We believe in resilience in People featuring Heather McGhee
Transcript
[A Black woman with long dreadlocks sits for an interview.]
HEATHER MCGHEE: Ford Foundation support has been essential to Demos’s growth over the past nearly 20 years. But there was a real moment, a catalytic moment, when Ford decided to invest in the institution of Demos with a multiyear BUILD grant.
When I became president of Demos, I undertook a multiyear racial equity organizational transformation process. I knew that it would be the single, most powerful thing that we could do to transform our organization. I didn’t have a project grant for the racial equity organizational transformation work, but I knew, once we set out on the conversation with the BUILD grant, that that was exactly the kind of work that could be supported by Ford. We have been able to invest in understanding how much our group identities shape not only the external circumstances in the world, our politics, our economy, and our society, but also how we as leaders and people who come to work every day show up and interact with one another.
The BUILD grant has also enabled us to really invest in leadership development for our young staff, to give them the tools to be leaders in really multicultural and diverse spaces, to be able to evaluate their own work, and to be able to measure their own impact in relationship to their peers. An organization with a social justice mission in this day and age is only going to be as successful as its core infrastructure, and that’s what the BUILD grant really represents and understands.
[on-screen text: We believe in people.
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.
Demos, a public policy organization working for an America where we all have an equal say in
our democracy and an equal chance in our economy, was one of BUILD’s first grantees.
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’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 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.
We believe in Building Resilience in Social Justice Organizations
The Ford Foundation’s BUILD grantees share their views on how receiving longer, larger, more flexible grants has strengthened their organization and their work, and made them reimagine philanthropy.
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.