The vast fortunes of Gilded Age and Progressive Era industrialists gave rise to private foundations, such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford, which dominated the 20^th Century philanthropic landscape. Over the past decades, the “Big Three” have also commanded the greatest attention of historical scholarship on American philanthropy, which suffers from a discernible East Coast bias.

A century later, amid a second Gilded Age, the mega fortunes of Silicon Valley tycoons have ushered in a seemingly new era of philanthropy by applying business techniques and ways of thinking in the form of venture philanthropy, strategic philanthropy, and impact investing, to their charitable impulses – trends that have seen widespread adoption across the entire social sector, whose traditional boundaries are increasingly becoming blurred.

While ‘philanthrocapitalism’ may appear like a recent innovation, upon closer inspection one can trace the antecedents of a distinctive West Coast way of giving to an earlier generation of transformative foundations hailing from the Golden State that have either been ignored by scholars or overshadowed in the press by philanthropic newcomers.

This panel explores the evolution of West Coast Philanthropy using an interdisciplinary approach, in an attempt to better understand the distinguishing characteristics of this understudied regional philanthropic ecosystem. We will tackle such questions as: In what ways did aspects of the nascent Silicon Valley revolution influence the practice of philanthropy during the immediate postwar decades? How did Hewlett, Packard, and other West Coast philanthropic pioneers shape the 20^th and 21^st century trajectory of the state of California? How did the Bay Area’s built environment shape philanthropy, civic engagement, and voluntarism? Can we discern from the histories of California-based foundations and charities a new “Gospel of Wealth” or distinct West Coast tradition of philanthropy?

Our panel will feature two panelists, who will examine the exogenous and endogenous forces that shaped the region’s philanthropic landscape during the first and second halves of the 20^th Century. The other two panelists will bring the concept of West Coast Philanthropy as a distinctive form of philanthropic giving into sharper focus by engaging with two postwar foundations, whose grantmaking has left a profound mark on West Coast social, environmental, and political causes. All four panelists will be anchoring their research firmly within a San Francisco Bay Area context.

Marta Gutman will discuss the physical landscape and built environment of the Bay Area charities in the first half of the 20^th Century.

Micah McElroy will move the panel into the present by discussing the development of entrepreneurial forms of philanthropy in the West Coast region.

Tim Mueller will discuss the Hewlett Foundation (1966) and explore some of the internal and external sources of influence (Hewlett family, Hewlett-Packard Company, San Francisco Foundation, Roger Heyns, Vietnam War protests, etc.) that shaped the philanthropic agenda of the Foundation during its first decades of operation, and arguably ever since.

Asher Orkaby will discuss the Packard Foundation (1964), highlighting the pioneering role played by Lucile Packard in the first two decades of grantmaking.