Research On The Philanthropy Of US Private Foundations To Higher Education

As the third sector of the United States, private foundations are of great significance in the development of higher education; they have rooted in the long tradition of charity and civilization and have made unique contributions to the development of higher education. As the non-governmental force, they have been bearing the deep-seated cultural idea "small government, great people" and active in the center or edge of the higher education arena with the changes in history. Private foundations' strong supports for American higher education are not only the inheritance and extension to implement educational mission in the name of religion during colonial era, but also the responses to pursuit the education fair and improve the quality of education. With adjustments of China's education policy, compulsory education and vocational education have gradually become the focus of our government, the development of higher education will also rely more on private enterprise investment in particular. Studying the idea and practice of private foundations' donation to higher education is an important reference.This thesis is divided into four parts: The first part from the angle of historical development analyzes that the history of private foundations' philanthropy to American higher education is divided into four stages with the background of the times and the characteristics of higher education development, which point out that in different stages , how the relevant policies that private foundations' donation to U.S. higher education change and perfect; The second part from the philanthropic idea, the scope and intensity, results and impact to describe how and where to promote the development and prosperity of higher education; The third part from the religious, individualism, tax-free regulations and college fund-raising mechanism to explore the underlying causes and points out that the U.S. higher education is supported by private foundations because of its natural advantages and unique, not each country's higher education like the United States can get so treatment and cause great influence; the fourth part from comparative perspective to explain, even though the cultivated soil and development path between China's and United States' higher education are on considerable difference, we can still based on "assimilating the choiceness while eliminating the uselessness of others" attitude to encourage our civil organizations with Chinese characteristics to contribute the reform and development of higher education.