Ford Foundation

{{Progressivism|Organizations}}

After its establishment in 1936, the Ford Foundation shifted its focus from Michigan philanthropic support to five areas of action. In the 1950 Report of the Study of the Ford Foundation on Policy and Program, the trustees set forth five "areas of action," according to Richard Magat (2012): economic improvements, education, freedom and democracy, human behavior, and world peace.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OtvTBwAAQBAJ&q=minority&pg=PA18|title=The Ford Foundation at Work: Philanthropic Choices, Methods and Styles|last=Magat|first=Richard|date=2012-12-06|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781461329190|language=en}} These areas of action were identified in a 1949 report by Horace Rowan Gaither.{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=Anna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvBM1BeUwBcC&pg=PA120|title=The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America|publisher=New Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-59558-596-7|page=120|access-date=June 24, 2020}}{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Wilson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFNy-BIExW8C&pg=PA4|title=American Higher Education Transformed, 1940–2005: Documenting the National Discourse|last2=Bender|first2=Thomas|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8018-9585-2|page=4|access-date=June 24, 2020}}

Since the middle of the 20th century, many of the Ford Foundation's programs have focused on increased under-represented or "minority" group representation in education, science and policy-making. For over eight decades their mission decisively advocates and supports the reduction of poverty and injustice among other values including the maintenance of democratic values, promoting engagement with other nations, and sustaining human progress and achievement at home and abroad.

The Ford Foundation is one of the primary foundations offering grants that support and maintain diversity in higher education with fellowships for pre-doctoral, dissertation, and post-doctoral scholarship to increase diverse representation among Native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, and other under-represented Asian and Latino sub-groups throughout the U.S. academic labor market.{{Cite book|last=Smith |first=Daryl|year=1996|title=Achieving Faculty Diversity. Debunking the Myths|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED398785|language=en|publisher=|isbn=9780911696684}}{{Cite book|last1=Knowles|first1=Marjorie Fine|last2=Harleston|first2=Bernard W.|year=1997|title=Achieving Diversity in the Professoriate: Challenges and Opportunities.|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED450619|language=en}} The outcomes of scholarship by its grantees from the late 20th century through the 21st century have contributed to substantial data and scholarship including national surveys such as the Nelson Diversity Surveys in STEM.{{Cite news|url=https://cep.org/making-it-count-the-evolution-of-the-ford-foundations-diversity-data-collection/|title=Making It Count: The Evolution of the Ford Foundation's Diversity Data Collection - The Center for Effective Philanthropy|date=2018-09-20|work=The Center for Effective Philanthropy|access-date=2018-10-20|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=http://datahound.scientopia.org/2015/12/03/nelson-diversity-surveys-a-rich-data-source-regarding-women-and-minorities-in-science/|title=Nelson Diversity Surveys: A Rich Data Source regarding Women and Minorities in Science|date=2015-12-03|work=Datahound|access-date=2018-10-20|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=http://ucd-advance.ucdavis.edu/post/nelson-diversity-surveys|title=Nelson Diversity Surveys - UC Davis ADVANCE|work=UC Davis ADVANCE|access-date=2018-10-20|language=en}}{{Citation|last1=Nelson|first1=Donna J.|title=Diversity in Science: An Overview|date=January 2017|work=ACS Symposium Series|pages=1–12|publisher=American Chemical Society|doi=10.1021/bk-2017-1255.ch001|isbn=978-0841232341|last2=Cheng|first2=H. N.|doi-access=free}}

The foundation was established January 15, 1936, in Michigan by Edsel Ford (president of the Ford Motor Company) and two other executives "to receive and administer funds for scientific, educational and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare."{{cite book| title=Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire| last=Bak| first=Richard| date=3 July 2003| page=217| publisher=Wiley| isbn=978-0471234876}} It was a reaction to FDR's 1935 tax reform introducing 70% tax on large inheritances.{{cite web | url=https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/ford-foundation | title=Ford Foundation }} During its early years, the foundation operated in Michigan under the leadership of Ford family members and their associates and supported the Henry Ford Hospital and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, among other organizations.

