Century Foundation

The Century Foundation is a non-profit research institution headquartered in New York City. The foundation supports the study of political and economic issues in the United States through the funding of research projects-primarily books and reports, but also pamphlets, papers, committees, task forces, conferences, seminars, and educational films-with the goal of analyzing and improving public policy. While the Century Foundation has supported research on the American economy and its effects on the democracy since its founding, funded authors and task forces have also examined issues surrounding the media, education policy, social justice, the electoral system, social security, and foreign policy.

The organization was founded as The Cooperative League by entrepreneur Edward Filene. With his brother Lincoln, Edward Filene ran the William Filene's Sons company, responsible for Filene's department store and Filene's Basement located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The Cooperative League formed in 1906, and its earliest purpose was to study economic and industrial issues. Through the organization's work, Filene hoped to directly support the establishment of credit unions in the United States. The Cooperative League was headed by a board of three trustees: the Filene brothers and Louis Brandeis, an attorney and later Supreme Court justice. The board met annually, though there is scant documentation of its earliest years or the specific types of activities the board pursued prior to the 1920s.

...