Editing Rockefeller Foundation (section)

== History ==
[[File:John D. Rockefeller, full-length portrait, walking on street with John D. Rockefeller, Jr. LCCN2005685460.tif|thumb|left|upright|John D. Rockefeller Sr. and Jr. in 1915]]
John D. Rockefeller Sr. first conceived the idea of the foundation in 1901. In 1906, Rockefeller's business and philanthropic advisor, [[Frederick Taylor Gates]], encouraged him toward "permanent corporate philanthropies for the good of Mankind" so that his heirs should not "dissipate their inheritances or become intoxicated with power."<ref name="Titan">{{cite book| quote=''As early as 1901, Rockefeller had realized he needed to create a foundation on a scale that dwarfed anything he had done so far...''| first=Ron| last=Chernow| title=Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.| location=New York| publisher=Random House| date=1998| pages=563–566| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mleb5acWQF4C&q=foundation| isbn=978-0679438083| access-date=October 14, 2020| archive-date=January 15, 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115060341/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mleb5acWQF4C&q=foundation| url-status=live}}</ref> In 1909 Rockefeller signed over 73,000 [[Standard Oil]] shares worth $50 million, to his son, Gates and [[Harold Fowler McCormick]] as the third inaugural trustee, in the first installment of a projected $100 million endowment.<ref name=Titan/>

The nascent foundation applied for a federal [[charter]] in the [[United States Senate|US Senate]] in 1910, with at one stage Junior even secretly meeting with President [[William Howard Taft]], through the aegis of Senator [[Nelson Aldrich]], to hammer out concessions.{{citation needed|date=September 2009}} However, because of the ongoing (1911) antitrust suit against Standard Oil at the time, along with deep suspicion in some quarters of undue Rockefeller influence on the spending of the endowment, the result was that Senior and Gates withdrew the bill from Congress in order to seek a state charter from New York.<ref name="Titan" />

[[File:John D. Rockefeller in old age.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|John D. Rockefeller Sr. in 1919]]

On May 14, 1913, New York Governor [[William Sulzer]] approved a charter for the foundation with Junior becoming the first president. With its large-scale endowment, a large part of Senior's fortune was insulated from inheritance taxes.<ref name=Titan/> The first secretary of the foundation was [[Jerome Davis Greene]], the former secretary of [[Harvard University]], who wrote a "memorandum on principles and policies" for an early meeting of the trustees that established a rough framework for the foundation's work.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} It was initially located within the [[family office]] at [[Standard Oil]]'s headquarters at [[26 Broadway]], later (in 1933) shifting to the [[GE Building]] (then [[RCA]]), along with the newly named family office, ''Room 5600'', at [[Rockefeller Center]]; later it moved to the [[Time-Life Building]] in the center, before shifting to its current [[Fifth Avenue]] address.

In 1914, the trustees set up a new Department of Industrial Relations, inviting [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] to head it. He became a close and key advisor to Junior through the [[Ludlow Massacre]], turning around his attitude to [[Labor unions in the United States|unions]]; however the foundation's involvement in IR was criticized for advancing the family's business interests.<ref>{{cite book |last=Seim |first=David L. |title=Rockefeller Philanthropy and Modern Social Science |date=2013 |publisher=Pickering & Chatto |isbn=978-1848933910 |location=London |pages=81–89}}</ref> The foundation henceforth confined itself to funding responsible organizations involved in this and other controversial fields, which were beyond the control of the foundation itself.<ref>Foundation withdrew from direct involvement in Industrial Relations – see Robert Shaplen, ''Toward the Well-Being of Mankind: Fifty Years of the Rockefeller Foundation'', New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964, (p. 128)</ref>

[[File:FrederickTGates.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Frederick T. Gates, 1922]]

Junior became the foundation chairman in 1917.  Through the ''Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial'' (LSRM), established by Senior in 1918 and named after his wife, the Rockefeller fortune was for the first time directed to supporting research by social scientists. During its first few years of work, the LSRM awarded funds primarily to social workers, with its funding decisions guided primarily by Junior. In 1922, Beardsley Ruml was hired to direct the LSRM, and he most decisively shifted the focus of Rockefeller philanthropy into the [[social science]]s, stimulating the founding of university research centers, and creating the [[Social Science Research Council]]. In January 1929, LSRM funds were folded into the Rockefeller Foundation, in a major reorganization.<ref>Seim, David L. (2013), pp. 103–112</ref>

The Rockefeller family helped lead the foundation in its early years, but later limited itself to one or two representatives, to maintain the foundation's independence and avoid charges of undue family influence. These representatives have included the former president [[John D. Rockefeller III]], and then his son [[John D. Rockefeller, IV]], who gave up the trusteeship in 1981. In 1989, [[David Rockefeller]]'s daughter, [[Peggy Dulany]], was appointed to the board for a five-year term. In October 2006, [[David Rockefeller#Personal life|David Rockefeller Jr.]] joined the board of trustees, re-establishing the direct family link and becoming the sixth family member to serve on the board.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

[[File:Standard oil.OILSTOCK.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.1|Standard Oil Trust stock certificate, 1896]]

[[C. Douglas Dillon]], the [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]] under both Presidents [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], served as chairman of the foundation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=2003-01-12 |title=C. Douglas Dillon Dies at 93; Was in Kennedy Cabinet |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/business/c-douglas-dillon-dies-at-93-was-in-kennedy-cabinet.html |access-date=2022-08-17 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2019-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511202547/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/business/c-douglas-dillon-dies-at-93-was-in-kennedy-cabinet.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Stock in the family's oil companies had been a major part of the foundation's assets, beginning with [[Standard Oil]] and later with its corporate descendants, including [[ExxonMobil]].<ref>Share portfolio – see Waldemar Nielsen ''The Big Foundations'', New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. (p. 72)</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Kaiser |first1=David |last2=Wasserman |first2=Lee |date=December 8, 2016 |title=The Rockefeller Family Fund vs. Exxon |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/08/the-rockefeller-family-fund-vs-exxon/ |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |access-date=February 27, 2018 |archive-date=July 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731220730/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/08/the-rockefeller-family-fund-vs-exxon/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Kaiser |first1=David |last2=Wasserman |first2=Lee |date=December 22, 2016 |title=The Rockefeller Family Fund Takes on ExxonMobil |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/22/rockefeller-family-fund-takes-on-exxon-mobil/ |magazine=The New York Review of Books |access-date=December 3, 2016 |archive-date=June 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619175353/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/12/22/rockefeller-family-fund-takes-on-exxon-mobil/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In December 2020, the foundation pledged to dump their fossil fuel holdings. With a $5 billion endowment, the Rockefeller Foundation was "the largest US foundation to embrace the rapidly growing divestment movement."  CNN writer Matt Egan noted, "This divestment is especially symbolic because the Rockefeller Foundation was founded by oil money."<ref name="cnnbiz"/>[[File:University College Hospital, London; the Maternity Hospital Wellcome V0013634.jpg|thumb|[[University College Hospital]], London]]