The Ford Foundation announced today the election of two new members, Laurene Powell Jobs and Richard Verma, to its board of trustees.
With input from about 200 disability leaders, Ford’s first-ever U.S. Disability Rights program will focus on economic justice, building a diverse disability leadership pipeline, countering stigma, and strengthening organizations.
In an open letter to leaders of the World Bank and IMF, the world’s largest philanthropies form alliance to support global recovery efforts.
Aniagolu-Okoye to lead the foundation’s office of West Africa and oversee its grantmaking, external relations and local operations based in Lagos
Grantmaking, outreach, and advocacy for equal access to vaccines across the Global South
The Nigeria Youth Futures Fund is launching with $5 million in seed funding from the Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation.
In June, the Generation Equality Forum in Paris set the stage for achieving gender equality with a strong feminist and intersectional agenda. Nicolette Naylor and Cecile Richards outline the path forward and what's really needed to make gender equality a sustainable reality.
Today, the Ford and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations announced more than $7.5 million in seed funding for the HouseUS Fund, a pooled philanthropic fund dedicated to supporting grassroots and community-led solutions to the housing crisis.
In the Global South, civic space is shrinking and inequality is growing. To disrupt narratives that drive this, Ford and partners are investing $30 million to fund deeper collaborations between content creators and civic leaders.
The Ford Foundation is proud to share the results of our most recent Grantee Perception Report that we conduct frequently to find out where we’re succeeding and how we can become an even more effective philanthropy.
The Ford Foundation is proud to share the results of our most recent Grantee Perception Report that we conduct frequently to find out where we’re succeeding and how we can become an even more effective philanthropy.
La Fundación Ford se enorgullece de compartir los resultados de nuestro Informe de Percepción de donatarias más reciente que realizamos con frecuencia para averiguar dónde estamos teniendo éxito y cómo podemos convertirnos en una organización filantrópica aún más eficaz.
Initial $250 million committed to pursue comprehensive justice reforms that advance racial equity and inclusive post-pandemic recovery
The Justice and Mobility Fund boosts the economic mobility of the 77 million people in the U.S. who have criminal records, from skills training and employment support.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation today announced the inaugural cohort of the newly established Latinx Artist Fellowship.
Twenty six years after the World Conference in Beijing, progress has been made but not enough. At the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, world leaders committed to do more—and Darren Walker, with Justin Trudeau and Theo Sowa, outlined what’s at stake—and what Ford and partners are doing to finally make gender equality happen.
Three major foundations among donors investing $20 million to support this work
Multi-Year Pledge to Address Growing Inequality as COVID-19 Forces 47 Million More Women into Extreme Poverty; $159 Million Earmarked for UN Women Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence in South Africa, West Africa, India, and Latin America
Grants from proceeds of Ford’s historic social bond offering will fortify organizations advancing justice
Unprecedented collaborative fund will invest in care for all with respect and equity, creating quality, affordable care with fair wages and benefits for care workers.
Valdés joins Ford at a critical juncture for the program, bringing decades of expertise and a deep commitment to social justice
Foundation commits another $1b to flexible funding
Rich countries are hoarding vaccines. This has to stop. Until we are all vaccinated, we are all vulnerable.
The Ford Foundation grieves the loss of a dear colleague, Innocent Chukwuma, Director of Ford’s West Africa Office.
Funders helped nonprofits respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in unprecedented ways. Now is the time to build on those efforts—and address systemic racism.
Black women have been disproportionately affected by the health and economic crises of COVID-19. Darren Walker writes in The Root that to achieve gender equality, Black women and girls, who have long led movements for justice, must have the resources they need—starting with the Black Feminist Fund.
The Black Feminist Fund is launching with $15 million in seed funding from the Ford Foundation
First Global Fund focused on significantly increasing funds for Black feminist organizations across Africa, Europe, and the Americas
Financial resilience isn’t just about money. Values, tradition, trust and more are key elements in creating and sustaining funding relationships and practices that put indigenous and traditional Peoples’ organizations on solid financial ground.
Ford Foundation, Borealis Philanthropy, Center for Cultural Power, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and National Association for Latino Arts and Culture launch "Reclaiming the Border Narrative," an effort to penetrate and shape the national attention about migration and the border through authentic storytelling.
$1.3 million for research to explore how communities that produce open source code are crucial to address issues ranging from COVID-19 to climate change.
