The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies . It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. , but also has campuses in Aspen, Colorado , its original home.
85-858: The Institute is largely funded by foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation , the Rockefeller Brothers Fund , the Gates Foundation , the Lumina Foundation , and the Ford Foundation , by seminar fees, and by individual donations. Its board of trustees includes leaders from politics, government, business and academia who also contribute to its support. A report by the Center for International Policy 's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative of
170-685: A Chicago businessman who had become inspired by the Great Books program of Mortimer Adler at the University of Chicago . In 1945, Paepcke visited Bauhaus artist and architect Herbert Bayer , AIA, who had designed and built a Bauhaus-inspired minimalist home outside the decaying former mining town of Aspen, in the Roaring Fork Valley . Paepcke and Bayer envisioned a place where artists, leaders, thinkers, and musicians could gather. Shortly thereafter, while passing through Aspen on
255-400: A market value of $ 1.55 billion on March 31, 1999. In 1911–1912, Carnegie gave the corporation $ 125 million. At that time the corporation was the largest single philanthropic charitable trust ever established. He also made it a residual legatee under his will so it therefore received an additional $ 10 million, the remainder of his estate after had paid his other bequests. Carnegie reserved
340-573: A certain eclectic quality and remarkable perseverance in its chosen causes. His vision for adult education drew from both Victorian values of character as well as democratic ideals of freedom of thought and reasoning. Through the Carnegie Corporation, he established the American Association of Adult Education, which focused on grant funding for adult education programs. The creation of an outside organization helped shield
425-493: A framework and agenda for U.S. teacher education reform. These study groups drew on knowledge generated by grant programs and inspired follow-up grantmaking to implement their recommendations. During the presidency of Vartan Gregorian the corporation reviewed its management structure and grants programs. In 1998 the corporation established four primary program headings: education, international peace and security, international development, and democracy. In these four main areas,
510-557: A hunting expedition, oil industry maverick Robert O. Anderson (soon to be founder and CEO of Atlantic Richfield ) met with Bayer and shared in Paepcke's and Bayer's vision. In 1949, Paepcke organized a 20-day international celebration for the 200th birthday of German poet and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . The celebration attracted over 2,000 attendees, including Albert Schweitzer , José Ortega y Gasset , Thornton Wilder , and Arthur Rubinstein . In 1949, Paepcke founded
595-991: A portion of the corporation's assets for philanthropy in Canada and the then- British Colonies , an allocation first referred to as the Special Fund, then the British Dominions and Colonies Fund, and later the Commonwealth Program. Charter amendments have allowed the corporation to use 7.4 percent of its income in countries that are or once were members of the British Commonwealth . In its early years, Carnegie served as both president and trustee . His private secretary James Bertram and his financial agent, Robert A. Franks, acted as trustees as well and, respectively, corporation secretary and treasurer. This first executive committee made most of
680-432: A relatively inactive period for the Carnegie Corporation. Dollard joined the staff in 1939 as Keppel's assistant and became president in 1948. The foundation took greater interest in the social sciences, and particularly the study of human behavior. The trust also entered into international affairs. Dollard urged it to fund quantitative, "objective" social science research like research in physical sciences, and help to diffuse
765-675: A resource as important to the corporation as its endowment. While Gardner's opinion of educational equality was to multiply the channels through which an individual could pursue opportunity, it was during the term of long-time staff member Alan Pifer , who became acting president during 1965 and president during 1967 (again of both Carnegie Corporation and the CFAT), that the foundation began to respond to claims by various groups, including women, for increased power and wealth. The corporation developed three interlocking objectives: prevention of educational disadvantage; equality of educational opportunity in
850-708: A series of grants for the advancement of women in academic life. Two other study groups formed to examine critical problems in American life were the Carnegie Council on Children (1972) and the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting (1977), the latter formed almost ten years after the first commission. David A. Hamburg , a physician, educator, and scientist with a public health background, became president in 1982 intending to mobilize
935-532: A trendsetter in philanthropy, often funding research or providing seed money for ideas while others financed more costly operations. For example, ideas it advanced resulted in the National Assessment of Educational Progress , later adopted by the federal government. A foundation's most precious asset was its sense of direction, Gardner said, gathering a competent professional staff of generalists that he called his "cabinet of strategy," and regarded as
