The Work And Regulatory Mechanism Of The Donation From The U.S Private Foundations For Higher Education

Douglass North, a winner of the Nobel economics prize, who is also a leading figure of the new institutional economics, believes that behavior is decided by system, which consists of formal constraints and informal constraints. The former refers to the constraints of national constitution, laws, rules and regulations, while the latter, religion, culture, tradition and convention and so on. Douglass North's theory holds that the motive force of the private foundations is the kinetic energy produced under the constraints of religion, culture and convention to people, and its auxiliary force is the kinetic energy produced under the constraints of national constitution, laws, rules and regulations. This theory is used in this thesis to define the motive force and auxiliary force of the donation from private foundations.The strong motive force and auxiliary force from philanthropy sources in developed countries is the basic element of philanthropy. In America, donation from private foundations to higher education has a long history of over one hundred years with long-time philanthropy tradition of religion and culture, as well as much practical experience. Private foundations take an immeasurable effect to society development, especially to the development of American higher education, which has the great use beyond that of other national foundations. So the author analyses the motive and auxiliary force of the U.S private foundations, that is, the history of foundation donation and its force factors, especially the main methods and patterns of its work and supervision. Under this analysis, the author wants to provide her comments and proposals for the improvement of China's supervision and work mechanism of donations from private foundations to higher education relating to its development status and present problems, gaining insights from the operation of U.S private foundations.