The Ford Foundation
Mission: "To strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international co-operation and advance human achievement."
In China since: 1988
Annual China budget: $12,000,000
Mainland China contact:
Andrew Watson
Representative for China
北京东城区建国门外大街国际俱乐部办公室501号
Suite 501 Beijing International Club Office Building 21 Jianguomenwai Dajie
Beijing 100020
Tel: +86 (0)10 6532 6668
Fax: +86 (0)10 6532 5495
International Contact:
320 East 43rd Street
New York
NY 10017-4890
United States
Tel: +1 212 573 5000
Fax: +1 212 351 3677
Activities in Other Countries:
12 offices worldwide, making grants in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
One of America’s largest private foundations, this was established in 1936 by the family of Henry Ford (1863-1947), the famed industrialist who pioneered mass production of automobiles. At first the foundation mainly supported philanthropic activities in Ford’s home state, Michigan, but in 1950 it inherited the bulk of his private wealth and established a global headquarters in New York. An independent board of trustees manages the foundation’s affairs and it no longer has any connection with the Ford Motor Company.
From the 1960s, the foundation was associated with liberal causes in the United States, making grants to civil rights and environmental activist groups, public interest lawyers and public broadcasting networks. Inner-city community action projects were another major theme of the foundation’s grant-making in America. A large part of the Ford foundation’s income is spent on overseas programmes overseen by 12 regional offices in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Russia.
From the early 1980s, the foundation supported China studies programmes in American universities, and then began to work with Chinese universities to develop Economics and Law faculties. In 1988, under a special agreement with the State Council, it became the first international non-government organisation to establish an office in Beijing, with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences acting as a local counterpart. From that time, grant-making was concentrated in four main fields, each overseen by a specialist Program Officer: legal system reform; reproductive health; environment and development, and economic reform and its social impacts. The latter programme has since shifted its emphasis to governance and public policy, and a new portfolio in education and culture was added in 2002. In addition, the foundation has ongoing, subsidiary programmes in international relations, civil society, and economics and development finance. It treats gender equity, support for civil society and a focus on poor and disadvantaged groups as a ‘cross-cutting themes’ of its work.
Grants are made to both government and non-government agencies to support substantive social policy research, capacity building and pilot projects. For fifteen years Ford’s programme has been the largest of its kind in China making it impossible to catalogue in so short a space, but notable activities have included: strengthening teaching and research capacity in Economics, International Relations, Law, Gender Studies and Development Studies; support for a number of research centres, think tanks and NGOs working on social, agricultural and environmental policy and legal reform; the introduction (especially in Southwest China) of participatory approaches in natural resource management and poverty alleviation; support for a cluster of pioneering public interest law centres; stimulation of research and policy debate around issues of urban-rural migration; cooperation with government to develop quality family planning and reproductive health services; support for a wide range of groups working on reproductive health rights, and for agencies developing appropriate responses to the challenge of HIV/AIDS.
In addition, an international fellowship programme provides postgraduate study opportunities for around forty people each year from China’s less developed areas.
The Ford Foundation’s net financial assets are currently around USD 9.8 billion, generating income of around USD 650 million per year from dividends and interest on investments, and this income is used for making grants. Around 60% of grants are made within the United States, and 40% overseas; however, a proportion of the grants within the US also supports activities overseas.
Links
http://www.fordfound.org
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