Published in DEVEX

By Catherine Cheney

NEW YORK — The Ford Foundation is dedicating nearly half of its grantmaking to larger, flexible, longer-term grants—and not telling grantees how to spend the money. The approach “gets you great results, is feasible, and will lead to substantially better relationships with your grantee partners,” according to Kathy Reich, who leads the foundation’s BUILD initiative.

BUILD, launched in 2016, is a $1 billion, five-year effort to support social justice organizations around the world. The initiative takes a new approach to grantmaking as part of an effort to invest in the long-term capacity and sustainability of organizations working to reduce inequality.

The Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is an independent organization working to address inequality and build a future grounded in justice. For more than 85 years, it has supported visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Today, with an endowment of $16 billion, the foundation has headquarters in New York and 10 regional offices across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

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