We believe in Building Resilience in Social Justice Organizations
Transcript
[Leaders from four BUILD grantee organizations sit for interviews.]
MARCIA SMITH: Ford is really onto something in offering general support, in offering infrastructure support, capacity-building support, and multiyear support. It’s critical.
PURITY KAGWIRIA: I like to think of BUILD as just having the peace of mind to know that the work you do matters, and it matters that you do it well. So, for us, what has changed is BUILD is allowing us the space to actually think strategically on what scale looks like. Most donors will think of scale in terms of numbers. BUILD has allowed us to think of our scale in terms of ideas, and how we think about our work, how we think about ourselves, and just realizing that institutions are grown by individuals who are growing themselves.
NANCY NORTHRUP: In working on social change, of course, there’s an impulse to put 100% in program, to just do program, program, program. The reality is that we are an institution of people, who have to communicate with each other, who have to plan together, who have to think about the objectives of what we want to achieve down the line. And then we have to have the systems and processes in place that enable us to do it, so that actually it makes our work easier to do, that our efforts can go farther.
HEATHER MCGHEE: Ultimately, we need partners who are with us for the long haul. And the reason why BUILD is so important is that it gives an organization a five-year runway to have flexible funding that we can use to respond to the needs as they evolve in our mission area.
PURITY KAGWIRIA: So BUILD gives us the security to focus on the areas that we think are relevant to us, in ways that are relevant to us in our context. And also the trust to just know we are doing the right thing.
[on-screen text: We believe in building resilience.
We believe in reimagining philanthropy.
fordfoundation.org/build]
[on-screen graphic: Ford Foundation logo: a globe made up of a series of small, varied circles.]
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Social justice organizations thrive with longer, larger, and more flexible grants.
In 2015, the Ford Foundation launched its Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative, now a $2 billion dollar commitment aimed at reimagining philanthropy and centered on trusting grantees.
BUILD grantees share their views on how this approach to grantmaking has strengthened their
organization and their work.
“I like to think of BUILD as having the peace of mind to know that the work you do matters and it matters that you do it well,” says Purity Kagwiria. “BUILD is allowing us the space to think strategically on what scale looks like. Most donors will think of scale in terms of numbers. BUILD has allowed us to think about scale in terms of ideas and how we think about our work and how we think about ourselves and just realizing that institutions are grown by individuals who are growing themselves.”
Featuring:
Marcia Smith, President & Co-Founder, Firelight
Purity Kagwiria, Former Executive Director, Akili Dada
Nancy Northup, President & CEO, Center for Reproductive Rights
Heather McGhee, Trustee Emeritus & Former President, Demos
We’re reimagining philanthropy—BUILD provides 5-year general operating support grants and dedicated funding for institutional strengthening to grantee partners to build more durable, resilient, and impactful organizations and networks to combat inequality.
Other videos in this series
We believe in resilience in People featuring Heather McGhee
Heather McGhee, trustee emeritus and former president of Demos, shares how BUILD allowed Demos to create a diversity, equity, and inclusion program, as well as build staff leadership skills.
We believe in resilience in strategy featuring Nancy Northup
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, shares how BUILD allowed the Center to engage their staff to shape a global organizational strategy created from the bottom up.
We believe in resilience in financing featuring Marcia Smith
Marcia Smith, president and co-founder of Fireflight, shares how the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative allowed the production company to create a strategic plan for their long-term financing.
We believe in resilience in systems featuring Purity Kagwiria
Akili Dada, a leadership incubator for girls and young women across East Africa, was one of BUILD’s first grantees. Purity Kagwiria, former Executive Director, shares how BUILD allowed Akili Dada to create a security policy for field work, strengthening its impact.
Building institutions and networks to fight inequality
Organizations that are working to reduce inequality need support for their long-term goals, while they focus on day-to-day operations and immediate challenges. The Ford Foundation’s BUILD program is specially designed to do this, by providing flexible funding and fostering connections to other organizations working with ideas that are changing the world.