Philanthropies join forces to support global research that explores how communities that produce open source code are crucial to addressing issues ranging from COVID-19 to climate change.
As the world praises Amanda Gorman for her inauguration performance, Judy Diers calls on us to dismantle white supremacy. Diers offers how we can build a world where black girls like Amanda aren’t an exception but the norm.
The far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against racial injustice have prompted many statements of solidarity and promise of change. Hilary Pennington offers four concrete lessons for turning promising words into deep action.
An internationally recognized leader and scholar on extractive industries, environmental governance, and rural livelihoods, Bebbington leads the Natural Resources and Climate Change team that supports efforts by rural, low-income, indigenous, traditional, and Afrodescendant communities fighting for land rights and good governance over natural resources in their territories.
An interim report shows that the BUILD model has helped organizations be more “2020 proof.” But questions remain about the long-term impacts.
Millions of American workers have been devastated by the economic fallout of COVID-19. The Families and Workers Fund is reimagining an economy for everyone, by advancing direct relief and a long-term equitable recovery with and for workers. The fund has grown to nearly $30M, resulting in impact for hundreds of thousands of people in need.
Today the Ford Foundation announced its overall 2019 and 2020 grant funding for social justice documentary film projects. JustFilms, part of the foundation's Creativity and Free Expression program, provided $8.1 million total in funding to support development, production and post-production for 77 short and feature length documentary projects and series.
Nicolette Naylor spoke with Leadership Magazine SA about her journey into philanthropy after growing up in apartheid South Africa, the importance of ending gender-based violence, and the fight for social justice in the Global South.
In the wake of COVID-19 and new urgency for racial justice, bringing grantee partners and community members into the grantmaking process is vital. A set of research projects on how to expand and strengthen this practice is underway.
Fifteen percent of people live with a disability, and most will experience temporary or permanent disability in their lives, yet discrimination and inequality is rampant. Here are five ways nonprofits can contribute to the full participation of disabled people.
In Nonprofit Quarterly, Nicolette Naylor and grantee partner Collective Future Fund show it's more important than ever for philanthropy to support work and organizations led by black women around the world, who are often at the forefront of global social change movements.
As the world reckons with the legacy of anti-Blackness and white supremacy, they make the case that centering the needs and experiences of Black women is key to addressing many social justice issues we face.
COVID-19 has been a stark and urgent reminder of the flaws in the funding system. The success of movements for racial, economic and environmental justice depend on meeting this moment with lasting reform. Our BUILD and FIRE programs offer a way forward.
The Ford Foundation announced the election of Samantha Power to serve as a member of its Board of Trustees
Today, the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced the Disability Futures Fellows.
Ford Foundation will double funding for racial justice groups with new funding from its sale of $1 billion in social bonds.
The Ford Foundation joined twenty-one foundations and major donors that have pledged to redouble their commitments to Puerto Rico as the island and its people continue to recover from 2017's Hurricane Maria, ongoing natural disasters, and the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twenty-one grant makers led by the Ford Foundation and Filantropia Puerto Rico have pledged to redouble their support of recovery efforts in Puerto Rico three years after Hurricane Maria barreled through the island. Ford has committed $10 million to help rebuild.
“America’s Cultural Treasures” initiative will provide multi-year grants to sustain vital organizations in the face of COVID-19 pandemic
768 Critical Arts and Social Service Nonprofits Across the Five Boroughs Received Support to Weather Onset of Pandemic
Darren Walker's TED Interview on the Covid-19 pandemic and philanthropy
Several scams in the form of email, phone, and text and social media message solicitations claiming to be from or associated with the Ford Foundation and/or Darren Walker are circulating.
The Response & Vision Fund launches today to support community-led and civil society organizations, workers’ rights groups and social movements that work with those most impacted by the economic fallout of Covid-19.
Working people in the global South have been devastated by the economic fallout from COVID-19. This piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy explores how funders joined forced to launch the Response and Vision Fund to advance a global economy that benefits all people and the planet.
In a powerful opinion piece in The New York Times, Darren Walker argues that capitalism must be reformed if we are to save democracy and challenge inequality in the US.
The Ford Foundation announced the pricing and sale of a $1 billion Social Bond, the net proceeds of which will help support and strengthen nonprofit organizations hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic. This Social Bond is the first-ever such offering by a U.S. nonprofit foundation in the taxable corporate bond market.
