“The ‘how’ is indeed where Rosenwald truly excelled,” they write, “building a new field of endeavor, creating standards (such as school building design), establishing a durable funding model, partnering with an esteemed community leader, and propelling it all with an explicit ‘giving while living’ philosophy.” This historical figure, the authors conclude, serves as a useful model for contemporary American donors wishing to make “big bets on social change.”Īs a historian of philanthropy and racial inequality in the U.S., I cringe at the suggestion that Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) serves as a historical model of a hero who made “big bets on social change.” Granted, he was rather unique among his philanthropic peers in his decision to establish a limited-life foundation rather than a perpetual endowment. While echoing these other Americans’ celebrations of the Rosenwald schools, the three authors of the SSIR article explain that they focus on how Julius Rosenwald accomplished his success. ![]() A Wall Street Journal review of the film, for example, designated Rosenwald “an unsung hero of black education.” Similarly, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker noted on the pages of Time last year that the Chicago businessman was one of his “personal heroes” for helping to construct more than “5,300 schools across the segregated South and open classroom doors to a generation of African-American students, including Maya Angelou and Congresman John Lewis.” Nine years later, Aviva Kempner released a documentary of the philanthropist where she praised Rosenwald’s decision to finance schools in the South and thus described him as a silent partner of the pre-Civil Rights movement. To this point, the back cover of Ascoli’s book includes admiring words from Bill Gates. ![]() Ascoli, published a celebratory biography of his grandfather in 2006, a figure who remains relevant to today’s philanthropists. Julius Rosenwald’s grandson, historian Peter M. The gap between the region’s races in ‘years of school completed’ shrunk from three years in 1910 to half a year in 1940, with Rosenwald Schools judged responsible for 40 percent of these gains.įoster, Perrault, and Tosun celebrate the achievements of the Rosenwald schools, and they are not alone. By 1932, Rosenwald Schools educated more than 35 percent of all African American children in the South. The effect of Rosenwald’s approximately $70 million (in today’s dollars) big bet was transformative. ![]() was a model philanthropist who made “big bets on social change.” After all, the Chicago-based philanthropist successfully impacted elementary and secondary education for Black Americans in the South: The three authors note that this son of German Jewish immigrants and president and CEO of Sears, Roebuck & Co. “Julius Rosenwald is one of our philanthropic heroes.” This is how Bridgespan’s William Foster, Gail Perreault, and Elise Tosun begin their essay on “Ten Ways to Make a Big Bet on Social Change” published this past May in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Editors’ Note: In response to a recent SSIR piece describing Julius Rosenwald as a philanthropic hero, HistPhil co-editor Maribel Morey reflects on the distinction between an effective philanthropist and a heroic figure.
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