Carnegie Corporation

History

The Carnegie Corporation, and the other Carnegie funds, are among the most important in the philanthropic world. They are also among the oldest, all four having been incorporated between 1902 and 1911. Twelve of the 14 trustees of the Carnegie Corporation are members of the American upper class. They include Frederick Eaton, who sits on the Commonwealth Fund as well as on several corporate boards; C. D. Jackson of Time, Inc.; Devereux Josephs, who sits on the Sloan Foundation board as well as on a multitude of corporate boards; Margaret Carnegie Miller; and Charles A. Thomas, president of Monsanto Chemical Company. One of the two trustees not of the American business aristocracy was the corporation’s president, psychologist John W. Gardner. Gardner was also the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. As already noted, in the mid-I960’s he left the Carnegie Foundation to become President Johnson’s Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The situation is very similar for the other Carnegie boards, except that there are a greater number of educators. There is also a considerable amount of overlap among the four Carnegie institutions. Of the 72 persons who sit on the boards of the three minor Carnegie foundations, 46 (64 per cent) were corporate executives or members of the upper class. The others, with two exceptions, were college presidents (15) or college professors (9). (Source: G. William Domhoff (1967) Who rules America?, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p.69-70.)