Ford Foundation
June 18, 2015 at 1:56 pm
Last week, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, announced that the foundation would shift its programming to focus exclusively on grantmaking that addresses inequality. In many ways, the move was very much in character for the evident culture and values set of the current leadership: “Among these many trends, the one we returned to…
January 6, 2015
The number of foundation grants and the total amount given to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning issues set new records in 2013, according to a report released this month by Funders for LGBTQ Issues. The report found that U.S. foundations in 2013 awarded 4,152 grants to organizations and programs focused on LGBTQ issues, totaling $129 million, a 6.3 percent increase over 2012.
October 23, 2014
A new research report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) reveals that most nonprofits are using beneficiary feedback to improve their programs, but leaders of those organizations believe most of their foundation funders lack a deep understanding of their intended beneficiaries’ needs. The report describes how in the eyes of nonprofits leaders, the foundations that best understand their beneficiaries’ needs are deeply connected — and actively engaged — with their work and are open, humble and collaborative in their approach.
April 7, 2014
The economic recovery is not offering signs of relief for the nonprofit sector, and many organizations are now looking to new models of funding, according the results of the Nonprofit Finance Fund's 2014 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey. Leaders from more than 5,000 nonprofits nationwide participated in this sixth annual survey. Many reported daunting financial situations and said they are looking at new ways to secure the future of their organizations for the benefit of the people they serve.
February 12, 2014
The $1 billion major gift to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, is the capstone of a long-term strategy to reinvent the foundation in a way that makes it as cutting-edge as the ventures of Silicon Valley’s high-tech donors. Similar calls for modernization are being made across the country by community funds.
February 3, 2014
The online world is full of anonymous opinions: Diners review restaurants, students rate professors, patients evaluate doctors. Now fundraisers are getting their turn. A new website, Inside Philanthropy, is asking them to “Speak Truth to Money” and say what they really think about foundations, program officers and philanthropists.
The anonymous-ratings feature is part of a broader effort by the online venture’s founder, David Callahan, to penetrate philanthropy’s inner sanctums.
November 5, 2012
Multi-year funding dipped and general operating support for nonprofits remained stagnant during the past several years. These are the findings of two new studies released today by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), the country’s independent watchdog of philanthropy. According to the The Philanthropic Landscape: The State of Multi-Year Funding, reported multi-year grantmaking in 2009 fell 21 percent to $5.5 billion during a time when total grantmaking declined only by 13 percent. General operating support (or core support) from 2008 to 2010 fared slightly better, according to The State of General Operating Support.
October 10, 2012
The Ford Foundation announced a five-year, $25 million commitment to help end child marriage, a harmful practice that afflicts the lives of 10 million girls in dozens of countries around the world each year. These girls are routinely married off, often against their will, with one in seven married before age 15.
The announcement came at a State Department event to observe the first International Day of the Girl Child.
July 19, 2012
With a new $50 million program, the Ford Foundation is seeking to build human-rights organizations in far corners of the world.
The money will be awarded over five years to advocacy groups in non-Western countries in recognition that new voices on human rights are emerging around the globe.
June 13, 2012
ArtPlace announced $15.4 million in grants for 47 projects nationwide to support the use of the arts to improve quality of place and transform communities.
ArtPlace received almost 2200 letters of inquiry from organizations seeking a portion of the $15.4 million available for grants in this cycle. Inquiries came from 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York is the top-ranked recipient of ArtPlace awards in 2012. The museum will receive a $350,000 grant.
