In Search of Legitimacy: Peace Grant Making of U.S. Philanthropic Foundations, 1988-1996

This analysis of peace grant making of U.S. foundations in 1988-1996 is guided by neoinstitutional organizational theory. The author argues that legitimacy concerns underlie the choices foundations make regarding the organizations and causes they fund. Academic and elite recipients give legitimacy to foundations and draw most of the latter’s support. Foundations’ authority in conferring legitimacy is prominent vis-à-vis nonelite organizations, which often seek to mobilize foundation support but receive much less of it than elite grantees do. The overall size of peace grant making was very small in the examined period and declined in constant dollars from 1988 to 1996. The author suggests that foundations were disinclined to fund peace due to normative pressure from the “national security state.” Future research should advance theories about sources of external influence on foundations, paying particular attention to the state’s capacity to shape organizational behavior of foundations and of the nonprofit sector generally.