This pronouncement suggests how France differs from America in this respect. In the United States, private institutions--schools, conservatories, hospitals, universities--are very often the richest and most prestigious of their kind, while this is rarely the case in France. The government-run conservatories are showered with resources while their private counterparts must make do by raising money in a country where there are few private foundations and little tradition of giving for activities that are regarded as the province of the state.