backExcerpted from the Philanthropy News Digest
Philanthropy and the Rockefeller Legacy
A short history...
Rockefeller succeeded spectacularly at both. By the mid-1890s, when he began in earnest to step back from his responsibilities at Standard Oil — the company he founded with his brother William and built into the most powerful and feared industrial concern in America — he was the wealthiest man in the country and its second most famous philanthropist, after Andrew Carnegie. Unwilling to settle for peaceful retirement, Rockefeller, according to Chernow, then did an extraordinary thing. With his wealth accumulating at "an astonishing rate," he set out, with the help of Frederick T. Gates, his chief philanthropic adviser, and his only son, John, to give that fortune away. Spelman Seminary (later Spelman College), the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (later Rockefeller University), the General Education Board, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm — the philanthropy of John D. Rockefeller was unprecedented in its scale, broad-mindedness, and imagination. It also created suspicion, for many years, among his critics, who viewed it as a thinly disguised vehicle for his economic interests. John D. Rockefeller did not give his fortune away, though not for lack of trying. By the 1920s, the Rockefeller Foundation was the largest grantmaking foundation in the world and Rockefeller, in Chernow's words, had "established himself as the greatest lay benefactor of medicine in history," having given $450 million — out of a total of $530 million given during his lifetime — to institutions active in the field. Instead, starting in 1917, he began to transfer his remaining assets, roughly $500 million (close to $10 billion in today dollar's), to his son John, who would spend the rest of his life working to extend his father's philanthropic legacy while creating his own. Born into wealth and privilege and raised from birth to excel, the children of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his wife, Abigail — Abby (known as Babs), John, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop, and David — leveraged their unique advantages into storied careers in business, philanthropy, politics, and the arts. And the Rockefeller family itself came to embody, as much as a single family could, the ambition, generosity, and genius of America in the twentieth century. As Joseph Persico, a speechwriter for Nelson and, later, his biographer, put it, "the seed capital that they planted in philanthropic endeavors gave them greater national and international influence than did their profit-making enterprises and was certainly more lasting in effect....They were responsible enough, and wise enough, to underpin their own position by strengthening, through their giving, those institutions in society that they found worthy of perpetuation." Recently, Philanthropy News Digest sat down with David Rockefeller, retired chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, to talk about his father and grandfather's philanthropy and his family's philanthropic legacy.Sixteen-year-old John D. Rockefeller landed his first job, as a bookkeeper in the booming metropolis of Cleveland, Ohio, on September 26, 1855 — a date Rockefeller would celebrate the rest of his life as "Job Day." Thrifty, punctual, and industrious, the young Rockefeller, according to his biographer Ron Chernow, was "a fervent adherent of the gospel of success." Devoutly religious, he also believed that work and charity were two sides of the same coin. "I was trained from the beginning," he told William O. Inglis, a New York newspaperman, more than half a century later, "to work and save. I have always regarded it as a religious duty to get all I could honorably and to give all I could."
An interview with David Rockefeller...
excerpts
Philanthropy News Digest: Over five generations, the Rockefellers have made philanthropy a family calling. How do you explain your family's ability to keep that tradition alive and relevant?
David Rockefeller: Well, it certainly started with my grandparents, Laura Spelman and John D. Rockefeller, both of whom were strong and ardent Baptists from an early age. In fact, Grandfather tithed regularly from the time he was a teenager. As he became a successful businessman beginning in the 1860s, he also maintained his charitable giving and expanded its scope well beyond Cleveland, Ohio, to include Baptist churches, colleges, seminaries, and missionary societies across the country. As a devout Christian, Grandfather believed, and even said, "God had given him his money." He did not mean this in a boastful way, but that he had been rewarded for his faith and was expected to use these resources wisely for the benefit of the broader community of which he and his family were a part. That is really the beginning of the Rockefeller tradition of philanthropy.
It was not until the late 1880s, however, that Grandfather began to consider supporting other organizations. And it was really the influence of Frederick T. Gates, whom he met during the effort to establish the University of Chicago originally a Baptist organization that made all the difference.
