Editing Ford Foundation (section)

==Major grants and initiatives==

=== Media and public broadcasting ===
In 1951, the foundation made its first grant to support the development of the [[PBS|Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS), then known as [[National Educational Television]] (NET), which went on the air in 1952.<ref name="behrens">{{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 (newspaper)|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}}</ref> These grants continued, and in 1969 the foundation gave $1 million to the [[Sesame Workshop|Children's Television Workshop]] to help create and launch ''[[Sesame Street]]''.<ref name="imbd">{{cite web| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063951/companycredits| title=Sesame Street: Company Credits| website=[[Internet Movie Database]]| access-date=2014-05-14}}</ref>

=== Fund for Adult Education ===
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.<ref name="edelson" />{{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.<ref name="nyt">{{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}}</ref> The FAE also sponsored conferences on the topic of adult education, including the [[Bigwin Island|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.<ref name="sundayherald">{{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}}</ref><ref name="deseretnews">{{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}}</ref>

In addition to grantmaking to organizations and projects, the FAE established its own programs, including the Test Cities Project and the Experimental Discussion Project.<ref name="edelson">{{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}}</ref>{{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.<ref name="stpetersburgtimes">{{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}}</ref><ref name="goldschmidt">{{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}}</ref>

Educational theorist [[Robert Maynard Hutchins]] helped to found the FAE, and educational television advocate [[C. Scott Fletcher]] served as its president.<ref name="edelson" />{{rp|8–9}}

=== Arts and free speech ===
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 (writer)|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.<ref name="annan">{{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}}</ref>

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]].<ref name="fowler">{{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}}</ref>

=== Contraception ===
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.<ref>Wooster, Martin. ''Great Philanthropic Mistakes'', second edition (Washington: Hudson Institute, 2010), p. 68–95.</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>[https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/2434/1964-annual-report.pdf Ford Foundation Annual Report 1964]</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> The foundation ended most support for contraception programs by the 1970s.

The foundation remains supportive of access to abortion, granting funds to organizations that support [[reproductive rights]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Reproductive and Gender Justice|url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/challenging-inequality/gender-racial-and-ethnic-justice/reproductive-and-gender-justice/|access-date=2021-12-16|website=Ford Foundation|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=43 years after Roe v. Wade, why we (still) need reproductive justice|url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/just-matters/just-matters/posts/43-years-after-roe-v-wade-why-we-still-need-reproductive-justice/|access-date=2021-12-16|website=Ford Foundation|date=22 January 2016 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Rallying outside the Supreme Court to support abortion rights|url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/just-matters/just-matters/posts/rallying-outside-the-supreme-court-to-support-abortion-rights/|access-date=2021-12-16|website=Ford Foundation|date=10 March 2016 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Access to abortion is essential to women's health, ft Lourdes Rivera #FutureIsHers| date=March 3, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usZiG3lpb2g|language=en|access-date=2021-12-16}} Ford Foundation</ref>

=== Law school clinics and civil rights litigation ===
In 1968, the foundation began disbursing $12 million to persuade [[law school]]s 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.<ref name="macdonald">{{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.</ref>

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.<ref name="CSPCS">{{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}}</ref> The [[Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund]] was incorporated in 1967 with a $2.2 million grant from the foundation.<ref name="CSPCS" /> 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]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> In 1972, the foundation provided a three-year $1.2 million grant to the [[Native American Rights Fund]].<ref name="CSPCS" /> The same year, the [[Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund]] opened with funding from numerous organizations, including the foundation.<ref name="CSPCS" /><ref name="latino">{{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}}</ref> In 1974, the foundation contributed funds to the [[Southwest Voter Registration Education Project]].<ref name="acosta">{{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}}</ref>

=== New York City public school decentralization ===
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 [[New York City teachers' strike of 1968|citywide teachers' strike]] led by the [[United Federation of Teachers]].<ref name="Podair2001">{{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=[[Mike Wallace (historian)#Gotham Center|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}}</ref>

=== Microcredit ===
In 1976, the foundation helped launch the [[Grameen Bank]], which offers small loans to the rural poor of Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank and its founder [[Muhammad Yunus]] were awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 2006 for pioneering [[microcredit]].<ref name="nobel">{{cite press release|  url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html| title=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006| publisher=[[Norwegian Nobel Committee]]| date=13 October 2006| access-date=2014-05-14}}</ref>

=== In vitro fertilisation ===
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.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

=== Ford Foundation Symphony Program ===
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>  Sixty-one American symphony orchestras participated in the unprecedented ten-year Ford Foundation Symphony Program.<ref name=":11">{{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}}</ref>  Part of the "Big Bang" of music philanthropy, the Symphony Program represented the single largest gift program ever devised for the arts.<ref name=":13">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>   The Symphony Program infused cash into orchestra budgets throughout the nation resulting in increased orchestra seasons and musician wages.<ref name=":2" />  Many orchestras, however, could not sustain the economic growth provided by the Symphony Program grant.<ref name=":13" /><ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":2">{{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}}</ref>

=== Ford Foundation Fellowship Program ===
The foundation began awarding postdoctoral fellowships in 1980 to increase the diversity of the nation's academic faculties.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inaugural Senior Ford Fellows Conference Report |url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_081750.pdf}}</ref>  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.<ref>{{cite web| title=Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs| url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/fordfellowships/index.htm| publisher=National Academies| access-date=2022-04-12}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> In 2022, the foundation announced that it would be sunsetting the program.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

=== AIDS epidemic ===
In 1987, the foundation began making grants to fight the AIDS epidemic<ref name="hamilton">{{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}}</ref> and in 2010 made grant disbursements totaling $29,512,312.<ref name="concerned">{{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}}</ref>

=== International leadership ===
In 2001, the foundation launched the International Fellowships Program (IFP) with a 12-year, $280 million grant, the largest in its history. IFP identified approximately 4,300 emerging social justice leaders representing historically disadvantaged groups from outside the United States for graduate study around the world. Fellows came from 22 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and the Palestinian Territories and studied a wide variety of fields. After IFP's early success with identifying candidates and selecting and placing Fellows, and the success of Fellows in completing their degrees, the foundation contributed an additional $75 million to IFP in 2006. IFP concluded operations in late 2013 when more than 80 percent of fellows had completed their studies. 
Fellows have been serving their home communities in a variety of ways involving social justice.<ref name="fellowship">{{cite web| url=http://www.fordfoundation.org/grants/individuals-seeking-fellowships| title=Individuals Seeking Fellowships| publisher=Ford Foundation| access-date=2014-05-14}}</ref>

=== Israel ===
In April 2011, the foundation announced that it will cease its funding for programs in Israel as of 2013. It has 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 are roughly a third of NIF's donor-advised giving, which totals about $15 million a year.<ref name="guttman">{{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}}</ref>

=== COVID-19 response ===
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

=== Disability Futures Fellows ===
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> In 2022, another 20 [[Disability Futures Fellows]] received awards.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2022 Disability Futures Fellows |url=https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/investing-in-individuals/disability-futures-fellows/2022-disability-futures-fellows/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307140156/https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/investing-in-individuals/disability-futures-fellows/2022-disability-futures-fellows/ |archive-date=7 March 2023 |access-date=16 Apr 2023 |website=Ford Foundation}}</ref>