The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) houses the archives of the Rockefeller Foundation and other foundations and nonprofit organizations. It has several full-time staff engaged in scholarship on philanthropy and regularly hosts visiting scholars working on projects related to the history of philanthropy.
This grant will allow the RAC to host a workshop in October 2014 for promising scholars interested in the history of philanthropy. According to the RAC, the conference will draw the "the next generation of philanthropic researchers," and it aims "to explore ways to create more substantial bridges between contemporary practitioners and historical researchers, to put philanthropic contributions and ideas about philanthropy to a historical test, and to develop the history of philanthropy as a valuable field for studying social change and the public good."
This grant is part of the Open Philanthropy Project's History of Philanthropy Initiative, which aims to better understand philanthropy's track record.