Gates was an ordained Baptist minister and a remarkable man. Among other things, he persuaded Grandfather to use the wealth he had accumulated more broadly for the benefit of mankind. Gates persuaded Grandfather to move beyond simple charity to find the root causes of disease, ignorance, hunger, all of humankind's afflictions, and to do something about finding solutions. That shift in emphasis and the embrace of science marked the transition to philanthropy. Gates was Grandfather's closest associate for more than thirty years, and his influence was enormous. But I think it's also clear that Grandfather was very receptive to the idea of using his wealth to help other people even before Gates arrived on the scene.
Grandfather established the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913, around the same time Andrew Carnegie started his foundations, and that began an entirely new era of philanthropy, both for Grandfather and, I dare say, for the country. It's interesting, isn't it, that two men who played such important roles in the development and economic life of this country my grandfather and Andrew Carnegie were also early leaders in philanthropy?
So, the family tradition of philanthropy started with Grandfather and was kept going by my father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and subsequent generations of the family. It's been part of our upbringing, the feeling that with opportunity comes obligation, and in a way that sort of summarizes the spirit behind all of it. Certainly, my father, who for a short time worked for the Standard Oil Company, soon came to the conclusion that he would rather devote his life to not-for-profit activities, and he did so. And my brother John, my oldest brother, pretty much did the same. I don't think he ever had another activity or interest that inspired him in quite the same way as philanthropy did, and he devoted his life to it.
PND: Your grandfather, along with Andrew Carnegie and Frederick Gates, more or less invented modern philanthropy. What do you consider to be his greatest philanthropic achievement? And what was his greatest philanthropic innovation?
DR: Well, the Rockefeller Foundation was the first foundation that purposely looked outward to the world and had global objectives. Grandfather, working with Dr. Gates and, later, other people, felt his business interests were global in nature and that therefore he had a philanthropic responsibility on that level. I think his recognition of that fact has to have been one of his greatest contributions to the field.
At the same time, he understood that his philanthropic activities needed to be organized and that, even though his understanding of people and the world was impressive despite never having gone to college he needed to have people with a broad understanding of the world to help him. Of course, as time passed, he felt less and less of a need to be involved in the day-to-day details of grantmaking, and he was happy to let his associates handle the specifics.
But in some respects, it was my father, under Grandfather's tutelage, who really turned the foundation into a force to be reckoned with. Father chaired the foundation for more than twenty years and participated in the creation of its major program areas supporting the development of the hard sciences, extending work in public health around the world, and applying the emerging knowledge of the social sciences to the problems of poverty around the world. He left a lasting imprint not only on the Rockefeller Foundation, but on American philanthropy as well.
PND: Did your father discuss his philanthropic activities with his children?
DR: Oh, yes, very easily and broadly. Not that he thought he had to discuss every detail, but he was very open in his interests and his discussion of them. Of course, a lot of his philanthropy related to the trips he took, and for me that's one of the interesting aspects of what he did. When he would go on trips and he often brought us along he would see things that needed to be done. For example, on our first trip out West, we spent six weeks traveling around and, of course, stopped to see the redwoods in northern California. At one point, we visited a spot where lumber companies were cutting down these enormous trees that had been around for two thousand years. Well, Father, while he recognized the importance of timber as an industry, felt it would be a tragedy if all those trees were cut down. So he gave $1 million which at that time was a lot to buy a huge stand of redwoods in northern California, and today that stand is called the Rockefeller Grove.
Similarly, when Father visited Versailles in France for the first time again with his children he discovered that this unbelievable monument was not being taken care of, either by the French government or the French people. The roof was leaking and some of the interior walls and even furniture was being damaged. So he got an architect friend of his to work with the French government to replace the roof, and he followed that up with a lot of other improvements. Those are just two illustrations. He did that in many parts of the world, and I think it's one of the interesting aspects of his philanthropy: He simply wanted to help where he saw a need.
