Founded in 1925 as the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, the Progress and Poverty Institute was created to share the ideas of Henry George – especially those put forth in his seminal work Progress and Poverty – with the world.  

Throughout our 100 year history we have fulfilled that mission through a combination of original research and publishing, distribution of George’s original books and speeches, and by providing support for the efforts of like-minded individuals from a variety of disciplines.  In recent years, we have added college scholarships and a library and archive to our programmatic portfolio, further ensuring that current generations of community practitioners and scholars have access to George’s ideas and are empowered to incorporate them into a variety of modern contexts.

In this, our Centennial year, the Progress and Poverty Institute will pursue two simultaneous aims.  We will, of course, be celebrating our 100 year anniversary – a milestone few nonprofit organizations reach – with a series of centennial articles, the release of a new Henry George Political Cartoon Archive, and a virtual celebration (which we’ll host the day after what would be Henry George’s 128th birthday).  But we’ll also be dedicating this year to charting a new course for the next century, one that recognizes that while the world may be much different than it was at our founding, Henry George’s teachings retain their power to illuminate the human condition and guide us towards the economic equity we so desperately need in the 21st Century.