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Article Excerpt
'Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.'
--Marston Bates, American zoologist
In 1923, George Papanicolaou first discovered how to detect cervical cancer in individual cervical cells. Although pathologists and others dismissed this new theory. Papanicolaou later noted: "I found myself totally deprived of funds for continuation of my research ... At a moment when every hope had almost vanished, the Commonwealth Fund ... stepped in." (1) The resulting Pap smear has been critical for the ongoing health screening of women ever since.
Historic Roots
Philanthropy has a long tradition in Western society. In 1601, England passed the Statute of Charitable Uses, which has been called the cornerstone of the Anglo-American law of philanthropy. In the same year, the English Parliament passed the Elizabethan Poor Law, which formed the basis of English and American public relief for the poor.
The first major case of research philanthropy in the U.S. occurred in 1638 when John Harvard bequeathed his library and a portion of his estate to what became Harvard University. Five years later, Harvard held its first fundraising drive, raising 500 [pounds sterling]. In the same year, Lady Mowlson (Ann Radcliffe) created the first scholarship fund with a gift to Harvard. In the years following, various forms of philanthropy have become essential to all types of educational efforts, especially for funding researchers and their programs.
Types of Foundations
The IRS defines two classes of foundations. Private foundations, usually funded by individuals, families, or corporations, including establishments such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Milken Family Foundation, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. These foundations don't solicit funds from the public but rather use existing funds donated from the founders or given to them for their work.
Public charities or community foundations are nonprofit groups that raise money from the public or other sources. Public charities are granted more tax benefits than private foundations and fewer restrictions on their operations. Examples include the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the New York Community Trust, and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.
There are actually many different types of support available to researchers. Types of support available include unrestricted grants, basic/exploratory/applied research in some specific area, targeted programming to meet a specific need or solve a particular problem, collaborative research projects, scholarships, fellowships, and funds to support travel expenses. Fellowships, for example, provide a way for graduates or undergraduates to get short-term funding that would allow them to gain experience. Often, especially for beginners, getting some experience with travel grants and other types of funding may help hone skills that will help in gaining more comprehensive grants down the road.
Every foundation outlines the requirements and opportunities that they make available. Some limit their considerations by geographic location, discipline, or other factors, but all make this information clearly available in their application materials.
Explosive and Continuing Growth
From the Rockefellers to Andrew Carnegie, the tradition of the rich and powerful creating philanthropic venues to disperse some of their fortunes has become common in our history. Recent years have seen growth in the numbers of all types of foundations and granting organizations. With more than $600 billion in assets in the U.S. alone, foundations not only provide needed financial support to communities, organizations, and individuals, but also represent an increasingly important stakeholder in both social progress and the global economy. (See Table 1 below.)
In the 20th century, many foundations made awards that required little more than interim progress reports and final reports outlining the activities, advances, and implications of the sponsored research. In more recent years, many successful entrepreneurs--such as Ted Turner, George Soros, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett--have moved some of their wealth into philanthropic arenas.
Many of these businesspeople have also brought with them some of the principles and beliefs that guided them in the private sector. One of these expectations, increasingly common today, is that charitable ROI should not only be tangible but measurable. Many newer foundations use methods of proposal analysis that reward funding lean and targeted projects. The funding process today often builds in the creation of mileposts throughout the grant's duration, during which projects are measured and assessed for their process, output, and successes. If adequate "progress" isn't seen, funding may be cut. Today, many grants no longer contribute to the ongoing costs of institutional support for research projects.
For research organizations, the increasing need for nontraditional funding--especially in publicly funded institutions--has created, in effect, an ongoing need to market or position a researcher or institution as the best funding target. For individual grant-seekers, the process of getting and keeping funding streams has become a major part of their jobs. For organizations--and the information professionals serving these users--the need to find grant opportunities and prepare successful funding applications has become critical.
External Funding and Research Universities
"Higher education" has come to include all types of postsecondary education. The "industry"...
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