After the deaths of Edsel Ford in 1943 and Henry Ford in 1947, the presidency of the foundation fell to Edsel's eldest son, Henry Ford II. It quickly became clear that the foundation would become the largest philanthropic organization in the world. The board of trustees then commissioned the Gaither Study Committee to chart the foundation's future. The committee, headed by California attorney H. Rowan Gaither, recommended that the foundation become an international philanthropic organization dedicated to the advancement of human welfare and "urged the foundation to focus on solving humankind's most pressing problems, whatever they might be, rather than work in any particular field...." The report was endorsed by the foundation's board of trustees, and they subsequently voted to move the foundation to New York City in 1953.{{cite news|url=http://www.philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/michigan-attorney-general-looks-into-policies-of-ford-foundation|title=Michigan Attorney General Looks Into Policies of Ford Foundation|date=11 April 2006|work=Philanthropy News Digest|access-date=2014-05-14}}{{cite news|url=http://www.fordfound.org/newsroom/view_news_detail.cfm?news_index=166|title=Ford Foundation website press release|date=2005-12-02|access-date=2007-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070905140444/http://www.fordfound.org/newsroom/view_news_detail.cfm?news_index=166|archive-date=2007-09-05|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/about-ford/our-origins/ |title=Our origins |website=www.fordfoundation.org |access-date=2022-04-26}}

At the height of the Cold War, the Ford Foundation was involved in several covert operations. At least one of these involved the Fighting Group Against Inhumanity, a CIA-controlled group based in West Berlin that undertook various missions in the East Zone, including intelligence-gathering and sabotage. In 1950, the U.S. government sought to bolster the Fighting Group's legitimacy as a credible independent organization, so the International Rescue Committee was recruited to act as its advocate. With the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, the Ford Foundation was persuaded to give the Fighting Group a grant of $150,000. A press release announcing the grant pointed to the assistance given by the Fighting Group to "carefully screened" defectors to come to the West. The National Committee for a Free Europe, a CIA proprietary, actually administered the grant.Chester, Covert Network, pp. 89–94.

From 1958 to 1965, the Foundation's chairman was John J. McCloy, who in 1942 had founded the Office of Strategic Services, a secretive intelligence agency that would become the Central Intelligence Agency.{{cite book |last1=Bird |first1=Kai |title=The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment |date=1992 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0671454153 |page=130}} McCloy knowingly employed numerous US intelligence agents and, based on the premise that a relationship with the CIA was inevitable, set up a three-person committee responsible for dealing with its requests.{{cite book| last=Saunders| first=Frances Stonor| title=The cultural cold war: the CIA and the world of arts and letters| date=1 April 2001| publisher=New Press| location=New York| isbn=978-1565846647| pages=138–139| quote=Farfield was by no means exceptional in its incestuous character. This was the nature of power in America at this time. The system of private patronage was the pre-eminent model of how small, homogenous groups came to defend America's—and, by definition, their own—interests. Serving at the top of the pile was every self-respecting WASP's ambition. The prize was a trusteeship on either the Ford Foundation or the Rockefeller Foundation, both of which were conscious instruments of covert US policy, with directors and officers who were closely connected to, or even members of American intelligence.}}{{sfn|Saunders|2001|p=141|ps=: "Addressing the concerns of some of the foundation's executives, who felt that its reputation for integrity and independence was being undermined by involvement with the CIA, McCloy argued that if they failed to cooperate, the CIA would simply penetrate the foundation quietly by recruiting or inserting staff at the lower levels. McCloy's answer to this problem was to create an administrative unit within the Ford Foundation specifically to deal with the CIA. Headed by McCloy and two foundation officers, this three-man committee had to be consulted every time the Agency wanted to use the foundation, either as a pass-through, or as cover."}} The CIA channeled funds through Ford Foundation as a part of its efforts to influence culture.Petras, James. "[http://monthlyreview.org/1999/11/01/the-cia-and-the-cultural-cold-war-revisited/ The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited]" ([https://web.archive.org/web/20150426183142/http://monthlyreview.org/1999/11/01/the-cia-and-the-cultural-cold-war-revisited/ Archive] ). Monthly Review. November 1, 1999. Retrieved on April 18, 2015.{{cite journal |last=Troy |first=Thomas M. Jr. |year=2002 |title=The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article08.html |url-status=dead |journal=Studies in Intelligence |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency: Center for the Study of Intelligence |volume=46 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613110501/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article08.html |archive-date=June 13, 2007 |access-date=May 29, 2020}}{{cite journal |last=Epstein |first=Jason |date=20 April 1967 |title=The CIA and the Intellectuals |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1967/apr/20/the-cia-and-the-intellectuals/?pagination=false |journal=New York Review of Books |volume=8 |issue=7 |access-date=2014-05-14}}