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#17327717939711020-512: A trust. Carnegie transferred most of his remaining fortune into it, and made the trust responsible for distributing his wealth after he died. Carnegie's previous charitable giving had used conventional organizational structures , but he chose a corporation as the structure for his last and largest trust. Chartered by the State of New York as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the corporation's capital fund, originally worth about $ 135 million, had
1105-656: Is Janet L. Robinson . By 1911, Andrew Carnegie had endowed five organizations in the United States and three in the United Kingdom, and given more than $ 43 million to build public libraries and given another almost $ 110 million elsewhere. But ten years after he sold the Carnegie Steel Company , more than $ 150 million remained in his accounts and at 76, he wearied of philanthropic choices. Long-time friend Elihu Root suggested he establish
1190-465: Is a non-residential program. During the fellowship year, fellows meet three times for one week sessions. There are no age limitations for fellows. All expenses for participation in the fellowship are covered by the program. At times the program will also cover the cost of "media-related activities and conferences." Community Colleges which succeed in attaining exceptional results for all students during their time in college and as post-graduates are awarded
1275-593: Is a program of the Aspen Institute . The AIF format is modeled after educational seminars. Topics covered during the festival include global politics and economics, U.S. Policy, the environment , technology , science , health , education , the arts , and economic issues. During the festival, live streaming of AIF events is available through the AIF website, The Atlantic , and National Public Radio . Videos and sound clips from past AIF events are archived on
1360-478: The Aspen Strategy Group , Communications and Society Program and other programs that concentrated on education, communications, justice, Asian thought, science, technology, the environment, and international affairs . In 1979, through a donation by Corning Glass industrialist and philanthropist Arthur A. Houghton Jr ., the institute acquired a 1,000-acre (4 km) campus on the eastern shore of
1445-676: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT), and the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS). According to OECD , Carnegie Corporation of New York's financing for 2019 development increased by 27% to US$ 24 million. Carnegie Corporation of New York's president is Louise Richardson and the chairman of its board of trustees
1530-718: The Chesapeake Bay in Maryland , known today as the Wye River Conference Centers . In 1983, former United States Senator Dick Clark founded the Aspen Institute's Congressional program, which sought to educate members of Congress on foreign affairs issues. In 2005, it held the first Aspen Ideas Festival , featuring leading minds from around the world sharing and speaking on global issues . The institute, along with The Atlantic , hosts
1615-838: The Ford Foundation . In 1948 the trust also provided the seed money to establish the Russian Research Center at Harvard University, today known as the Davis Center for Russia and Eurasian Studies, as an organization that could address large-scale research from both a policy and educational points of view. In 1951, the Group Areas Act took effect in South Africa and effectively put the apartheid system into place, leading to political ascendancy for Afrikaners and dispossession for many Africans and colored people suddenly required to live in certain areas of
1700-611: The University of Chicago , which was later adopted by Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World , Paepcke worked with Anderson to create the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar. In 1951, the institute sponsored a national photography conference. During the 1960s and 1970s, the institute added organizations, programs, and conferences, including the Aspen Center for Physics ,
1785-706: The University of Oxford . 40°46′N 73°59′W / 40.76°N 73.98°W / 40.76; -73.98 Aspen Ideas Festival Founded in 2005, the Aspen Ideas Festival (AIF) is a week-long event held in Aspen, Colorado in the United States . The Aspen Ideas Festival program of events includes discussions, seminars , panels, and tutorials from journalists, designers, innovators, politicians, diplomats, presidents, judges, musicians, artists, and writers. The Aspen Ideas Festival
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#17327717939711870-491: The 1959-60 Ashby Commission study of Nigerian needs in postsecondary education . This study stimulated aid increases from the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States to African nations' systems of higher and professional education. Gardner had a strong interest in education, but as a psychologist he believed in the behavioral sciences and urged the corporation to funded much of the US' basic research on cognition, creativity, and
1955-623: The 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival, telling the audience about the urgency of accepting globalization and the global world by working interdependently with other cultures and countries for the purpose of achieving cultural understanding and harmonious cross-cultural relationships. The Aspen Ideas Festival Scholars program nominates individuals from all over the world for their unique accomplishments and dedication to improving their communities and making advances in their field of work. Aspen Institute trustees, Aspen Institute senior staff, Aspen Ideas Festival advisors, and past Aspen Ideas Festival scholars select
