Our history

Anita McCormick Blaine created The New World Foundation in 1954, with a bequest of almost $7,000,000. She was the granddaughter of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper.

Blaine was aware of the extraordinary material advances of the industrial revolution. At the same time, she believed it had wounded society deeply and created enormous injustices. She believed that private wealth must be used for the public good.

Blaine was an ardent supporter of worker safety, voting rights for women, union organizing and universal public education. At the beginning of the Cold War, she opposed aggressive U.S. foreign policy and became a major donor to independent politics and the peace movement. She was adamantly against war.

Her daughter Nancy continued the tradition, becoming a progressive activist, and marrying Gil Harrison, the editor of political magazine, The New Republic in its liberal heyday.

Anita McCormick Blaine’s commitment to education, children, workers and the entire global community continue to shape our central mission: to build social movements that shift the balance of power toward democracy and justice.

In the last 50 years, New World has recognized that the communities that experience injustice are themselves crucial to overcoming it. Through the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, New World's family-led Board became more familiar with democratic movements, and transitioned from a Board of social elites, to one of community organizers, movement thinkers and leaders.

In 1994 New World evolved from a private national foundation to a public charity in order to add new financial resources to its own. Our grantmaking programs have become collaborative funds, and we engage with donors and other foundations to understand the field, support exemplary work, and develop innovative new ways of working towards social justice.

The New World Foundation has distributed nearly $50,000,000 to grantees over the last 15 years. In 2008 we are poised to invest, approximately 10 million dollars of our own assets and partnerships with donors.