Philanthropy In World War 2

In chapter 5 Zunz talks much about what kind of effect philanthropy had on post World War II reconstruction. Zunz starts the chapter by saying that “the clear division of labor between government and civil society that the New Deal had insisted upon to lift the country out of the Great Depression became irrelevant during and after World War II.” Basically what Zunz was saying was that even though government and philanthropy were seen to be separate organizations or institutions, they came together after World War II in order to rebuild, much like they had come together during World War I in order to support the war. Several foundations, especially the Ford Foundation, had contributed large amounts of aid towards rebuilding local societies in
The American Government had worries that the money leaving from private philanthropists would find its way into the hands of Nazi Germany, and because of this President Roosevelt had required all agencies that contributed to wartime activities to register with the Department of State. Once America had officially joined in on the war the President’s War Relief Control Board was created and it launched large campaigns in order to raise funds for troops and victims of the war. Winston Aldrich was the head of the campaign and he had joined forces with local community chests in order to create the National War Fund. This is a prime example of the merging of government and philanthropy in order to fund relief of the war. Another example of organizations that were not made possible without philanthropy was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, or UNRRA. Created in 1943 the UNRRA’s goal was to provide basic commodities such as food and medicine to help in rehabilitation. After America had closed their newly founded OFRRO they had become part of the UNRRA, which they quickly became the leading funders due to private donations. One problem that the UNRRA had during the war was distributing aid to unstable areas. Herbert Lehman had attempted to have the army distribute the aid that was collected, but needed assistance from President Roosevelt in order to make it happen. After Lehman had requested enough, Roosevelt instructed the War Shipping Administration to make room for the UNRRA aid. Personally, I believe that this is one of the best examples of how government and private individualized donations can be merged in order to support one goal. With private donors providing the money and physical aid, it should be the government's job, or obligation to disburse the aid, especially