Philanthropic foundations have become increasingly important in present-day societies. In relation to governance, they represent some specific features. Like corporations, they are subject to regulation, but they differ by having neither owners nor customers. This makes the governance of foundations an important issue for study. At the same time, governance by foundations is likewise of importance. It includes the role of foundations in corporate governance based on their ownership in corporations and their role in resource allocation based on the returns of their assets. Against this background, this article addresses three research questions: (1) What are the characteristics of the governance of foundations? (2) What role do foundations play for corporate governance? (3) What role do foundations play for resource allocation? In order to contribute to answering these questions this article provides an analysis of the first centenary (1917−2017) of a major Swedish philanthropic foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. It is concluded that successful foundation governance is characterized by (1) rule compliance, (2) loyalty to the founders, and (3) legitimacy among prospective grantees. Additional conclusions are that the larger, the more concentrated, and the more long-term the asset portfolio, the more significant will be the role a foundation may play in corporate governance, and the more successful asset management and the more careful project selection, the more significant will be the role a foundation may play in resource allocation. In addition, the article demonstrates the reciprocal relationships between foundations, corporations, and grantees.

慈善基金会在当今社会变得越来越重要。就治理而言，它们代表了一些特定的特征。与公司一样，它们也受监管，但它们的不同之处在于既没有所有者也没有客户。这使得基金会的治理成为研究的一个重要问题。同时，通过治理基础同样重要。它包括基金会在基于其对公司所有权的公司治理中的作用以及基于其资产回报在资源配置中的作用。在此背景下，本文提出了三个研究问题：（1）基金会治理的特点是什么？(2) 基金会在公司治理中扮演什么角色？（3）基金会在资源配置中起什么作用？为了有助于回答这些问题，本文对瑞典主要慈善基金会 Knut 和 Alice Wallenberg 基金会的第一个百年（1917-2017 年）进行了分析。得出的结论是，成功的基金会治理具有以下特点：（1）遵守规则，（2）对创始人的忠诚，以及（3）潜在受助人的合法性。其他结论是，资产组合越大、越集中、越长期，基金会在公司治理中的作用就越重要，资产管理越成功，项目选择越谨慎，更重要的是基金会在资源分配中可能发挥的作用。此外，文章还展示了基金会、公司和受助人之间的相互关系。