Writer and activist Arundhati Roy has said that the foundation, along with the Rockefeller Foundation, supported imperialist efforts by the U.S. government during the Cold War. For example, Roy wrote that the Ford Foundation's establishment of an economics course at the Indonesian University helped align students with the 1965 coup that installed Suharto as president.{{Cite book|title=Capitalism: A Ghost Story|date=2014|last=Roy|first=Arundhati|publisher=Haymarket|isbn=9781608463855| pages=27–28| quote=By the 1950s the Rockefeller and Ford Foundation, funding several NGOs and international educational institutions, began to work as quasi-extensions of the US government, which at the time was toppling democratically elected government in Latin America, Iran, and Indonesia. (That was also around the time it made its entry into India, then non-aligned but clearly tilting toward the Soviet Union.) The Ford Foundation established a US-style economics course at the Indonesian University. Elite Indonesian students, trained in counterinsurgency by US army officers, played a crucial part in the 1965 CIA-backed coup in Indonesia that brought General Suharto to power. He repaid his mentors by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of communist rebels.}}

The board of directors decided to diversify the foundation's portfolio and gradually divested itself of its substantial Ford Motor Company stock between 1955 and 1974. This divestiture allowed Ford Motor to become a public company. Finally, Henry Ford II resigned from his trustee's role in a surprise move in December 1976. In his resignation letter, he cited his dissatisfaction with the foundation holding on to their old programs, large staff and what he saw as anti-capitalist undertones in the foundation's work.{{Cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/12/archives/henry-ford-2d-quits-foundation-urges-appreciation-for-capitalism.html| author = Maurice, Caroll | title=Henry Ford 2d Quits Foundation, Urges Appreciation for Capitalism| newspaper=The New York Times| date=12 January 1977 | access-date=2018-05-21}}{{Cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/03/12/archives/foundation-woes-the-saga-of-henry-ford-ii-part-two-ford-ford.html| author = Weymouth, Lally | title=FOUNDATION WOES THE SAGA OF HENRY FORD II: PART TWO| newspaper=The New York Times| date=12 March 1978 | access-date=2018-05-21}} In February 2019, Henry Ford III was elected to the Foundation's Board of Trustees, becoming the first Ford family member to serve on the board since his grandfather resigned in 1976.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/the-latest/news/ford-foundation-elects-henry-ford-iii-to-board-of-trustees/|title=Ford Foundation elects Henry Ford III to Board of Trustees|website=Ford Foundation|date=22 February 2019 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-23}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/02/22/henry-ford-iii-foundation-trustee/2940596002/|title=First Ford since 1976 named to Ford Foundation board|last=Rubin|first=Neal|website=Detroit News|language=en|access-date=2019-02-23}}

For many years, the foundation topped annual lists compiled by the Foundation Center of US foundations with the most assets and the highest annual giving. The foundation has fallen a few places in those lists in recent years, especially with the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. As of May 4, 2013, the foundation was second in terms of assets{{cite web|publisher=Ford Foundation| url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/how-we-make-grants| title=About| access-date=2021-12-16}} and tenth in terms of annual grant giving.{{cite web|url=http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/topfunders/top100giving.html|title=Top 100 U.S. Foundations by Total Giving|date=26 April 2014|publisher=Foundation Center|access-date=2014-05-11}}

In 2012, the foundation declared that it was not a research library and transferred its archives from New York City to the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York.{{cite press release|url=http://www.rockarch.org/collections/news/fordnews.php|title=Rockefeller Archive Center to House Ford Foundation Records|publisher=Rockefeller Archive Center|date=9 April 2012|access-date=2014-05-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528154557/http://rockarch.org/collections/news/fordnews.php|archive-date=28 May 2014|url-status=dead}}

In 1951, the foundation made its first grant to support the development of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), then known as National Educational Television (NET), which went on the air in 1952.{{cite news| url=http://www.current.org/funding/funding0509ford.shtml| title=Ford outlays seek to broaden 'public media'| last=Behrens| first=Steve| date=16 May 2005| work=Current| access-date=2014-05-14| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515155106/http://www.current.org/funding/funding0509ford.shtml| archive-date=15 May 2012}} These grants continued, and in 1969 the foundation gave $1 million to the Children's Television Workshop to help create and launch Sesame Street.{{cite web| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063951/companycredits| title=Sesame Street: Company Credits| website=Internet Movie Database| access-date=2014-05-14}}

Active from 1951 to 1961, this subsidiary of the Ford Foundation supported initiatives in the field of adult education, including educational television and public broadcasting. During its existence, the FAE spent over $47 million.{{rp|1}} Among its funding programs were a series of individual awards for people working in adult education to support training and field study experiences.{{cite news |title=Ford Fund to Give Aid for Adult Education |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1953/06/28/archives/ford-fund-to-give-aid-for-adult-education.html |access-date=25 April 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=28 June 1953}} The FAE also sponsored conferences on the topic of adult education, including the Bigwin Institute on Community Leadership in 1954 and the Mountain Plains Adult Education Conference in 1957. These conferences were open to academics, community organizers, and members of the public involved in the field of adult education.{{cite news |title=Adult Education Unit Drafts Report |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5AyAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22Fund+for+Adult+Education%22&pg=PA97&article_id=5633,3776804 |access-date=10 May 2023 |work=Sunday Herald |date=25 July 1954 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=U. Conference to Look into Adult Education |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWEzAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22Fund+for+Adult+Education%22&pg=PA5&article_id=7215,3555145 |access-date=10 May 2023 |work=The Deseret News |date=19 March 1957 |language=en}}

