Carnegie Corporation of New York

Represented by Dame Louise Richardson

About

Carnegie Corporation of New York is one of America’s oldest grantmaking foundations. 

Established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace. 

Fast Facts 

Andrew Carnegie’s Vision 

Andrew Carnegie envisioned Carnegie Corporation of New York as a foundation that would “promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” In keeping with this mandate, our work incorporates an affirmation of our historic role as an education foundation but also honors Andrew Carnegie’s passion for international peace and the health of our democracy. While Carnegie’s primary aim was to benefit the people of the United States, he later determined to use a portion of the funds for members of the British overseas Commonwealth. Currently, this area of our grantmaking focuses on selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Real and Permanent Good in This World 

Carnegie dedicated his foundation to the goal of doing “real and permanent good in this world” and deemed that its efforts should create “ladders on which the aspiring can rise.” In our current-day grantmaking we continue to carry out this mission through programs and initiatives that address today’s problems by drawing on the best ideas and cutting-edge strategies that draw strength from deep knowledge and scholarship. History guides us and the present informs us, but our work looks always toward the future. 

In Perpetuity 

Carnegie served as the Corporation’s first president. His intention, clearly spelled out in his Deed of Gift, was for the foundation to carry out its philanthropic work in perpetuity, so that “even after I pass away the wealth that came to me to administer as a sacred trust for the good of my fellow men is to continue to benefit humanity for generations untold.” 

Responding to Changing Needs 

At the time of its creation, Carnegie’s vision for the work of the Corporation was unique in that he understood that as the decades passed, the issues of his day would be incorporated into or supplanted by concerns that more immediately affected future generations. Planning for that certainty, he wrote, “Conditions upon the earth inevitably change; hence, no wise man will bind Trustees forever to certain paths, causes or institutions.” Therefore, he gave his trustees “full authority to change policies or causes hitherto aided, from time to time, when this, in their opinion, has become necessary or desirable. They shall best conform to my wishes by using their own judgment.” 

Scientific Philanthropy 

Through more than a century of grantmaking, the Corporation has applied what Carnegie called the principles of “scientific philanthropy” to changing times while always working in harmony with the historical mission and legacy of the foundation. Our unremitting efforts remain focused on the two issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace and the advancement of education and knowledge.

Representative: Dame Louise Richardson

Dame Louise Richardson is president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Previously, she served as vice-chancellor (president) of the University of Oxford and of the University of St. Andrews, and as executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. 

A native of Ireland, she studied history in Trinity College Dublin before gaining her PhD at Harvard University, where she spent 20 years on the faculty of the Department of Government, teaching courses on international security and foreign policy. She currently sits on numerous advisory boards, while serving as a trustee of the Booker Prize Foundation and the nonprofit Inter Mediate. Richardson is also a member of the selection committee of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. In 2023, the Irish government asked Richardson to serve as the independent chair of its Consultative Forum on International Security Policy. 

A political scientist by training, Richardson is recognized internationally as an expert on terrorism and counterterrorism. Today considered a seminal work in the field, her groundbreaking study, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat (2006), was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as an “overdue and essential primer on terrorism and how to tackle it … the book many have been waiting for.” Other publications include Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past (2007), The Roots of Terrorism (2006), and When Allies Differ: Anglo-American Relations during the Suez and Falklands Crises (1996). She has written numerous articles on international terrorism, British foreign and defense policy, security institutions, and international relations; lectured to public, professional, media, and education groups; and served on editorial boards for several journals and presses. 

Richardson’s many awards have recognized the excellence of her teaching and scholarship, including the Centennial Medal bestowed on her in 2013 by Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for “having the vision to assess emerging threats, for transformative leadership, and for moving seamlessly between the roles of scholar and teacher.” She has been awarded ten honorary doctorates, including from the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews in Scotland; Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland; the University of Notre Dame in the U.S.; the University of the West Indies; Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel; the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in Russia, and Université Grenoble Alpes in France. Richardson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom, as well as an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

In June 2022, Richardson was appointed a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her services to higher education. In 2024, the French government named Richardson a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters for advancing arts and culture and for furthering ties between the U.S. and France.