ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how "The Four Sisters", a group of conservative philanthropic foundations, forged durable connections with American higher education by investing in conservative student networks. It shows how these networks, including the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Federalist Society, graduated students who extended their influence beyond campus and into American politics and culture. The role of philanthropy in the American conservative movement and its influence on the student experience are best understood in two eras that also mark the sharp turn in American politics away from a progressive-liberal vision of the state to one that was is markedly conservative. The larger political shifts in America will challenge the conservative foundations to reconsider how they engage the mercurial interest of undergraduates. The businessmen who created the foundations that coalesced as the four sisters were similarly inspired by the intellectual ferment of the post-war era.