In addition to grantmaking to organizations and projects, the FAE established its own programs, including the Test Cities Project and the Experimental Discussion Project.{{cite journal |last1=Edelson |first1=Paul J. |title=Socrates on the Assembly Line: The Ford Foundation's Mass Marketing of Liberal Adult Education |journal=Annual Conference of the Midwest History of Education Society |date=October 1991 |url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED340885}}{{rp|2}} The Experimental Discussion Project produced media that was distributed to local organizations to conduct viewing or listening and discussion sessions. Topics covered included international affairs, world cultures, and United States history.{{cite news |title=New Discussion Programs Offered |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IpaAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22Fund+for+Adult+Education%22&pg=PA37&article_id=4196,1746384 |access-date=10 May 2023 |work=St. Petersburg Times |date=19 October 1952 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Goldschmidt |first1=Walter |title=Ways of Mankind: Adult Discussion Series |date=1954 |publisher=Experimental Discussion Project of the Fund for Adult Education |location=Pasadena, CA |url=https://archive.org/details/naeb-b073-f06}}

Educational theorist Robert Maynard Hutchins helped to found the FAE, and educational television advocate C. Scott Fletcher served as its president.{{rp|8–9}}

The foundation underwrote the Fund for the Republic in the 1950s. Throughout the 1950s, the foundation provided arts and humanities fellowships that supported the work of figures like Josef Albers, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Herbert Blau, E. E. Cummings, Anthony Hecht, Flannery O'Connor, Jacob Lawrence, Maurice Valency, Robert Lowell, and Margaret Mead. In 1961, Kofi Annan received an educational grant from the foundation to finish his studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.{{cite web| url=http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/projects/commemorative-chairs/annan| title=Kofi Annan| publisher=Roosevelt Institute| access-date=2014-05-14| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515022219/http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/projects/commemorative-chairs/annan| archive-date=2014-05-15}}

Under its "Program for Playwrights", the foundation helped to support writers in professional regional theaters such as San Francisco's Actor's Workshop and offered similar help to Houston's Alley Theatre and Washington's Arena Stage.{{cite web| last=Fowler| first=Keith Franklin| year=1969| title=A History of the San Francisco Actor's Workshop| volume=I-II| page=830| publisher=Yale School of Drama Doctor of Fine Arts Dissertations, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library| url=http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=arts:dra.0027&query=&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes&hlon=yes&big=&adv=&filter=&hitPageStart=&sortFields=&view=c01_1#s1| access-date=2012-03-18| archive-date=2013-06-01| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601235030/http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=arts:dra.0027&query=&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes&hlon=yes&big=&adv=&filter=&hitPageStart=&sortFields=&view=c01_1#s1| url-status=dead}}

In the 1960s and 1970s, the foundation gave money to government and non-government contraceptive initiatives to support population control, peaking at an estimated $169 million in the last 1960s.Wooster, Martin. Great Philanthropic Mistakes, second edition (Washington: Hudson Institute, 2010), p. 68–95.{{Cite journal |last1=Harkavy |first1=Oscar |last2=Saunders |first2=Lyle |last3=Southam |first3=Anna L. |date=1968 |title=An Overview of the Ford Foundation's Strategy for Population Work |journal=Demography |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=541–552 |doi=10.2307/2060244 |issn=0070-3370 |jstor=2060244 |s2cid=46952340 |doi-access=free}}[https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/2434/1964-annual-report.pdf Ford Foundation Annual Report 1964]{{Cite journal |last=Hertz |first=Roy |date=1984-02-01 |title=A quest for better contraception: The Ford foundation's contribution to reproductive science and contraceptive development 1959–1983 |url=https://www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/0010-7824(84)90024-6/abstract |journal=Contraception |language=English |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=107–142 |doi=10.1016/0010-7824(84)90024-6 |issn=0010-7824 |pmid=6723310|url-access=subscription }} The foundation ended most support for contraception programs by the 1970s.

