ABSTRACT
There are two ways in which the trends and biases in foundation's might be analyzed. The first is fundamentally empirical, and looks at the types of activities that foundations have funded over the years. The second is fundamentally theoretical, and considers whether there are institutional reasons that would lead foundations to be biased in the activities they fund. Looking at the issue within the framework of the twentieth-century conservative-liberal ideological spectrum, an examination of the evidence shows a clear liberal bias in the ideas promoted by foundations. When the Great Depression came on in the 1930s, followed by World War II in the 1940s, foundations had already begun to chart a course that would enable them to address the problems of the times. The change in direction came decades earlier, and it was only natural that foundation funding would turn toward the social, economic, and political problems that beset the United States and the world.