2040-556: The AIF website. Presentations and lectures from past Aspen Ideas Festival speakers can also be heard on iTunes U. Past AIF speakers include President Bill Clinton , Bill Gates , Ehud Barak , Madeleine Albright , Murray Gell-Mann , Sylvia Earle , Stephen Breyer , Sandra Day O'Connor , Eric Holder , Hillary Clinton , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , David Frum , Salam Fayyad , and Paul Ryan . The first Aspen Ideas Festival took place in Aspen, Colorado in 2005. The Aspen Institute , under
2125-472: The Advancement of Science issued two reports, Science for All Americans (1989) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), which recommended a common core of learning in science, mathematics, and technology for all citizens and helped set national standards of achievement. A new emphasis for the corporation was the danger to world peace posed by the superpower confrontation and weapons of mass destruction . The foundation underwrote scientific study of
2210-567: The Aspen Ideas Festival, the Scholars return to their hometowns in order to produce a localized version of the Aspen Ideas Festival, a Local Ideas Festivals, inspired by their experiences in Aspen. In 2012, Stanley McChrystal was interviewed by Bob Schieffer at the festival. As part of that interview, McChrystal was asked whether or not he believed in the draft. He responded that he thought every young person should serve, but
2295-438: The Aspen Institute and Siemens Foundation , provides leading college staff with a benchmark standard of development and technical programs which foster equitable student success by highlighting exemplary practices of the winning programs. Recipients include: This annual award was created to honor an outstanding leader whose achievements reflect the high standards of honor, integrity, industry, and philanthropy that characterized
2380-515: The Aspen Institute hosts programs focused on discussion of education and policy issues where presidents, scientists, artists, ambassadors, Nobel laureates , and many others have been in attendance. Since its inception in 2005, Aspen Ideas Festival speakers have included individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, including politicians, diplomats, presidents, judges, scientists, musicians, entrepreneurs, artists, designers and innovators. AIF speakers have participated in discussions and AIF programs for
2465-698: The Aspen Institute; and later the Aspen Music Festival and eventually (with Bayer and Anderson) the International Design Conference at Aspen (IDCA). Paepcke sought a forum "where the human spirit can flourish", especially amid the whirlwind and chaos of modernization . He hoped that the institute could help business leaders recapture what he called "eternal verities": the values that guided them intellectually, ethically, and spiritually as they led their companies. Inspired by philosopher Mortimer Adler 's Great Books seminar at
2550-598: The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Recipients to date include: The Financial Times called the Faculty Pioneers and Dissertation Proposal Awards the " Oscars of the business school world". These honor business school instructors with an outstanding track record of leadership and risk-taking in ensuring that the MBA curriculum incorporates social, environmental and ethical issues. Recipients in
2635-416: The Carnegie Corporation from accusations of political involvement in education, which would be viewed as private influence over public education. The corporation was aiming to prevent accusations of social-engineering of citizens by creating a separate organization. The AAAE's primary focus in the 1930s was promoting a more democratic society through the education of adults. The AAAE's most notable contribution
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2720-699: The Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped establish institutions including the United States National Research Council, Harvard University 's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (formerly known as the Russian Research Center), the Carnegie libraries , the University of Chicago Graduate Library School , and the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop ). It also has funded
2805-600: The Category "Lifetime Achievement" include: Community Colleges which demonstrate the provision of outstanding technical education and successfully link students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, family income or gender, with STEM careers as a gateway to economic mobility, are eligible to receive the Excellence and Equity in Community College STEM Award. The prize, awarded in co-operation of
2890-557: The Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop ), producer of Sesame Street and other noted children's programs. Growing belief in the power of educational television prompted creation of the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television , whose recommendations were adopted into the Public Broadcasting Act of 1968 that established a public broadcasting system. Many other reports on US education
2975-570: The Defense of Marriage Act and the Voting Rights Act, as well as public response following court decisions in the United States and around the world. Renowned Oceanographer, Sylvia Earle, spoke during the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival about women's issues and education. Earle touched upon the impact of societal pressures on the interest girls and young women take in science and becoming high achievers. Former President Bill Clinton spoke during
