Rockefeller Foundation: University funding informed by its heritage
The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, the Rockefeller Foundation has made a very significant impact on philanthropy through its history, including to higher education.
Today, its work focuses around five core areas which can be broadly defined as community health; economic empowerment; energy security; food security and innovation.
Like many of the best known US foundations, Rockefeller forged a reputation for its international work. As it has been eclipsed by larger foundations in recent decades, it has continued to make a contribution to higher education throughout the world – but the numbers suggest that support may be in decline.
According to our study of giving over the past five years awards to universities internationally appears to be falling back, especially to those in Africa and Asia, while funding to US institutions is on the rise. In 2018, 46 universities received nearly $18m in funding, only 9 were outside the US receiving just 8% of all university giving.
As is also common with a good number of long established, East coast foundations philanthropic funding is skewed to a number of favoured institutions. Harvard University is the biggest recipient of higher education funding between 2014-18 ($9.7m). The University of Oxford received 48% ($2.5m) of all giving to European universities (the second largest regional beneficiary after North America) while 65% of giving to African universities goes to the University of Cape Town. It is surely a pattern of university funding that could be characterised as both conservative and risk averse.
That said, the Rockefeller Foundation continues to make a meaningful impact in lesser known educational communities, notably in Thailand. Thailand is the fourth biggest country beneficiary of its university funding after the US, UK and South Africa. In the five years of our study, it disbursed nearly $2.3m in funding to five Thai universities, and Rockefeller continues to maintain a field office in Thailand, along with one in Kenya.
The Foundation has a long association with Thailand, dating back to the 1920s when, so it is reported, Rockefeller helped establish the country’s first ministry of health.
It has funded Thai universities as far back as 1923, when Rockefeller funded medical students at Chulalongkorn University. Chulalongkorn continues to enjoy a relationship with Rockefeller today, receiving around $250k in funding in the five years from 2014-18. Mahidol University, however, received the largest disbursement to a Thai university in the past 5 recorded years - $1.3m.
Adapting to changes in both circumstances and today’s philanthropic landscape is surely a test for the biggest and most reputable foundations. In that endeavour, the Rockefeller Foundation continues to look to its heritage to chart a distinctive course for its future.