Educational Foundation of America: A Historical and Contemporary Overview

The American Heritage Education Foundation (AHEF) is dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America’s philosophical heritage among students and citizens. The ongoing failure of America’s educational institutions to teach those ideas over the last 50 years is well documented. Combined with today’s social and cultural challenges, America’s heritage and philosophical origins-the fabric that has held us together as a nation-are at risk of demise.

Genesis and Evolution of the Educational Foundation of America

The Educational Foundation of America (EFA) was created in 1959 by philanthropists Richard Prentice Ettinger and his wife Elsie P. Ettinger. Richard was a finance professor at New York University (NYU) who grew disgruntled with the curriculum and produced his own textbook on creditor’s rights as well as textbook publishing company Prentice-Hall. The couple established EFA to further their philanthropic commitment to financial education, particularly higher education. However, Richard Ettinger explicitly gave consent to the use of the foundation’s funds for issues beyond education, reasoning that “tomorrow’s problems would not necessarily be the same as those facing his own generation.” Their son Richard P. Ettinger Jr. and daughter Elaine P. Hapgood continued this philanthropic legacy, with Richard Jr. focusing on Native American causes and Elaine focusing on abortion activism and environmentalism.

Mission and Guiding Principles

EFA purports to be a family foundation that aims to create a society with “an inclusive democracy,” in which each person has “unrestricted access to full reproductive freedom” and lives on a “regenerative planet.” It is guided by the left-of-center and critical race theory-influenced concepts of equity, criminal justice reform, structural change, and sustainability.

Grantmaking and Impact Investing

Educational Foundation of America engages in both grantmaking, providing grants to largely left-of-center nonprofits that advocate for political causes, develop policies, and mobilize voters, and “Impact Investing.” It defines impact investing as the practice of selectively investing in corporations based on their fulfillment of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and refusing to invest in companies that do not match up to such criteria. In 2015, EFA claims that its investment portfolio became 100 percent fossil-fuel free, and that year it became a signatory for the anti-fossil fuel Divest-Invest Movement. EFA publicly endorses and supports the Ceres Investor Network, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and Reproductive Healthcare Investors Alliance.

Financial Overview

According to its 2019 tax return, Educational Foundation of America had a total revenue of $13,205,690, spent a total of $10,681,333, and had a total of $162,174,473 in assets per book value ($210,961,787 per fair market value). In 2020, extracted financial data provided by the IRS to ProPublica indicated that Educational Foundation of America had increased its total assets to $250,019,524, had made $15,297,380 in revenue and had made out $9,492,664 in charitable disbursements. In 2020, Educational Foundation of America tax returns reported that the foundation held total assets of $250 million and had made $9.4 million in charitable disbursements that year.

Key Funding Areas

Its three major funding areas are environmentalism, abortion access and reproductive rights advocacy, and voter mobilization and redistricting groups.

Environmentalism

EFA funds groups dedicated to environmental protection and sustainability initiatives.

Abortion Access and Reproductive Rights Advocacy

EFA funds many groups dedicated to abortion advocacy, litigation, policy, and access. Besides those listed above, EFA has funded Blue Ridge Abortion Fund, Catholics for Choice, Kentucky Health Justice Network, Mayday Health, New River Abortion Access Fund, Power to Decide, Resources for Abortion Delivery, Reprocare, RHIA Ventures, and WV Free.

Voter Mobilization and Redistricting

EFA dedicates a large portion of its budget to Democratic-aligned redistricting groups and voter mobilization groups that aim to win elections for Democrats in swing states and in local, state, and national elections generally. EFA even allows people to pitch ideas for activist organizations in exchange for funding per approval as part of its Make Democracy Work program.

Prominent Grantees

Educational Foundation of America has funded many left-of-center organizations over time. In 2019 alone, it gave grants to, among many others, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation for “Latinx Research Insights,” Alliance for Youth Organizing for its Engage Miami Civic Fund, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, Animal Legal Defense Fund for its “litigation environmental projects,” Center for Reproductive Rights for “engaging the business community to support reproductive rights project,” Ceres, Clean Energy Works, Common Cause Education Fund, Demos, EcoAmerica, Environmental Defense Fund, Garrison Institute, Guttmacher Institute, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for its carbon pricing project, New Florida Majority Education Fund, People for the American Way Foundation for “Vessels Vote,” several Planned Parenthood branches, Proteus Fund, Spread the Vote, State Innovation Exchange, State Voices, Voter Participation Center, Tides Center, Tides Foundation, Voto Latino Foundation, Women Have Options, Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, and You Can Vote. Recipients of EFA grants besides those listed above include Activate 48 Education Fund, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Arizona Democracy Resource Center, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, Carolina Federation, Center for New Data, Common Cause Education Fund North Carolina, Democracy North Carolina, Detroit Action Education Fund, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Fund, Florida Rising Together, For West Virginia’s Future, Michigan Civic Education Fund, National Redistricting Foundation, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, Promote the Vote Fund, Rising Voices Fund, and Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Read also: Blue Sea Consulting Services

Organizational Structure

In addition to providing nonprofit organizations with grants, EFA aims to connect them with vendors, database technologies, and other resources to extend and amplify their effectiveness. Educational Foundation of America’s board of directors is comprised of members of the third and fourth generations of the Ettinger family, who were the original founders of the organization. Its adjunct committee aims to train family members new to the foundation in philanthropic activities and practices. As of April 2023, its board members included president Heidi Ettinger, vice president Wendy Ettinger, treasurer Bobbi Hapgood, Matthew Hapgood, Matthew Ettinger, and Christian Ettinger. Its adjunct committee was made up of chairman Chris Renner, vice chair Leland Ettinger, treasurer Melissa Renner, and Secretary Britt Rollins. David Stocks was the executive director of EFA as of April 2023. He was previously the president of Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon in New York and the first executive director of a rail-to-trail conservancy project in Dallas, Texas.