Between 1969 and 1978, the foundation was the biggest funder for research into in vitro fertilisation in the United Kingdom, which led to the first baby, Louise Brown born from the technique. The Ford Foundation provided $1,170,194 towards the research.{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.rbms.2015.04.006 |pmid=28299365 |pmc=5341286 |title=The Oldham Notebooks: An analysis of the development of IVF 1969-1978. VI. Sources of support and patterns of expenditure |journal=Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=58–70 |year=2015 |last1=Johnson |first1=Martin H |last2=Elder |first2=Kay }}

In 1968, the foundation began disbursing $12 million to persuade law schools to make "law school clinics" part of their curriculum. Clinics were intended to give practical experience in law practice while providing pro bono representation to the poor. Conservative critic Heather Mac Donald contends that the financial involvement of the foundation instead changed the clinics' focus from giving students practical experience to engaging in leftwing advocacy.{{cite news| first=Heather| last=MacDonald| title=Clinical, Cynical| newspaper=Wall Street Journal| date=11 January 2006| page=A14 | access-date=2017-01-11| url=http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/clinical-cynical-1617.html}} Mac Donald's characterization of clinics as primarily vehicles for leftwing advocacy was disputed in several letters to the editor published two weeks later. See "Letters to the Editor" (25 January 2006). Wall Street Journal. p. A13.

Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1970s, the foundation expanded into civil rights litigation, granting $18 million to civil rights litigation groups.{{cite web|url=http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/descriptive/civil_rights_litigation.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308103035/http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/descriptive/civil_rights_litigation.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-08 |url-status=live|title=Case 36: Social Movements and Civil Rights Litigation", Ford Foundation 1967|last=Schindler|first=Steven|publisher=Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society, Sanford School of Public Policy|access-date=2014-05-14}} The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund was incorporated in 1967 with a $2.2 million grant from the foundation. In the same year, the foundation funded the establishment of the Southwest Council of La Raza, the predecessor of the National Council of La Raza.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf858006dc/admin/|title=Guide to the National Council of La Raza Records,1968-1996|website=www.oac.cdlib.org|access-date=2017-12-08}} In 1972, the foundation provided a three-year $1.2 million grant to the Native American Rights Fund. The same year, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund opened with funding from numerous organizations, including the foundation.{{cite web|url=http://latinojustice.org/about/history|title=Four Decades of Protecting Latino Civil Rights|publisher=Latino Justice|access-date=2014-05-14|archive-date=June 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615010345/http://latinojustice.org/about/history/|url-status=dead}} In 1974, the foundation contributed funds to the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/wcs01|title=Southwest Voter Registration Education Project|last=Acosta|first=Teresa Palomo|date=2010-06-15|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=2014-05-14}}

In 1967 and 1968, the foundation provided financial support for decentralization and community control of public schools in New York City. Decentralization in Ocean Hill–Brownsville led to the firing of some white teachers and administrators, which provoked a citywide teachers' strike led by the United Federation of Teachers.{{cite web| last=Podair| first=Jerald E.|author1-link=Jerald Podair| title=The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis: New York's Antigone| url=http://www.gothamcenter.org/festival/2001/confpapers/podair.pdf| work=Like Strangers: Blacks, Whites and New York City's Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis| publisher=Gotham Center| access-date=2014-05-14| date=6 October 2001| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414233032/http://www.gothamcenter.org/festival/2001/confpapers/podair.pdf| archive-date=14 April 2012| url-status=dead}}

From 1966 through 1976, to encourage the growth and stability of symphony orchestras across the USA and Puerto Rico, the Ford Foundation invested $80.2 million to: (1) improve orchestra artistic quality, (2) strengthen orchestra finances, and (3) raise the income and prestige of the music profession in the U.S.{{Cite book |last=Philip |first=Hart |title=Orpheus in the New World the symphony orchestra as an American cultural institution-its past, present, and future |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York |year=1973 |isbn=0393021696 |publication-date=1973 |pages=339–347 |language=English}} Sixty-one American symphony orchestras participated in the unprecedented ten-year Ford Foundation Symphony Program.{{Cite book |last=Hart |first=Philip |title=Orpheus in the New World The Symphony Orchestra as an American Cultural institution-its past, present, and future |publisher=W.W.Norton Company, Inc., New York |year=1973 |isbn=0393021696 |publication-date=1973 |pages=512 |language=English}} Part of the "Big Bang" of music philanthropy, the Symphony Program represented the single largest gift program ever devised for the arts.{{Cite news |last=Henahan |first=Donal |date=10 January 1968 |title=Nation's Orchestras unsettled by Need to Match Ford Grants; Foundation's Gift Plan is Raising Standards, but Some Symphonies Fear Demise if Fund Drives Fail |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/01/10/archives/nations-orchestras-unsettled-by-need-to-match-ford-grants.html |access-date=27 April 2025 |work=New York Times |language=English}}{{Cite journal |last=Yu |first=Michael Sy |date=May 2017 |title=The Big Bang of Music Patronage in the United States: The National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/77d583c4-cc2a-42ab-ac8f-70ad75b7292b/content |journal=Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences |via=Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard DASH.HARVARD.EDU}} The Symphony Program infused cash into orchestra budgets throughout the nation resulting in increased orchestra seasons and musician wages. Many orchestras, however, could not sustain the economic growth provided by the Symphony Program grant.{{Cite news |date=26 January 1986 |title=Money Blues Is a Sad Tune Orchestras Know By Heart |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1986/01/26/money-blues-is-a-sad-tune-orchestras-know-by-heart/ |access-date=26 April 2025 |work=Orlando Sentinel}} According to one author, orchestra managers had to "manufacture" work to sustain the longer season which, in turn, generated "boredom and apathy" among professional symphony musicians.{{Cite book |last=Horowitz |first=Joseph |title=Classical Music in America A History of its Rise and Fall |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company New York London |year=2005 |isbn=9780393057171 |publication-date=2005 |pages=483–484 |language=English}}

