Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 1 | Carnegie Carnegie Corporation in Africa

Andrew Carnegie founded Carnegie Corporation under an act of the New York State Legislature in November, 1911. He specified that the income from his initial capital gift of $25 million was to be used “to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding among the people of the United States.” For some years, Carnegie had also been making gifts for specific purposes in other countries, but now found that the terms of the Corporation’s charter would not allow him to make any gifts from this trust outside the United States.

Carnegie then made a second gift to the Corporation two months later, this time of $75 million, specifying that the income earned by $20 million of the amount should go to “the continuance of gifts for libraries and church organs, as to heretofore made by me in Canada and in the United Kingdom and British Colonies.” An accompanying letter authorized the Corporation’s trustees, at their discretion, to employ any income not required for these activities for the more general Corporation purposes in the United States.

Carnegie Corporation is currently in its 89th year of activities in what is now known as the former British Commonwealth, with a focus on specific African nations. The first Corporation grant was made in Kenya in 1925 to set up a school, known as the Jeanes School, for practical training of Africans as supervisors in rural education. This was the first institution established anywhere primarily for the training of such teachers.

Other early grants provided support for scientific research, public and academic library development, encouragement of adult education for Africans, opportunities for technical education for “coloured” and Asian students, and financing of visits to and from Africa by leaders in the education field.

In the decades that have passed since Andrew Carnegie’s gift for Canada and the British colonies, the Corporation has supported projects ranging from enhancing women’s health and development to strengthening African universities. Over the years, the program has changed names, themes and geographic foci but remains an integral part of the Corporation’s commitment to Andrew Carnegie’s vision of philanthropy, which he said should aim “to do real and permanent good in the world.”