1941: Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Inc., expanded during 1941 its aid to schools and colleges in developing new 'patterns' in economic education. Grants amounting to $333,940 were made to fifteen educational institutions in the eleven months up to Dec. 1, 1941, thus bringing the Foundation's total gifts since its organization in 1936 to $1,444,335.

The Foundation in 1941 made grants to four institutions to teach low-income groups how to improve their own living conditions. It enabled the Universities of Florida and Kentucky to expand experiments in this field and aided the University of Vermont and Pennsylvania State College to start similar projects.

At the same time, the Foundation continued its support of several programs in adult economic education. These included the University of Chicago Round Table of the Air, a weekly radio discussion of national and international questions; the Tax Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, which issues unbiased information in regard to local, state, and Federal taxes: and the Public Affairs pamphlets, containing popular digests of current economic research, brought out by the Public Affairs Committee of New York. Consumer education for adults, as well as for college and high school students, was furthered with Foundation aid by the Institute for Consumer Education at Stephens College, a junior college for women at Columbia, Mo.

Moreover, both at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of Denver, the Foundation maintains a special group of ten competitive fellowships offered to college graduates. At M.I.T. these are awarded to young industrial executives for a year's study of social and economic conditions. At Denver the fellowships provide training for a new profession — appraiser of local government — through an eighteen-month course in taxation and public expenditures.

To explore the possibilities of motion pictures as a vehicle for economic education, the Foundation during 1941 aided experiments in film production, distribution, and research. To the Foreign Policy Association it made a grant to produce a film on Latin-American trade relations. Distribution of sound films on economic subjects was encouraged by a gift to the New York University Film Library. Audience reactions to such pictures were studied at the Institute for Economic Education of Bard College of Columbia University.

The Foundation is a non-profit membership corporation organized under the laws of Delaware. Its income comes from an endowment established by Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the motor car magnate, and Mrs. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., and from other gifts by him and his wife.

1940: Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Inc., expanded during 1940 its aid to schools and colleges in developing new 'patterns' in economic education. Grants amounting to $275,283 were made to nine educational institutions in the eleven months up to December 1, 1940, thus bringing the Foundation's total gifts since its organization in 1936 to $1,072,726.

Extending its activities into the South, the Foundation in 1940 enabled the state universities of Kentucky and of Florida to start experiments in applied economics designed to aid low-income groups. The experiments aim to discover whether solely through instructing school children in simple inexpensive ways of improving diet and housing, families and communities can be brought by their own efforts to a higher level of living.

To furnish the average citizen with a source of prompt, accurate and unbiased information on the mounting and complex taxes levied on him by local, state and federal governments, the Foundation this year made a grant in aid to the University of Pennsylvania to enable the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce to establish the Tax Institute. The Institute, formerly the Tax Policy League of New York, was thus enabled by the grant to expand its work under university auspices.

At the same time the Foundation continued its support of several other departures in economic education which it had previously sponsored. These included the University of Chicago Round Table of the Air, a weekly radio discussion of economic phases of national and international questions; The Educational Film Institute of New York University, which produces and distributes sound motion pictures on economic subjects; a national Institute for Consumer Education connected with Stephens College, a junior college for women at Columbia, Missouri; and the Public Affairs pamphlets, containing popular digests of current economic research, issued continuously by the Public Affairs Committee of New York.

Moreover, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of Denver, the Foundation maintains a special group of ten fellowships offered to college graduates in national competition. At M.I.T. these are awarded to young industrial executives for a year's study of social and economic conditions. At Denver the fellowships provide training for a new profession — appraiser of local government — through an eighteen-month course in taxation and public expenditures.

The Foundation is a non-profit membership corporation organized under the laws of Delaware. Its income comes from an endowment established by Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the motor car magnate, and Mrs. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., and from other gifts by him and his wife.

1939: Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Inc., during 1939 continued its policy of aiding educational institutions in strategic centers to develop new 'patterns' in economic education. Its grants to this end for the year totaled $264,212.

Chief among the projects it helped to initiate during the year was the establishment by New York University of an Educational Film Institute to explore the potentialities of motion pictures as a device for the dramatic and stimulating presentation of economic problems. The Institute is to produce, distribute and evaluate sound films in this field for the benefit both of adult groups and high school and college students.

At the same time, the Foundation increased its support of several other departures in economic education which it had previously sponsored. These include the University of Chicago Round Table of the Air, a weekly radio discussion of the economic phases of national and international questions; an Institute for Consumer Education connected with Stephens College, a junior college for women, at Columbia, Mo., which distributes study aids in consumer economics throughout the country; and a series of pamphlets containing popular digests of recent economic research issued continuously by the Public Affairs Committee of New York.

In addition, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of Denver, the Foundation maintains a special group of ten fellowships, offered to college graduates in national competition. At M.I.T. these are awarded to young industrial executives for a year's study of social and economic conditions which bear upon their work. At Denver the fellowships provide the recipients with training for a new profession — appraiser of local government — through an 18-month course in taxation and public expenditures leading to the degree of Master of Science in Government Management.

The Foundation was organized under its present name in 1936. It is a non-profit membership corporation organized under the laws of Delaware. Though the Foundation's charter allows it wide latitude to carry on activities of an educational or philanthropic nature, the Trustees have confined its operations to economic education and research.

The Foundation undertakes no projects directly, but makes grants to fully accredited educational institutions for this purpose. To date it has made grants amounting to $631,732. Its income comes from an endowment established by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the motor car magnate, and from other gifts made by him and his wife.

1938: Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Inc., was organized under this name in 1936. It is a non-profit membership corporation chartered under the laws of Delaware. The Foundation's charter restricts the activities of the corporation to those of an educational or philanthropic nature, but allows wide latitude within these classifications. The Trustees have confined the operations of the Foundation to economic research and education.

The Foundation is a grant-making agency. Its donees are fully accredited educational institutions, and its income is from an endowment established by Alfred P. Sloan. Jr., and from other gifts made by Mr. and Mrs. Sloan.

At present it is aiding educational institutions in strategic centers to develop various phases of social and economic education. In an attempt to train industrial leaders in the broader social aspects of their task, the Foundation sponsors a group of competitive fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winners, young executives between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, whose previous training has been in engineering, spend twelve months in intensive study of human engineering as represented by the social sciences.

Through a weekly Sunday radio program at the University of Chicago, the Foundation is aiding adult education in economics. In nation-wide broadcasts, university professors and visiting statesmen discuss informally economic phases of national and international questions.

To equip college graduates for a new profession, that of appraiser of local government, the Foundation is helping to finance a curriculum in taxation and public expenditure at the University of Denver. Here, winners of fellowships in nation-wide competition take an 18-month course leading to the new degree of Master of Science in Government Management.

A national center of consumer education for adults and high school and college students has been established with Foundation funds at Stephens College, a junior college of 1,200 girls at Columbia, Mo. Its activities include the formulation of courses and study outlines for clubs and classes and a nation-wide distribution of pamphlets and bulletins.

The Foundation program includes, also, a grant to the Public Affairs Committee of New York for its series of pamphlets containing popular digests of recent economic research, issued throughout the year.

Motion pictures on various phases of economics for use in a new type of club or group meeting, to be known as 'The Film Forum,' are in contemplation as the object of a grant to some educational institution in the near future.