Gregorian to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships to recommend candidates for firsthand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. With the financial support of the Corporation, the nonpartisan training program was started in 1964 at the suggestion of John Gardner, president of the foundation from 1955 to 1967.

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President Barack Obama meeting with White House Fellows in the Roosevelt Room, Dec. 16, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

2010

As part of its Democracy grant portfolio, Carnegie Corporation of New York helps establish the State Infrastructure Fund, a donor collaborative based at NEO Philanthropy, a longstanding grantee with a social justice mission. NEO works to increase civic participation and advance voting rights among people of color and other historically underrepresented communities.

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The State Infrastructure Fund, housed at NEO Philanthropy, focuses on increasing civic participation and voter engagement among people of color and other historically underrepresented communities. (SDI Productions via Getty Images)

2011

Carnegie Corporation of New York publishes Next Generation Learning: Defining the Opportunity, which lays the groundwork for a significant commitment to the development and scaling of personalized learning models. Designed to improve results with effective teaching and technology, these learning models tailor instruction to students’ needs, skills, and interests.

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Next Generation Learning involves personalized instructional models that are designed to keep track of students' learning progress with frequent diagnoses and periodic assessments; identify and provide individualized, modular content selected from a variety of providers; and employ a number of delivery methods to match the students' learning styles.

2012

The Corporation joins philanthropic peers to launch the nonpartisan New Americans Campaign with a nationwide network of more than 80 organizations. Administered by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the goal of the network is to modernize the naturalization process for legal permanent residents and encourage them to become American citizens.

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Immigrants participate in an official naturalization ceremony at the George W. Bush Institute in March 2019. 

2012

In the wake of the Arab Spring, the Corporation awards the first of many grants to the Beirut-based Arab Council for the Social Sciences. The independent nonprofit institution is designed to inform public debate and public policy through the creation, dissemination, and application of social science research.

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2012

Carnegie Corporation of New York and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace establish the Nunn-Lugar Award for Promoting Nuclear Peace, named for its initial recipients, Senator Sam Nunn and Senator Richard Lugar. The biennial award recognizes individuals or institutions whose work has resulted in clear, discernible progress toward strengthening global security and peaceful coexistence among nations by preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and reducing the risk of their use.

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In 2016, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry (center) and former Russian nuclear weapons commander Colonel General Evgeny Maslin (represented by General Viktor Esin, right of center) were honored with the Nunn-Lugar Award. Joining them (left to right): Thomas Blanton, Vartan Gregorian, Richard Lugar, Sam Nunn, and George Perkovich. (Rinat Bikineyev, National Security Archive)

2012

The Corporation funds the launch of the African Peacebuilding Network, administered by the Social Science Research Council, an international nonprofit organization. Through fellowships and working groups, the program supports independent African research on conflict-affected countries and neighboring regions of the continent, as well as the integration of African knowledge into global policy communities.

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Members of the Women in Peacebuilding Network sit on mattresses under a tent as they fast to call for peaceful elections in Monrovia on October 5, 2017. (Zoom Dosso/AFP via Getty Images)

2013

The Corporation publishes Opportunity by Design: New High School Models for Student Success, a challenge paper providing strong evidence that a new education model is necessary to implement the Common Core State Standards. The report describes successful school design efforts that achieve scale, including the New York City Small Schools of Choice initiative and the expansion of the North Carolina early college high school model.

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The Opportunity by Design report issues a call to realize the full power of the Common Core State Standards by redesigning and reshaping schools to support teachers and maximize key resources.

2013

Making a significant commitment to higher education in Africa, the Corporation creates the Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellowship Program. The program, administered by the Institute of International Education, establishes faculty exchanges between African diaspora academics in Canada and the United States and African institutions of higher education, with the goal of promoting scholarly and curricular collaborations.

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More than 500 African Diaspora Fellowships have been awarded to scholars for travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013. 

2014

The Corporation launches a major initiative aimed at bridging the gap between academic social science and international security policymaking. Senior scholars with high-level policy experience are paired with junior scholars seeking to address real-world problems in order to develop novel and creative solutions to complex global issues.

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In March 2018, scholars gather at the Bridging the Gap New Era Workshop held at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, D.C. From left to right, Brent Durbin, Steve Weber, Naaz Barma, Bruce Jentleson, Jim Goldgeier, and Jordan Tama. (Leila Mahnad Adler. Courtesy Naazneen Barma)

2014

One year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder undercuts the Voting Rights Act, the Corporation funds the Voting Rights Working Group. This coalition of organizations, based at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, assumes a leading role in protecting and defending voting rights.

