Foundations, U.S.: International Activities

Images of Bill and Melinda Gates, standing alongside U2′s Bono, Nelson Mandela, and others, have drawn attention to important global development issues and made the international work of U.S. [Page 597]foundations more visible to the public eye. Indeed, since the 1990s, the number and dollar amount of international grants made by U.S. foundations has increased dramatically, in part because of technological changes, globalization, and geopolitical shifts but also because of new mega foundations with significant interests in international issues, like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Open Society Network of Foundations (founded by George Soros), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But U.S. foundations have a long history of international activity, dating back to the Rockefeller Foundation's establishment of the International Health Commission in 1913 and Carnegie's establishment of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1910.

This entry provides an overview of U.S. foundations' international grantmaking activities. International grantmaking includes grants that support international activities (e.g., international cooperation) and grants given to support work overseas regardless of purpose. This entry focuses primarily on the activity of large private foundations with professional staffs and multipurpose grantmaking. The first part of the entry briefly reviews foundations' work in this area prior to 1990 and then focuses more specifically on trends in international giving among U.S. foundations since that time. Two observations are worth noting at the outset. First, the international activity of U.S. foundations reflects the evolution of the place of the United States on the global stage and its shifting geopolitical concerns. Second, the international activity of U.S. foundations also reflects the evolving relationship to the state and foundations' efforts to craft an autonomous role despite their dependence on state authority for their legitimacy. The final part of the entry briefly examines the impact of this work, summarizing some of the issues and debates on the role of U.S. foundations abroad.