3060-618: The Economy. Its major publication, A Nation Prepared (1986), reaffirmed the role of the teacher as the "best hope" for quality in elementary and secondary education. That report led to the establishment a year later of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, to consider ways to attract able candidates to teaching and recognize and retain them. At the corporation's initiative, the American Association for
3145-733: The Hurst Lecture Series, the McCloskey Speaker Series, and the Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit series. As of 2019 the Aspen Institute had net assets of $ 310,055,857. Revenue and support as of 2016: $ 160,402,073 Expenses as of 2019: $ 147,137,098 The Henry Crown Fellowship, established in 1997, educates accomplished entrepreneurs from the private sector to become leaders in community and global development projects. The Aspen Global Leadership Network inducts an annual class of 20-22 candidates between
3230-631: The Primary Grades (1994). Another, the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government (1988), recommended ways that government at all levels could make more effective use of science and technology in their operations and policies. Jointly with the Rockefeller Foundation , the corporation financed the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, whose report, What Matters Most (1996), provided
3315-558: The Regents Degree of the State of New York and Empire State College . The foundation's combined interest in testing and higher education resulted in establishment of a national system of college credit by examination (College-Level Entrance Examination Program of the College Entrance Examination Board ). Building on its past programs to promote the continuing education of women, the foundation made
3400-537: The ages of 30-46 for a two-year training program. Instruction takes place at the Aspen Institute's campus in Aspen , Colorado, and various sites abroad. The New Voices Fellowship is a year long program for applicants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Every year, nominations are accepted from August through October. Fellows are selected in December and announced publicly in early January. The New Voices Fellowship
3485-505: The annual CityLab event, a summit dedicated to develop strategies for the challenges of urbanization in today's cities. Walter Isaacson was the president and CEO of Aspen Institute from 2003 to June 2018. Isaacson announced in March 2017 that he would step down as president and CEO at the end of the year. On November 30, 2017, Daniel Porterfield was announced as his successor. Porterfield succeeded Isaacson on June 1, 2018. In April 2020,
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3570-568: The best available knowledge from social science and education research was used to improve social policy and practice, as partner with major institutions with the capability to influence public thought and action. If "change agent" was a major term during Pifer's time, "linkage" became a byword in Hamburg's. The corporation increasingly used its convening powers to bring together experts across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries to create policy consensus and promote collaboration. Continuing tradition,
3655-421: The best scientific and scholarly talent and thinking on "prevention of rotten outcomes" - from early childhood to international relations. The corporation pivoted from higher education to the education and healthy development of children and adolescents, and the preparation of youth for a scientific and technological, knowledge-driven world. In 1984 the corporation established the Carnegie Commission on Education and
3740-456: The commission made detailed suggestions for introducing more flexibility into the structure and financing of higher education. One outgrowth of the commission's work was creation of the federal Pell grants program offering tuition assistance for needy college students. The corporation promoted the Doctor of Arts "teaching" degree as well as various off-campus undergraduate degree programs, including
3825-483: The company received approximately $ 8 million in federally backed small business loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program . The company received scrutiny over this loan, which meant to protect small and private businesses. The Washington Post noted their large endowment and membership of billionaires made this problematic. Dele Olojede , a fellow at the institute, called it "contrary to
3910-518: The corporation continued to engage with major issues confronting higher education. Domestically, it emphasized reform of teacher education and examined the current status and future of liberal arts education in the United States. Abroad, the corporation sought to devise methods to strengthen higher education and public libraries in Sub Saharan Africa . As a cross-program initiative, and in cooperation with other foundations and organizations,
3995-603: The corporation financed at this time, included Charles E. Silberman 's acclaimed Crisis in the Classroom (1971), and the controversial Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America by Christopher Jencks (1973). This report confirmed quantitative research, e.g. the Coleman Report , showed that in public schools resources only weakly correlated with educational outcomes, which coincided with
4080-542: The corporation initiated the Carnegie Commission on the Poor White Problem in South Africa. Better known as the "Carnegie Poor White Study" , it promoted strategies to improve the lives of rural Afrikaner whites and other poor whites in general. A memorandum sent to Keppel said there was "little doubt that if the natives were given full economic opportunity, the more competent among them would soon outstrip