The foundation began awarding postdoctoral fellowships in 1980 to increase the diversity of the nation's academic faculties.{{Cite web |title=Inaugural Senior Ford Fellows Conference Report |url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_081750.pdf}} In 1986, the foundation added predoctoral and dissertation fellowships to the program. The foundation awards 130 to 140 fellowships annually, and there are 4,132 living fellows.{{When|date=May 2023}} The University of California, Berkeley was affiliated with 346 fellows at the time of award, the most of any institution, followed by the University of California, Los Angeles at 205, Harvard University at 191, Stanford University at 190, and Yale University at 175. The 10-campus University of California system accounts for 947 fellows, and the Ivy League is affiliated with 726.{{cite web| title=Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs| url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/fordfellowships/index.htm| publisher=National Academies| access-date=2022-04-12}}{{cite web| title=Directory of Ford Foundation Fellows| url=https://nrc58.nas.edu/FordFellows20/Directory_Ford30/ModulePage.aspx?Nav=Home| publisher=National Academies| access-date=2022-04-12}} In 2022, the foundation announced that it would be sunsetting the program.{{Cite web |title=Ford Foundation Sunsets Diversity Fellowships |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/ford-foundation-sunsets-diversity-fellowships-70551 |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=The Scientist Magazine® |language=en}}

In 1987, the foundation began making grants to fight the AIDS epidemic{{cite web| title=30 years of AIDS – Looking back at the Philanthropic Response| url=http://www.fcaaids.org/AboutUs/FCAABlog/ViewBlogEntry/tabid/247/ArticleId/80/30-years-of-AIDS-Looking-back-at-the-Philanthropic-Response.aspx| publisher=Funders Concerned About AIDS| first=Sarah| last=Hamilton| date=21 June 2011| access-date=2014-05-14| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415080244/http://www.fcaaids.org/AboutUs/FCAABlog/ViewBlogEntry/tabid/247/ArticleId/80/30-years-of-AIDS-Looking-back-at-the-Philanthropic-Response.aspx| archive-date=15 April 2013}} and in 2010 made grant disbursements totaling $29,512,312.{{cite web| url=http://issuu.com/fcaa/docs/final_2011_fcaa_resourcetracking_web/1?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed| title=U.S. Philanthropic Support to Address HIV/AIDS in 2010| publisher=Funders Concerned About AIDS| date=November 2011| pages=29, 41| access-date=2014-05-14}}

In June 2020, Ford Foundation decided to raise $1 billion through a combination of 30 and 50- year bonds. The main aim was to help nonprofits hit by the pandemic.{{Cite web|last=Manfredi|first=Lucas|date=2020-06-10|title=Ford Foundation to raise $1B for coronavirus-hit nonprofits: Report|url=https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/ford-foundation-to-raise-1-billion-for-coronavirus-hit-nonprofits-report|access-date=2020-06-29|website=FOXBusiness|language=en-US}}

In April 2011, the foundation announced that it would cease its funding for programs in Israel as of 2013. It had provided $40 million to nongovernmental organizations in Israel since 2003 exclusively through the New Israel Fund (NIF), in the areas of advancing civil and human rights, helping Arab citizens in Israel gain equality and promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace. The grants from the foundation were roughly a third of NIF's donor-advised giving, which totalled about $15 million a year.{{cite news| url=http://forward.com/articles/136816/| title=Ford Foundation, Big Funder of Israeli NGOs, Pulling Out| last=Guttman| first=Nathan| work=The Jewish Daily Forward| date=6 April 2011| access-date=2014-05-14}}

