Promoting Metropolitan Land-Use Innovation
Where We Work
We work in the United States at both the national and local levels to democratize and improve land-use planning processes that shape metropolitan regions in ways that benefit low-income and marginalized populations.
What We Fund
At the national level, we support:
- Research and advocacy to demonstrate the need for better coordinated federal approaches to metropolitan development problems that focus on deconcentrating poverty, improving metropolitan land use through innovative local systems like land bank authorities, improving infrastructure planning and design, accelerating re-use of vacant and abandoned properties, and brownfield redevelopment
- National intermediaries that work directly with federal agencies to transform the way they design, plan, and fund federal programs to better support integrated regional community and economic development efforts through coordinated federal funding streams that cross cabinet-level agencies like the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Transportation (DOT), Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- A national infrastructure that provides technical support, training, and financial assistance to networks of local and regional land banking authorities, community land trusts, and other stewards of affordable housing to acquire, assemble, manage, develop or redevelop properties
At the local and regional levels, we support:
- Local organizing that promotes the participation of low-income and marginalized communities in regional and community-planning efforts, and demands accountability of public and private institutions regarding planning, development and investment decisions, and the use of public funding
- Scaled delivery of permanently affordable housing through shared-equity homeownership programs such as community land trusts, resident-owned manufactured housing communities, and deed-restricted homes developed through inclusionary zoning ordinances
- Creating and leveraging locally controlled and managed capital fund pools for land acquisition, land banking, predevelopment and construction of innovative starts such as mixed-use, mixed-income and transit-oriented developments, shared-equity housing and green-housing retrofits
Additional Selection Criteria
We do not augment, supplement, or replace funding for activities that should be funded by the public or private sectors.
Status of Grant Making
The budget for fiscal year 2012 (October 2011 to September 2012) has already been committed, and we are not accepting unsolicited proposals at this time.
To Apply for a Grant
Follow these steps:
- Review the Initiatives 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.
Share, Find, Follow