The fund will provide much needed capital to emerging impact businesses that lack access to adequate affordable capital and expand racial and gender diversity in the community development field.
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation take extraordinary action to increase support to nonprofits faced with an unprecedented crisis due to Covid-19.
Ford is first nonprofit foundation to offer ESG bonds for social impact to strengthen nonprofits affected by the global pandemic and epidemic of social injustice
Ford joins the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to over $1.7 billion to the nonprofit sector
Foundation commits $50 million investment to support the development of 240 global fellows over 10 years, introduces inaugural cohort of 24 emerging social change leaders.
As the world continues to grapple with the devastating effects of COVID-19, Presidents' Council co-chairs Darren Walker and Rich Besser urge funders to put disability rights front and center of their giving.
As the coronavirus leaves America's workers vulnerable to economic hardship and infection, the Ford Foundation's Sarita Gupta and Open Society Foundations' Tom Perriello make the case for building an economy that truly works for everyone and prepares the country for the next inevitable crisis.
The Disability Inclusion Fund, an initiative supported by Ford and leading philanthropies, launched a $200,000 rapid response fund to support the needs of people with disabilities impacted by the coronavirus.
The fund has raised more than $95 million from 500 donors, with $44 million already awarded to support 276 critical New York City nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nonprofit Quarterly spotlights how the Families and Workers Fund represents a crucial recognition by the philanthropic community of the vital need to facilitate direct cash support to workers impacted by COVID-19.
In Barron's, Sarita Gupta underscores how the Families and Workers Fund serves as a much needed vehicle that brings together philanthropies and high-net-worth individuals to help millions of impacted workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Philanthropy News Digest profiles the Families and Workers Fund's unique two-tier approach: facilitating direct cash support for workers and ensuring workers and their families are central to immediate and long-term economic responses.
With an aim of raising $20 million, and initial commitment of over $7 million, a new rapid response fund advances direct cash support and policy responses for and with working families affected by COVID-19.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy profiles the Families and Workers Fund, launched by Ford and seven other grant makers to support low-wage workers hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ford Foundation today announced the appointment of Depelsha McGruder as Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer.
This is a public health crisis that threatens to become a humanitarian disaster.
The Ford Foundation announces the launch of a $75-million fund to support New York City nonprofits in the COVID-19 pandemic in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, Robin Hood and a number of other funders.
More than 40 major foundations pledged their commitment to more flexible funding to help grantee partners meet emergency needs prompted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Ford Foundation trustees elected to the board Thomas L. Kempner Jr., co-founder of Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP.
In partnership with the Ford Foundation and a growing group of funders, the Africa No Filter is a donor collaborative that seeks to present more accurate, nuanced and contextualized stories about the 55 countries in Africa today.
The Ford Foundation today announced the appointment of Michele Moore as vice president of Global Communications.
A bold vision for philanthropy in the 21st century is needed—one that moves giving from generosity to justice.
The fellowship is a new Ford Foundation program that aims to identify and connect emerging leaders from across the globe who are advancing innovative ideas and solutions to combat inequality.
We are deeply saddened by the death of Marca Bristo, a legendary disability rights advocate and a grantee of the foundation.
The Ford Foundation Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Utopian Imagination on Tuesday, September 17, with an opening event from 6:00 - 8:00 pm that evening.
The Ford Foundation Gallery’s second exhibition in the “Utopian Imagination” trilogy, titled Radical Love, features 23 artists whose artwork responds to the previous exhibition, Perilous Bodies, by offering love as the answer to a world in peril. The works are grounded in ideas of devotion, abundance, and beauty; here, otherness and marginality is celebrated, adorned, and revered.
Foundations join together in commitment to ensure the photo archive of Johnson Publishing from Ebony and Jet Magazines is preserved so that future generations will be able to view and understand this epoch in time from the African American perspective.
A nationally recognized expert on the economic, labor, and political issues affecting working people, Gupta will lead the dedicated Future of Work(ers) team that is actively shaping a future of work that puts workers and their well-being at the center.
In Inside Philanthropy, Executive Vice President for Programs Hilary Pennington offers recommendations to improve the ways funder collaboratives engage with grantees.
In this Chronicle of Philanthropy op-ed, Bess Rothenberg, Senior director of strategy and learning, argues that our (confirmation) biases in social justice work may be keeping us from unlocking the outcomes we want. She writes that our convictions about what should happen are often so strong that they prevent us from planning for what actually does happen. Using recent examples including current events in Sudan, the piece offers several lessons for how grant makers can challenge their assumptions and get better outcomes for their work.
