Community-building through philanthropy: case studies in Fort Worth, Texas

Abstract

Historians have largely ignored the study of philanthropy, primarily leaving such scholarship to social workers. Yet, whenever we attend church, go to college, visit museums or concert halls, utilize libraries, or obtain health care, we participate¿directly or indirectly¿in the philanthropic process. In spite of a 1956 conference at Princeton University designed to encourage philanthropic scholarship among historians, historical studies of American philanthropy remain conspicuously incomplete. This research seeks to identify institutions in four primary areas of philanthropic giving¿culture and the arts; education and research; health and medicine; and social welfare and religious charities¿in an effort demonstrate that philanthropy emanates from many different levels of society; that voluntarism, in addition to capital support, is crucial to this process; and that privately funded institutions provide myriad public services, thereby improving the overall social and economic quality of life within a community. In pursuit of this goal, this research involves case studies that span a century of history, and that are identified within historical context.