4165-458: The corporation instituted a scholars program, offering funding to individual scholars, particularly in the social sciences and humanities , in the independent states of the former Soviet Union . On November 18, 2021, the corporation announced that Louise Richardson will become its next and 13th president. She joined the foundation in January 2023 at the end of her seven-year term as head of
4250-617: The corporation joined the Ford and Rockefeller foundations and others in funding educational litigation by civil rights organizations. It also initiated a program to train black lawyers in the South for the practice of public interest law and to increase the legal representation of black people. Maintaining its commitment to early childhood education, the corporation endorsed the application of research knowledge in experimental and demonstration programs, which subsequently provided strong evidence of
4335-411: The country only, on pain of imprisonment for remaining in possession of homes in areas designated for whites. The Carnegie corporation pulled its philanthropic endeavors from South Africa for more than two decades after this political change, turning its attention from South Africa to developing East African and West African universities instead. John W. Gardner was promoted from a staff position to
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#17327717939714420-571: The decision to return the loan". In 2023, Simon Godwin was named Aspen Institute's Harman/Eisner artist in residence. Godwin is the artistic director for the Shakespeare Theatre Company and will serve in a one-year residency at the institute. In June 2023, CAA's Bruno del Granado was named to be head of the Board of the Aspen Institute's Latinos Society Program. The Aspen Institute's community program includes lecturers from
4505-515: The feasibility of the proposed federal Strategic Defense Initiative and joined the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support the analytic work of a new generation of arms control and nuclear nonproliferation experts. After the end of the USSR , corporation grants helped promote the concept of cooperative security among erstwhile adversaries and projects to build democratic institutions in
4590-567: The festival annually. It has trained philanthropists such as Carrie Morgridge . It has since added additional events such as the Aspen Ideas Health and Aspen Ideas Climate. In 2023, the Aspen Ideas Climate event included Vice President Kamala Harris and famed singer Gloria Estefan . Since 2013, the Aspen Institute together with U.S. magazine The Atlantic and Bloomberg Philanthropies has participated in organizing
4675-417: The first festival from some of the Aspen Institute's earliest events, such as the Goethe Bicentennial in 1949. The Aspen Institute was founded by Walter Paepcke in 1950 in Aspen, Colorado. Paepcke was a Chicago businessman and the founder of the Container Corporation of American (CCA). As a Germanophile, he and his wife, Elizabeth Paepcke, actualized a celebration and gathering in Aspen in June 1949 to mark
4760-420: The former Soviet Union and Central Europe . The Prevention of Proliferation Task Force, coordinated by a grant to the Brookings Institution , inspired the Nunn-Lugar Amendment to the Soviet Threat Reduction Act of 1991, intended to help dismantle Soviet nuclear weapons and reduce proliferation risks. More recently, the corporation addressed interethnic and regional conflict and funded projects seeking to diminish
4845-403: The foundation established several other major study groups, often directed by the president and managed by a special staff. Three groups covered the educational and developmental needs of children and youth from birth to age fifteen: the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1986), the Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children (1991), and the Carnegie Task Force on Learning in
4930-431: The foundation's burgeoning interest in improved school effectiveness. Becoming involved with South Africa again during the mid-1970s, the corporation worked through universities to increase the legal representation of black people and increase the practice of public interest law. At the University of Cape Town , it established the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa, this time to examine
5015-592: The funding decisions. Other seats on the board were held ex officio by presidents of five previously established US Carnegie organizations: After Carnegie died in 1919, the trustees elected a full-time salaried president as the trust's chief executive officer and ex officio trustee. For a time the corporation's gifts followed the patterns Carnegie had already established. Grants for public libraries and church organs continued until 1917, and also went to other Carnegie organizations, and universities, colleges, schools, and educational agencies. Carnegie's letter of gift to
5100-511: The incoming group of scholars each year. Past Aspen Ideas Festival Scholars include educators, journalists, politicians, writers, and community organizers. Part of the Aspen Ideas Festival since 2005, the Bezos Scholars program invites twelve public high school students in the eleventh grade and twelve educators to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival. The Bezos Scholars attend Aspen Ideas Festival programs and events, as well as discussions and engagements designed only for Bezos Scholars. After attending
5185-486: The key early experiments in continuing education for women, with major grants to the University of Minnesota (1960, co-directors Elizabeth L. Cless and Virginia L. Senders), Radcliffe College (1961, under President Mary Bunting ), and Sarah Lawrence College (1962, under Professor Esther Raushenbush). Gardner's interest in leadership development led to the White House Fellows program in 1964. Notable grant projects in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa include