In Chronicle of Philanthropy's profile on leaders of color, vice president for talent and human resources Diane Samuels speaks about her experience as a leader of color in philanthropy, and shares advice for young people entering the workforce.
In this New York Times Op-Ed, our program officer Chi-hui Yang and Elizabeth Méndez Berry of Nathan Cummings Foundation argue that we have a dangerous blind spot in our national conversation about culture.
In this LA Times piece, GREJ Director Tanya Coke offers commentary on the importance of Ford Foundation trustee and grantee Bryan Stevenson's work over the years to reimagine the criminal justice system in the U.S.
The Ford Foundation trustees elected to the board accomplished leaders Marca Bristo, CEO of Access Living, and Gbenga Oyebode, chairman of the Nigerian law firm Aluko & Oyebode.
The Ford Foundation today announced the appointment of Diane Samuels as vice president for Talent and Human Resources
The Ford Foundation Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Radical Love on Tuesday, June 11, with an opening event from 6:00 - 8:00 pm that evening.
The Ford Foundation announced the opening of its new art gallery, a major new public feature of the renovated Center for Social Justice that will explore multidisciplinary art, performance, and public programming by artists committed to exploring issues of justice and injustice. Below is a collection of select media coverage about the gallery opening.
The Ford Foundation Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, Perilous Bodies, features 19 artists whose artwork explores the inhumanity and injustice created by divisions of gender, race, class, and ethnicity. Below is a collection of select critical reviews about this exhibition.
The Ford Foundation today announced the appointment of Nishka Chandrasoma as its next vice president, secretary, and general counsel of the foundation.
For too long, philanthropy has operated under the premise that disability is a worthy cause, but not ours, write Ford Foundation President Darren Walker and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President Rich Besser. But relegating disability-related issues to a niche grant-making area or, worse, ignoring people with disabilities completely is no longer acceptable.
Cara Mertes discusses how the Ford Foundation's JustFilms initiative tackles the challenges of nonfiction storytelling, and helps create narratives that transform perceptions and change history.
Twenty-one colleges and universities, with the support of the Ford Foundation, New America, and the Hewlett Foundation, today announced the creation of the Public Interest Technology University Network. The Network is dedicated to defining and building the nascent field of public interest technology, as well as growing a new generation of civic-minded technologists and digitally fluent policy leaders.
In 2010, the Ford Foundation became increasingly concerned that too many people—especially historically marginalized communities—were not able to access or benefit from the internet and digital communications technologies.
The Ford Foundation today announced the election of Henry Ford III to serve as a member of its Board of Trustees, marking the first time in more than 40 years that a member of the Ford family will occupy a board seat. Mr. Ford is the great-grandson of Edsel Ford, who created the Ford Foundation in 1936.
In this Reuters piece, JustFilms Director Cara Mertes offers commentary on the importance of telling powerful—and diverse—stories to change discourse in the United States.
In this op-ed, Hilary Pennington, the foundation's executive vice president for program, and Kathy Reich, director of our BUILD program, argue that funders should do a better job of listening to grantees—and recount some of Ford's recent efforts and insights in this area.
The current NYC commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development will bring deep expertise and management experience to the foundation's fight against inequality.
The Ford Foundation Gallery Is a Major New Public Feature of the Renovated Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice
In a feature from Nonprofit Quarterly, Jeanne Bell and Ruth McCambridge explore the changing role and effectiveness of philanthropy through the lens of Ford Foundation's flagship BUILD program:
"We have found in examining this program that it has had some extraordinary effects on grantees and potentially on America's future..."
Ford Foundation technology fellow and political scientist Wilneida Negron writes about her career trajectory as a coder and a social justice advocate for Fast Company's "World Changing Ideas" series. She reflects on the tech industry’s fast-moving, top-down approach, and its social divisions, calling for technologists and tech giants to work toward a more just and fair technological world.
As we prepare to open our doors to our partners and the public, we are pleased to share highlights of press coverage of the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice. These views into our beautiful, renewed home underscore how we’ve made the space more accessible, sustainable, and primed to advance the foundation’s mission.
Writing in Foreign Affairs, Darren Walker surveys the rapidly shifting global order and the role philanthropy has played in creating it—and how the sector can contribute to a more just and sustainable order.
