Advancing Racial Justice and Minority Rights
Where We Work
We focus on the rights of racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples throughout the United States, and Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples in Latin America, specifically Brazil and the Andean Region and Southern Cone (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile).
What We Fund
In the United States, we are supporting groups in four key categories:
- Legal advocacy organizations
- Policy advocacy and public education organizations
- Research institutions that provide applied research and empirical data to national, regional and local advocates
In Latin America, our support focuses on the following types of institutions:
- Human rights organizations that have added a racial justice lens to their work
- Advocacy organizations that seek legal protections and services for racial minorities at the local, national and regional levels
- Racial justice organizations that focus on strengthening racial and ethnic minority constituencies at the national and regional levels
Additional Selection Criteria
We do not support research, unless it directly benefits advocacy efforts.
To Apply for a Grant
Follow these steps:
- Review the Initiative(s) most relevant to your work.
- Read our Grant Application Guide, which describes our grant-making process.
- If you determine that your work aligns with our priorities, submit a Grant Inquiry. (While we welcome submissions, please keep in mind that our funds are limited in relation to the large number of worthwhile inquiries we receive. In a typical year, less than 1 percent of unsolicited inquiries result in a grant.)
Please Note:
It is important that you use our grant inquiry form—and refrain from contacting program officers directly. Given the volume of inquiries we receive, this allows us to log, track and respond quickly to your application.
Fellowships
The vast majority of foundation grants go to organizations. We provide a very limited number of fellowship opportunities for individuals through the Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships Program, which aims to diversify the faculties of American colleges and universities.
The foundation does not have any other active fellowship opportunities at this time.
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