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#17327717939715270-460: The leadership of Walter Isaacson and Elliot Gerson , developed the Aspen Ideas Festival to gather individuals from various backgrounds and fields of expertise for discussions about global and social issues and innovative ideas. At the first Aspen Ideas Festival in 2005, around 100 speakers attended the festival, among them Jane Goodall, Toni Morrison, Jim Lehrer, Arthur Schlesinger, and many others. The Aspen Ideas Festival modeled its programming for
5355-402: The learning process, particularly among young children, associating psychology and education. Perhaps its most important contribution to reform of pre-college education at this time was the series of education studies done by James B. Conant , former president of Harvard University ; in particular, Conant's study of comprehensive American high schools (1959) resolved public controversy concerning
5440-526: The legacies of apartheid and make recommendations to nongovernmental organizations for actions commensurate with the long-run goal of achieving a democratic, interracial society. The influx of nontraditional students and " baby boomers " into higher education prompted formation of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (1967), funded by the CFAT. (During 1972, the CFAT became an independent institution after experiencing three decades of restricted control over its own affairs.) In its more than ninety reports,
5525-421: The less competent whites" Keppel endorsed the project that produced the report, motivated by his concern with maintaining existing racial boundaries. The corporation's concern for the so-called "poor white problem" in South Africa stemmed at least in part from similar misgivings about poor whites in the American South . White poverty defied traditional understandings of white racial superiority and thus became
5610-399: The life and career of industrialist and philanthropist Henry Crown . Notable recipients include: The full list of laureates appears on the Award's web page. Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding,
5695-443: The long-term positive effects of high-quality early education, particularly for the disadvantaged. A 1980 report on Highscope 's Perry Preschool Project—which focused on the outcomes for sixteen-year-olds enrolled in experimental preschool programs—provided crucial evidence that safeguarded Project Head Start in a time of deep cuts to federal social programs. The foundation also promoted educational children's television and initiated
5780-425: The military doesn’t need every young person, so we need to create more opportunities for all young Americans to serve. The Franklin Project —an initiative to make a year of national service a common opportunity and expectation for young Americans—was created as a result of this festival conversation. Walter Isaacson called the Franklin Project the “biggest idea” to come out of the festival during his tenure as CEO of
5865-460: The natural and social sciences. The corporation made large grants to the National Academy of Sciences / National Research Council , the Carnegie Institution of Washington , the National Bureau of Economic Research , Stanford University 's now-defunct Food Research Institute and the Brookings Institution , then became interested in adult education and lifelong learning , an obvious follow-on to Carnegie's vision for libraries as "the university of
5950-414: The original trustees making the endowment said that the trustees would "best conform to my wishes by using their own judgement." Corporation strategies changed over the years but remained focused on education, although the trust did also increasingly fund scientific research, convinced that the nation needed more scientific expertise and "scientific management". It also worked to build research facilities for
6035-455: The people". In 1919 it initiated the Americanization Study to explore educational opportunities for adults, primarily for new immigrants. With Frederick P. Keppel as president (1923–1941), the Carnegie Corporation shifted from creating public libraries to strengthening library infrastructure and services, developing adult education, and adding arts education to the programs of colleges and universities. The foundation's grants in this period have
6120-521: The presidency in 1955. Gardner simultaneously became president of the CFAT, which was housed at the corporation. During Gardner's time in office the Carnegie Corporation worked to upgrade academic competence in foreign area studies and strengthened its liberal arts education program. In the early 1960s it inaugurated a continuing education program and funded development of new models for advanced and professional study by mature women. Important funding went to
6205-435: The public, and the media, in order to foster policy debate. Developing programs that larger organizations, especially governments, could implement and scale in size became a major objective. The policy shift to institutional knowledge transfer came in part as a response to relatively diminished resources that made it necessary to leverage assets and "multiplier effects" to have any effect at all. The corporation considered itself
6290-482: The purpose of public secondary education, and made the case that schools could adequately educate both average students and the academically gifted. Under Gardner, the corporation embraced strategic philanthropy—planned, organized, and deliberately constructed to attain stated ends. Funding criteria no longer required just a socially desirable project. The corporation sought out projects that would produce knowledge leading to useful results, communicated to decision-makers,