In 2003, the foundation was critiqued by US news service Jewish Telegraphic Agency, among others, for supporting Palestinian nongovernmental organizations that were accused of promoting antisemitism at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism. Under pressure by several members of Congress, chief among them Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the foundation apologized and then prohibited the promotion of "violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state" among its grantees. This move itself sparked protest among university provosts and various non-profit groups on free speech issues.{{cite magazine|last=Sherman|first=Scott|date=5 June 2006|title=Target Ford|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/target-ford|magazine=The Nation|access-date=2014-05-14|archive-date=2019-06-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629052003/https://www.thenation.com/article/target-ford/|url-status=dead}}

The foundation's partnership with the New Israel Fund (NIF), which began in 2003, was criticized regarding its choice of mostly progressive grantees and causes. This criticism peaked after the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, where some nongovernmental organizations funded by the foundation backed resolutions equating Israeli policies with apartheid. In response, the Ford Foundation tightened its criteria for funding. In 2011, right wing Israeli politicians and organizations such as NGO Monitor and Im Tirtzu claimed the NIF and other recipients of Ford Foundation grants supported the delegitimization of Israel.

The Ford Foundation announced in October 2023 that it would no longer provide grants to Alliance for Global Justice, a charity in Arizona alleged by journalist Gabe Kaminsky in a Washington Examiner investigation to share Palestinian terrorism ties. "Ford has no plans to support any Alliance for Global Justice projects in the future and it is not eligible for any other funding," Amanda Simon, a spokeswoman for the Ford Foundation, said at the time.{{Cite web |last=Kaminsky |first=Gabe |date=2023-10-31 |title=Liberal Ford Foundation to stop funding Palestinian terror-tied group: 'Years of warnings' |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ford-foundation-palestinian-drops-alliance-for-global-justice |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=Washington Examiner |language=en}} Simon added, "We will not be funding them in the future."

In October 2020, Ford Foundation partnered with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish the Disability Future Fellowship, awarding $50,000 annually to disabled writers, actors, and directors in the fields of creative arts performance.{{Cite web|title=Warner Bros. Issues Apology After 'The Witches' Faces Backlash From Disability Community {{!}} Hollywood Reporter|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/warner-bros-issues-apology-after-the-witches-backlash-from-disability-community|access-date=2020-11-05|website=www.hollywoodreporter.com|date=4 November 2020}}{{Cite web|title=Ford, Mellon Foundations Initiate Disability Futures Fellows, Awarding $50,000 to 20 Artists|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/ford-and-mellon-foundations-name-twenty-inaugural-50-000-disability-futures-fellows-84222|access-date=2020-11-05|website=www.artforum.com|date=October 14, 2020 |language=en-US}}

According to Fast Company in 2018, "Ford spends between $500 million and $550 million a year to support social justice work around the world. But last year, it also pledged to plow up to $1 billion of its overall $12.5 billion endowment over the next decade into impact investing via mission-related investments (MRIs) that generate both financial and social returns."{{Cite news|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/40525515/how-the-ford-foundation-is-investing-in-change|title=How The Ford Foundation Is Investing In Change|date=2018-03-01|work=Fast Company|access-date=2018-10-20|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/ford-foundation-outlines-new-grantmaking-approach|title=Ford Foundation Outlines New Grantmaking Approach|last=Center|first=Foundation|work=Philanthropy News Digest (PND)|access-date=2018-10-20|language=en}} Foundation President Darren Walker wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times in 2015 that the grant-making philanthropy of institutions like the Ford Foundation "must not only be generosity, but justice."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/opinion/why-giving-back-isnt-enough.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=1|title=Opinion {{!}} Why Giving Back Isn't Enough|work=The New York Times |date=17 December 2015 |access-date=2018-10-20|language=en|last1=Walker |first1=Darren }} In the same opinion editorial, Walker wrote that the Ford Foundation seeks to address "the underlying causes that perpetuate human suffering" to grapple with and intervene in "how and why" inequality persists.

American author, philosopher, and critic of feminism Christina Hoff Sommers criticized The Ford Foundation in her book The War Against Boys (2000) as well as other institutions in education and government.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIUtJziqIqAC&q=ford+foundation|title=Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women|last=Sommers|first=Christina Hoff|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1994|isbn=978-0-671-79424-8|pages=53, 82}} Sommers alleged that the Ford Foundation funded feminist ideologies that marginalize boys and men. A Washington Post book review by E. Anthony Rotundo, author of "American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era", alleges that Sommers "persistently misrepresents scholarly debate, [and] ignores evidence that contradicts her assertions" about a gender war against boys and men.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/books/reviews/waragainstboys0703.htm|title=Washingtonpost.com: The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men|website=www.washingtonpost.com|access-date=2018-10-23}} Spanish judge Francisco Serrano Castro made similar claims to Sommers in his 2012 book The Dictatorship of Gender.{{cite book|title=La dictadura de género|last=Castro|first=Francisco Serrano|publisher={{Interlanguage link|Grupo Almuzara|es}}|isbn=978-84-15338-81-9}}