American Heritage Education: A Counterpoint

American heritage education is a curriculum-reform initiative that supports the teaching of fundamentals that have made America a strong and prosperous nation. education reformists have petitioned curriculum reform that would use facts about America's history to teach citizenship, democracy, and patriotism to the next generation. Some groups, such as the American Heritage Education Foundation, have packaged educational programs for K-12 teachers that include content related to historical events, symbols, documents and biographies. Critics of this approach favor a curriculum that focuses on the development of critical thinking that can prepare a citizenry to embrace democratic principles and enable them to evolve a democratic future. Both groups agree that the reformed curriculum should teach students what being an American means, but what the curriculum should be and how "American" is defined continues to be deliberated.

The American Heritage Education Foundation (AHEF)

An active national group that is focused on creating a curriculum to promote a unified citizenry is the American Heritage Education Foundation (AHEF). The Texas-based organization collaborates nationally with school districts, government, businesses, churches, and non-profit and professional organizations to advance American heritage education.

AHEF's Formula for American Success

While preparing a mission statement for the organization, the three founders of the American Heritage Education Foundation desired to define a "formula" to explain America's success. They believed it would be worthwhile to teach the formula for the advancement and success of America. After several hours of conversation and contemplation, the three settled on an arrangement of general national character traits that became the basis for creating an American heritage curriculum. They identified four central themes to make up America's formula for success-freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility

Freedom

AHEF founders suggested that the first and most important characteristic was freedom, supported by the fact that the nation's founders were common people without class distinctions or nobility. The colonists “believed that a Creator endowed all men, including commoners, with the equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Given a philosophical belief that their freedom was a gift from God, and not a privilege granted by a monarch, America's founders committed to achieve ultimate freedom from England. Freedom in the United States has always been viewed as a gift from God because it affirms the idea that freedom for all is unalienable and cannot be taken away by another human being”

Read also: Shaping the Future of Translation

Unity

Unity is considered to be the second most significant characteristic of the country. After a long and difficult war to achieve freedom from England, the country was challenged to find a way to govern themselves that everyone would agree with despite the differences of nationalites and characteristics among the colonies and colonists. With all their differences, the original thirteen colonies knew they must join together for their own continuation and success. The first words of the Constitution, "We the people" express national unity as does the first national motto "E Pluribus Unum" (the Latin phrase for "From Many, One"). Americans have the right to reveal individual beliefs but also the opportunity and responsibility to listen to their fellow Americans.

Progress

Progress is identified as the third most important characteristic which is supported by the nation's social, economic, transportation, communication, health, and living advances. They discussed four ingredients-freedom, capital investment, energy, and education-as vital for each generation to increase the output of goods and services. To add perspective regarding the importance of progress, they cited lifestyle data from 1902: “the average life expectancy was 47 years; only 14% of homes had a bathtub; only 8% of homes had a telephone; there were only 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads; the average worker earned between $200 and $400 per year; the airplane, insulin, penicillin, antibiotics, radio, television, and washing machines were some key American inventions that had not yet been discovered”

Responsibility

The AHEF founders identified responsibility as the fourth most important characteristic of America's success formula, pointing out that Americans contribute time and resources to help others. In addition to philanthropists, nearly half of the adult population contributes volunteer hours each week in the fields of education, health and human services, youth development, and religion. They suggest that the country's free market economy has proven itself to be successful in allowing wealth to help those that are less fortunate.

Traditional vs. Revisionist History

The controversy about utilizing history as a tool in teaching citizenship, democracy, and patriotism is appearing all over the country, especially where special consideration is being given to social studies and history requirements. The national debate regarding history: “pits what is being called "traditional history" against "revisionism" (the continual exploration and reinterpretation of the past). Revisionist history is often blamed for being critical of the United States and for not conveying the singularity of the American experience and the significance of the nation's values”

Those who support traditional history maintain “that in the aftermath of 9/11, it is more important than ever for students to learn the history of the nation, the principles on which it was founded, the workings of its government, the origins of its freedom”. They purport that history also educates students on how to be good citizens, to have knowledge about their own nation as well as its relation to other countries.

The General Education Board: A Historical Precedent

The General Education Board was a private organization which was used primarily to support higher education and medical schools in the United States, and to help rural white and black schools in the South, as well as modernize farming practices in the South. The Board was created in 1902 after John D. Rockefeller donated an initial $1 million (equivalent to $37,211,500 in 2025) to its cause. The Rockefeller family would eventually give over $180 million to fund the General Education Board. Prominent member Frederick Taylor Gates envisioned "The Country School of To-Morrow," wherein "young and old will be taught in practicable ways how to make rural life beautiful, intelligent, fruitful, re-creative, healthful, and joyous". By 1934 the Board was making grants of $5.5 million a year.

Key Objectives of the General Education Board

The promotion of practical farming in the southern states.
The establishment of public high schools in the southern states.
The promotion of institutions of higher learning.
Schools for Negroes.

tags: #educational #foundation #of #america #history