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Activists attend a Voting Rights Amendment Act rally on June 25, 2014, in Washington, D.C. The rally marked the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder that held a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is unconstitutional. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

2014

A new grantmaking area focuses on disruptive technologies and nuclear risk. The goal is to anticipate potential problems and develop forward-thinking approaches to understanding how breakthrough technologies are increasing nuclear instability worldwide.

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The 2016 Nuclear Security Summit provided a forum for leaders to engage with each other and reinforce a commitment at the highest levels to securing nuclear materials. Attendees included President Barack Obama and Secretary John Kerry.

2014

Carnegie Corporation of New York funds 100Kin10, a nonprofit that began as a program area at the Corporation. 100Kin10 is dedicated to adding 100,000 excellent math and science teachers to America’s classrooms within 10 years. Building on the momentum of The Opportunity Equation (2009), 100Kin10 aspires to solve one of the country's most pressing challenges – giving all students a great STEM education by fostering a pipeline of qualified teachers.

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During a 100Kin10 conference at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry in 2015, STEM teachers discuss challenges such as funding, technical assistance, and the need for collaboration in the field.
2015

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is established in 2015 under the guidance of Vartan Gregorian, twelfth president of the foundation, who often noted that an important fellowship early in his career contributed to his success in higher education and then philanthropy. The program recognizes a select group of extraordinary scholars and writers who receive philanthropic support for scholarship in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society.

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Russian-America journalist, Masha Gessen, was part of the inaugural class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Her research resulted in a book that won the 2017 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

2015

Carnegie Corporation of New York becomes a founding supporter of the College Promise Campaign, a national, nonpartisan initiative to make community college more accessible and affordable. The initiative encourages states and communities to help students achieve an associate degree, an occupational certificate, or credits that transfer to a four-year university.

2015

A series of grants from the Corporation aims to give experts, journalists, and the general public reliable information on underreported foreign policy issues38 North — a website at the Henry L. Stimson Center that provides in-depth analysis on North Korea — is the first recipient. 

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A panorama by 38 North of a control room at the General Satellite Control Building in Pyongyang was based on a compilation of imagery and footage of the facility from 2015–16. Its details were carefully modeled to match those seen in imagery to give the viewer a firsthand look inside the control room.

2015

In preparation for the 2020 Census, the Corporation joins peer funders to establish a collaboration known as the Funders Census Initiative. Its goal is to educate decision makers on census design and implementation and to address challenges that could impede an accurate count, especially among hard-to-count populations that were underrepresented in the 2010 census.

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Demonstrators rally at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2019, to protest a proposal to add a citizenship question in the 2020 Census. (Mandel Ngan/ AFP via Getty Images)

2016

Prompted by challenges to the 2016 federal elections, the Corporation funds the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assess the current state of voting technology and procedural standards. The resulting report, Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy (2018), provides recommendations that federal, state, and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology can follow to improve the security of election infrastructure.

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Prompted by the 2016 presidential election when America's election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government, Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

2016

The education nonprofit Learning Heroes conducts a national survey funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Parents 2016: Hearts & Minds of Parents in an Uncertain World marks the start of an annual opinion poll whose findings contribute to the Corporation’s growing focus on family engagement. These efforts include the 2018 challenge paper Joining Together to Create a Bold Vision for Next Generation Family Engagement: Engaging Families to Transform Education, which aims to build support among policymakers, school leaders, practitioners, and other funders.

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The Next Generation Family Engagement report examines the history, current practice, and future potential of family and community engagement, a key component to ensuring lifelong success for all children.

2018

Carnegie Corporation of New York funds the establishment of OpenSciEd, a collaboration that brings together states, curriculum developers, national science education leaders, and experts to create research-based, openly licensed K–12 science instructional materials — available  to any science teacher anywhere at no cost. This nonprofit collaboration builds on the vision for science literacy described in the 2012 study, A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, and the Next Generation Science Standards, two initiatives funded by the Corporation.

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2018

The Corporation publishes the report From Fragmentation to Coherence: How More Integrative Ways of Working Could Accelerate Improvement and Progress Toward Equity in Education. Its findings provide a new framework for the Education program’s grantmaking, reflecting the work of the Integration Design Consortium, a collaborative learning network created in 2017 to produce significantly better outcomes for students and families.

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Members of the Teachers Guild, a partner in Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Integration Design Consortium, include educators and students from District 11 in New York City, in the Vista Unified School District in California, and in the Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia.

2019

With support from the Corporation and other funding partners, the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development releases its final report, From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope, which seeks to accelerate and strengthen efforts to support the whole learner in local communities through recommendations for researchers, educators, and policymakers, and to redefine what constitutes success in U.S. schools.

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The Nation of Hope report promotes social, emotional, and academic skills as essential to success in school, careers, and in life.