PND: Today, the endowments of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund are larger, in nominal terms, than they've ever been. But as a percentage of total philanthropic assets and gross domestic product, they're quite modest. Do private foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Brothers Fund have the same ability today to promote new ideas and influence civic life that they had in your father and grandfather's day? And what, if anything, can private foundations do to preserve their unique role in American society?
DR: Well, one of the encouraging things that has happened in this country is that many other wealthy families have seen what our family has done and felt it was worthwhile most recently and notably, of course, with Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. In fact, at the event in New York City this summer at which Mr. Buffett made his announcement, he referred to the fact that in many ways he was inspired and influenced by the Rockefeller Foundation and what the family had done philanthropically. I am very proud of the fact that others have followed our lead and, in many cases, have created foundations that are substantially larger than the Rockefeller Foundation. That is excellent, and we couldn't be more pleased.
PND: If American philanthropy is the child of American capitalism, how likely do you think it is that philanthropy in this country will change in the coming decades as capitalism itself changes in response to global economic forces?
DR: I do think philanthropy is a particularly American institution, in the sense that from the earliest days Americans tended to believe they had broader responsibilities than just making money. And while there are examples of successful and important foundations in other countries in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere for whatever reason, philanthropy seems to be something that fits Americans to a tee.
On a personal note, I couldn't be happier that my children and grandchildren share my interest in philanthropy. At the event in New York, Warren Buffett made a point of saying he was especially pleased he had been able to pass his values and interest in philanthropy on to his children. It is cause for optimism that people like Buffett and the Gateses and many, many others care about the world around them, are joining with others to try to find solutions to the challenges that confront us, and are passing on those values to their children and grandchildren. The world is a better place for it.
PND: And do you think fifty or a hundred years from now, someone from Philanthropy News Digest will be interviewing one of your great-great-grandchildren about the grand Rockefeller philanthropic tradition and the remarkable achievements of American philanthropy?
DR: I hope so. But I also hope that many of the problems we have been discussing will have been solved long before our successors meet for the interview! Certainly, philanthropy is important, but we should not lose sight of the fact that philanthropy is an instrument designed to find enduring solutions for the afflictions of humankind. It would be wonderful if they had nothing to talk about at the meeting.
PND: Well, thank you for speaking with us today, Mr. Rockefeller.
DR: It was my pleasure.
Mr. Rockefeller retired as chairman of Chase Manhattan in 1981 and served as a member of the International Council of JP Morgan until August 2005. He also served as chairman of the Rockefeller Group from 1981 to 1995, and as chairman of Rockefeller Center Properties, Inc., Trust from 1996 to April 2001.
In 1987, Mr. Rockefeller stepped down as chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a grantmaking organization founded in 1940 by Mr. Rockefeller and his brothers. He is the former chairman of the Museum of Modern Art and continues as chairman emeritus and life trustee.
Mr. Rockefeller also has wide-ranging interests and involvement in the fields of international relations and civic affairs. He served as chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1970 to 1985 and now chairs its international advisory board. He was instrumental in creating the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), a volunteer group of retired people that provides technical and managerial assistance to private enterprise in developing nations, and helped found the Trilateral Commission in 1973, stepping down as its North American chairman in 1991 and now serving as honorary chair. In 1979, he co-founded the New York City Partnership, which is dedicated to economic development and effective governance in New York City through private-public partnerships.
Mr. Rockefeller is honorary chair of the Americas Society which he served as chair from 1981 through 1992 and its affiliate, the Council of the Americas, an organization which he founded to promote closer inter-American cooperation as well as better communication between the public and private sectors in Latin America. He also served as chairman of Rockefeller University for many years and is now honorary chair, a life trustee, and chairman emeritus of the RU Council.
Mr. Rockefeller graduated from Harvard and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, where he is a life trustee. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer in North Africa and southern France and was an assistant military attachι in Paris at the time he was demobilized as a captain in 1945.
He has two sons, four daughters, ten grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. His wife of fifty-five years, the former Margaret McGrath, died in March 1996.
Mitch Nauffts, PND's editorial director, spoke with David Rockefeller in October.
©2006 Foundation Center. All rights reserved/Re-published with permission.
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