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Completed in 1968 by the firm of Roche-Dinkeloo, the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City (originally the Ford Foundation Building) was the first large-scale architectural building in the country to devote a substantial portion of its space to horticultural pursuits. Its atrium was designed with the notion of having urban greenspace accessible to all and is an example of the application in architecture of environmental psychology. The building, 321 E. 42nd St., was recognized in 1968 by the Architectural Record as "a new kind of urban space". This design concept was used by others for many of the indoor shopping malls and skyscrapers built in subsequent decades. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a landmark in 1997.{{Cite news|last=Barron|first=James|date=1997-10-22|title=3 Buildings Are Declared Landmarks|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/22/nyregion/3-buildings-are-declared-landmarks.html|access-date=2020-06-24|issn=0362-4331}}

• Edsel Ford (founder): 1936–1943
• Henry Ford II: 1943–1950
• Paul G. Hoffman: 1950–1953
• H. Rowan Gaither: 1953–1956
• Henry T. Heald: 1956–1965
• McGeorge Bundy: 1966–1979
• Franklin Thomas: 1979–1996
• Susan Berresford: 1996–2007
• Luis Ubiñas: 2008–2013
• Darren Walker: 2013–Present

Source: History of Ford Foundation{{cite web| url=http://www.fordfoundation.org/about-us/history/presidents| title=Presidents| publisher=Ford Foundation| access-date=2014-05-14| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708163121/http://www.fordfoundation.org/about-us/history/presidents| archive-date=2014-07-08}}{{cite web |url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/about-ford/our-origins/ |title=Our origins |publisher=Ford Foundation |access-date=2019-06-06 }}

{{cmn|

• Carnegie Corporation
• Contemporary Music Project
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Fair Mortgage Collaborative
• Financial endowment
• Foundation (nonprofit)
• Hilary Pennington
• John J. McCloy
• Rockefeller Foundation

}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Michael Sy Uy, Ask the Experts: How Ford, Rockefeller, and the NEA Changed American Music (Oxford University Press, 2020), 270pp.
• Inderjeet Parmar, Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
• Frances Stonor Saunders (2001), The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, New Press, {{ISBN|1-56584-664-8}}. [Aka, Who Paid the Piper?: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War 1999, Granta (UK edition)].

° Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network, Progressives, the International Rescue Committee and the CIA, M. E. Sharpe, 1995, Routledge, 2015.

• Edward H Berman The Ideology of Philanthropy: The influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller foundations on American foreign policy, State University of New York Press, 1983.
• Yves Dezalay and Bryant G Garth, The Internationalization of Palace Wars: lawyers, economists, and the contest to transform Latin American states, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.
• {{webarchive |url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20021113133728/http://www.cia%2Don%2Dcampus.org/internat/indo.html |title=David Ransom, The Trojan Horse: A Radical Look at Foreign Aid, pub. 1975, pp. 93–116; "Ford Country: Building an Elite for Indonesia" |date=2002-11-13}}
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050407180059/http://www.questionsquestions.net/gatekeepers.html |title=Bob Feldman, "Alternative Media Censorship sponsored by CIA's Ford Foundation?" |date=2005-04-07}}
• "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060605/sherman Target Ford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090907113710/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060605/sherman |date=2009-09-07 }}" (2006), by Scott Sherman in The Nation.
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813145606/http://www.questionsquestions.net/feldman/ff_divest.html |title=Time for Ford Foundation & CFR to Divest? |date=2006-08-13}}, collaboration of the Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie Foundations with the Council on Foreign Relations.
• [http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html The Ford Foundation and the CIA], a 2001 study by James Petras.
• Napoleon, Davi. Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater.. The Ford Foundation gave the Chelsea Theater a grant in the early 1970s that enabled the theater to do groundbreaking multimedia work. The funding was abruptly halted after three years, an event that along with decreased funding from the National Endowment for the Arts helped precipitate the theater's collapse. This is a history that explores the on-stage and backstage dramas at the Chelsea, with special attention to how theaters are funded.

• {{official website}}
• {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|131684331}}
• [http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/search List of grant recipients]
• [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.REDFIELDFFCS Guide to the Robert Redfield, Ford Foundation Cultural Studies Program Records 1951-1961] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
• James Armsey oversaw the formation of educational television at the Foundation in the 1950s and 1960s. [https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/754 His papers] can be found at the University of Maryland Libraries.

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Category:Non-profit organizations based in New York City

Category:Foundations based in the United States

Foundation, Ford

Category:Microfinance organizations

Category:Organizations established in 1936

Category:1936 establishments in Michigan