In a speech he once gave, Andrew Carnegie said, “Our duty of to-day is with to-day’s problems.” That was a thoughtful and interesting comment from a man who was also deeply concerned about the future well beyond his own lifetime, as evidenced by the fact that he endowed Carnegie Corporation of New York to work, in perpetuity, towards “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” He also founded more than twenty other institutions and organizations in the United States and abroad to help realize his vision of a world in which “service for others” and improving the public good were everyone’s goal—not for just a decade or two, but for as long as men and women were prepared to be responsible for contributing to the enlightenment and welfare of the generations that followed after them.

At Carnegie Corporation, we, too, understand that our work must focus on solving the problems of today while also meeting the challenges of tomorrow. That was why in 1997, when I joined the Corporation as president, the staff, trustees and I undertook an in-depth review of the scope and effectiveness of our grantmaking programs and processes to help inform our future course of action. This effort involved consultation with scores of educators, scholars, scientists, journalists, business leaders, program practitioners, public officials, presidents of universities and colleges and, naturally, the staff and leadership of many sister foundations and professional associations.

Following this phase in the review, we submitted our recommendations for future grantmaking to the board of trustees for discussion and approval. Our plans incorporated a new focus on working with partner foundations in implementing programmatic objectives and priorities and included an emphasis on both evaluation of our efforts and dissemination of what we learned as our work—and the work of our grantees—progressed. In 1999, this in-depth and thorough process culminated in the publication of a major report entitled New Directions for Carnegie Corporation of New York, in which we laid out our plans for the future and began the process of bringing greater cohesion to the Corporation’s program directions.

Now, a decade later, we face both new and continuing challenges at home and around the world. Hence, we thought it was imperative to once again scrutinize the quality of our programs as well as their impact and direction. Our intent was to be certain that our work had kept pace with major changes in our society as well as internationally, and therefore, that we are prepared to refocus and re-envision our grantmaking, as necessary, in order to enhance its reach and effectiveness. Key to this effort was to build on the goals we had articulated in 1999, namely, to take measures against scatteration and the formation of program silos. As a result, we have now taken additional definitive steps toward implementing an even greater degree of integration in our grantmaking and promoting collaboration among program officers throughout the Corporation and across the areas in which they work.

Our overall aim has been to bridge continuity and change. Hence, we once again embarked on a process, carried out over the course of a year, that again involved consultation with grantees, advisors, staff and trustees, whose views we sought both individually and collectively. Our efforts culminated in a trustee retreat, held in December 2006, during which our board members, along with my colleagues at the Corporation and I, worked toward the goal of integrating the program themes that had guided our grantmaking over nearly a decade. Throughout all our discussions and deliberations, our intent has been to sharpen our focus and ensure that we have strategies in place that will maximize our impact while continuing to build on the Corporation’s great strength as an incubator of innovative ideas, catalytic research and transformative scholarship. As a result of our efforts, I am confident that we have created a thoroughly integrated and more effective structure that organizes the foundation’s programs under two major categories: International and National programs. These programs and subprograms will work collaboratively, building on each other’s strengths, learning from each other’s experiences and sharing knowledge.

The deeply held convictions of Andrew Carnegie, who saw democracy and public education, as well as knowledge and its diffusion, as fundamental tools for strengthening the bonds of our society, are the foundation of both the work we outlined in the 1999 New Directions and in our current plans for the next five years, which are highlighted in a new report, Carnegie Corporation of New York: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century. In our democracy and its institutions—including libraries, universities, public education, centers of science and research, the free press and the justice system—Andrew Carnegie saw a form of government that provided equality before the law, freedom from authoritarian restriction, equal representation and, hopefully, equal opportunity. In education and the diffusion of knowledge, he saw the means to provide everyone with a chance to succeed and the pathway by which nations might come to resolve their conflicts peacefully. Education was not only a basic instrument for the creation of new knowledge, but a major force for democracy and a means for the enlightenment and self-improvement of individual citizens from every walk of life—both those who were born in the United States or, like himself, came here as immigrants.

Perhaps less well known to the general public is Andrew Carnegie’s unwavering dedication to international peace, which he believed in and sought to promote with a fervor that equaled his commitment to advancing education and democracy. In philanthropy, Carnegie saw a way to help create a world in which peace and stability were the bedrock values upon which all societies would be able to build bridges across the gulf that separates not only social and economic groups but also different states and nations from each other. In an era when the forces of globalization sometimes seem to be pulling humanity apart at the same time that they are pushing world markets and economies closer together, Andrew Carnegie’s vision of a world of potentialities—the potential for peace, for shared knowledge, for education and democracy to enlighten the lives of men, women and children everywhere—is one that Carnegie Corporation of New York continues to envision as well.

Vartan Gregorian
President

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