The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation

Private foundation

A private foundation is a legal entity set up by an individual, a family or a group of individuals, for a purpose such as philanthropy. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $38 billion in assets...

 based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family

Rockefeller family

The Rockefeller family , the Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller , is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German origin that made one of the world's largest private fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th...

, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller

John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...

 ("Senior"), along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...

 ("Junior"), and Senior's principal business and philanthropic advisor, Frederick Taylor Gates

Frederick Taylor Gates

Frederick Taylor Gates was an American Baptist clergyman, educator, and the principal business and philanthropic advisor to the major oil industrialist and philanthropist John D...

, in New York State May 14, 1913, when its charter was formally accepted by the New York State Legislature.
Its central historical mission is "to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world."

Some of its objectives and achievements include:

• Financially supported education in the United States "without distinction of race, sex or creed"
• Helped establish the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom;
• Established the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health
  Harvard School of Public Health
  The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...
  
  , two of the first such institutions in the United States;
• Developed the vaccine to prevent yellow fever
  Yellow fever
  Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
  
  ;
• Funded the work of dozens of Nobel Laureates
• Helped found The New School
  The New School
  The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
  
  
• Supported the establishment of a large range of American and international cultural institutions;
• Funded agricultural development to expand food supplies around the world.

Although it is no longer the largest foundation by assets, the Rockefeller Foundation's pre-eminent legacy ranks it among the most influential NGOs in the world.