Community Development

Ford Foundation Grants for Gulf Coast Revitalization to Surpass $20 Million as Anniversary Nears

NEW YORK, 16 August 2006 - The Ford Foundation announced today that its grants for Gulf Coast recovery will surpass $20 million around the time of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The amount doubles the initial commitment made by the foundation in the wake of the disaster.

The funding is the beginning of what Ford says will be a ten year-commitment to promote economic opportunity, affordable housing, voter and workers' rights, strengthen vital cultural institutions, and increase the capacity of local philanthropy to address long-term needs. The $20 million in post-Katrina grants build upon the foundation's long history of work addressing issues of poverty, race, and the renewal of cultural institutions.

"Our grants are about giving local leaders the resources they need to find long-term solutions for their communities," said Susan V. Berresford, President of the Ford Foundation. "We hope that our support can help fuel the creativity, resiliency and determination of the people who are committed to this region and its revitalization. Our support is with them for the long haul."

The foundation has already made over fifty grants in the region. Examples include:

• $950,000 to help establish the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, a new fund created to support local nonprofits working on housing, economic development, land use planning, education and health care
• $1 million to the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta for emergency loans that allowed residents to make critical home repairs, replace destroyed vehicles and secure new apartments
• $600,000 to The Advancement Project, to protect and enforce the housing and voting rights of the displaced
• $200,000 for Tulane University to establish a new Institute for the Study of Race and Poverty to help address the entrenched discrimination and inequality revealed by the storms
• $250,000 to the Community Foundation of South Alabama to help low-income families in Mobile, Alabama rebuild their homes and livelihoods

Ford's first grant came in the immediate aftermath of the disaster: $1 million to the American Red Cross. The foundation then moved to provide additional support to long-standing grantees already working in the region. These grants helped the groups resume and reorient their operations to address the new challenges faced by their communities.

Additional grants are supporting local leaders across the region, representing many different sectors, who are united in the belief that the rebuilding efforts are an opportunity to create a more healthy, equitable, and prosperous region.

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.