6375-475: The purpose of sharing their knowledge on subjects related to their expertise, interests, and field of work. These discussions have ranged from the global economy to the environment to theatrical performances and beyond. Past speakers include Hillary Clinton , Mitt Romney , Sandra Day O'Connor , Barbra Streisand , and Joe Biden . During the 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer discussed recent Supreme Court rulings, including those on
6460-579: The results through major universities. The corporation advocated for standardized testing in schools to determine academic merit regardless of the student's socio-economic background. Its initiatives have also included helping to broker the creation of the Educational Testing Service in 1947. The corporation determined that the U.S. increasingly needed policy and scholarly expertise in international affairs, and so tied into area studies programs at colleges and universities as well as
6545-807: The risks of a wider war resulting from civil strife. Two Carnegie commissions, Reducing the Nuclear Danger (1990), the other Preventing Deadly Conflict (1994), addressed the dangers of human conflict and the use of weapons of mass destruction. The corporation's emphasis in Commonwealth Africa, meanwhile, shifted to women's health and political development and the application of science and technology, including new information systems, to foster research and expertise in indigenous scientific institutions and universities. During Hamburg's tenure, dissemination achieved even greater primacy with respect to strategic philanthropy. Consolidation and diffusion of
6630-456: The schools; and broadened opportunities in higher education. A fourth objective cutting across these programs was to improve the democratic performance of government. Grants were made to reform state government as the laboratories of democracy , underwrite voter education drives, and mobilize youth to vote, among other measures. Use of the legal system became a method for achieving equal opportunity in education, as well as redress of grievance, and
6715-569: The stated purpose of this institute", that "one of America’s most elite institutions thinks it is okay to take the money", going on to say "Those who purport to be values-based and public-spirited leaders cannot at the same time put self interest first, when there is so much human suffering and death". The day after Olojede and the Washington Post highlighted the funding, Aspen Institute announced they would return it, stating "Upon listening to our communities and further reflection, we have made
6800-434: The subject of study. The report recommended that "employment sanctuaries" be established for poor white workers and that poor white workers replace "native" workers in most skilled aspects of the economy. The authors of the report suggested that white racial deterioration and miscegenation would be the outcome unless something was done to help poor whites, endorsing the necessity of the role of social institutions to play in
6885-489: The successful maintenance of white racial superiority. The report expressed trepidation concerning the loss of white racial pride, with the implicit consequence that poor whites would not successfully resist "Africanisation." The report sought, in part, to forestall the historically inevitable accession of a communal, class based, democratic socialist movement aimed at uniting the poor of each race in common cause and brotherhood. World War II and its immediate aftermath were
6970-607: The top 50 think tanks found that from 2014 to 2018 the Aspen Institute received more than US$ 8 million in funding from outside the United States, the fifth-highest amount the think tanks. This funding originated primarily in Western democracies but also included "sizeable donations from undemocratic regimes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates." The institute was largely the creation of Walter Paepcke ,
7055-548: The two-hundredth birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . From the success of the Goethe Bicentennial Festival came the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. Under Paepcke, the Aspen Institute's programs explored a range of topics through lectures and discussions with top thinkers in a variety of fields from science to the arts. Now based in Washington, D.C., with campuses in Aspen and Maryland,
7140-525: Was later much cited in legal challenges to segregation. Keppel believed foundations should make facts available and let them facts speak for themselves. His cogent writings on philanthropy made a lasting impression on field and influenced the organization and leadership of many new foundations. In 1927, Keppel toured sub-Saharan Africa and recommended a first set of grants to establish public schools in eastern and southern Africa. Other grants went to for municipal library development in South Africa. During 1928
7225-818: Was the Harlem Experiment, an initiative to provide adult education to African Americans in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance that began in 1926. Keppel initiated a famous 1944 study of race relations in the United States by the Swedish social economist Gunnar Myrdal in 1937 by naming a non-American outsider as manager of the study. His theory that this task should be done by someone unencumbered by traditional attitudes or earlier conclusions led to Myrdal's widely heralded book American Dilemma (1944). The book had no immediate effect on public policy, but
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