Carnegie Foundation is a philanthropic trust set up by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 as a pension fund for college teachers. In 1906 it was renamed the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) and its mission was expanded to include educational studies, many of which have profoundly influenced American educational standards and policies.

For the first few years of the Foundation's existence, its principal function was in selecting eligible institutions and establishing rules for receiving retirement allowances. The resulting financial obligations ended up being greatly in excess of the CFAT resources. By 1917 the CFAT trustees concluded, after an extensive study, that a pension system paid out of income at no cost to beneficiary is expensive beyond all estimates and anticipation. In 1917-1918, under an arrangement negotiated by Andrew Carnegie and the CFAT the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave $1 million to found the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association of America (now TIAA-CREF), an occupation-wide contributory plan, believed by some to embody more closely Carnegie's original vision of the teachers' pension plan.

The second purpose of the foundation, educational inquiry, was furthered by its efforts in surveying professional education and fostering professional standards in medicine (Flexner, 1910), law (Reed, 1921), engineering (Mann, 1918), teaching, and other disciplines.

The CFAT was controlled by a self-perpetuating board of 25 trustees, chiefly presidents of colleges and universities. When Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) was founded in 1911, it shared office space with the Foundation; it was written in its constitution that the CFAT president would always hold one of the CCNY trustee seats. Henry Smith Pritchett was the first CFAT president, followed by Henry Suzzallo (1930-1933), Walter A. Jessup (1933-1944), and Oliver Carmichael (1945–1953). Since 1955, the CCNY president John W. Gardner and then Alan Pifer served as "part-time" CFAT presidents, shouldering the administrative responsibilities, while Clark Kerr was responsible for program.

Throughout the late sixties and seventies, the Carnegie Foundation enjoyed renewed prominence due to the timely policy studies by the Carnegie Commission of Higher Education (and the subsequent Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education) both directed by Clark Kerr and funded by the CCNY. The CFAT was closely affiliated with Carnegie Corporation of New York until the early 1980s, when it moved to new separate headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. Since 1997, the Carnegie Foundation has been located in California.