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Challenging inequality

Cities and States

Cities and states have long served as “laboratories of democracy” for some of the nation’s most critical efforts in strengthening civic engagement, reducing inequality, and advancing long-lasting social change.

At Ford, we see a huge opportunity in working at the state and municipal level to address geographic disparities across the nation. We believe that cities and states play an important role in piloting innovative policies and practices that advance equitable development, expand democracy and reduce racial disparities in a way that reinforces and fuels national change.

More from Cities and States

Program staff in Cities and States

Jacqueline, Burton, New York 2014-2015. Photo Credit: Simon Luethi ©Ford Foundation.
Grants Officer, Cities and States
New York, USA
Ethan, Fray, New York 2014-2015. Photo Credit: Simon Luethi ©Ford Foundation.
Program Officer, Cities and States
New York, USA
Amy, Kenyon, New York 2014-2015. Photo Credit: Simon Luethi ©Ford Foundation.
Senior Program Officer, Cities and States
New York, USA
Photo of Jerry Maldonado, New York, 2018. Photo Credit: Simon Luethi ©Ford Foundation.
Director, Cities and States
New York, USA
Kevin Ryan. New York, 2018. Photo credit: Simon Luethi
Program Officer, Cities and States
New York, USA
Casey Stafford. 2016. Photo credit: Simon Luethi
Grants Manager, Cities and States
New York, USA

States have long served as laboratories of democracy for many of America’s efforts to strengthen civic engagement, reduce inequality, and advance lasting social change. We see tremendous opportunities at the state level to improve the lives of Americans and create a framework for national change. We believe that cities and states play an important role in democracy and America’s economy by piloting innovative policies and practices that advance equitable development, expand democracy, and reduce racial disparities to reinforce and fuel national change.

The Challenge

State governments wield enormous power and often create models that set the stage for sweeping national reforms of major policy. From pushing for a $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave to pioneering marriage equality and automatic voter registration, states have often taken the first steps toward massive social reforms.

But states have also been major sources of regression: restricting access to reproductive rights; limiting LGTBQ+ rights; fueling incarceration through punitive sentencing reforms; stymieing inclusionary housing and economic development policies; and undermining democracy through gerrymandering and the passage of voter identification laws. These systems and structures get replicated across states and infuse national debates.

Despite the significant power states hold over people's lives, national donors have not invested consistently in state-based organizations, coalitions, and networks to strengthen their collective ability to advance progressive policy change. Limited, issue-specific funding, often tied to short-term electoral cycles, makes it all the more challenging for leaders to form durable, multiracial coalitions that can bridge racial, economic, and rural-urban divides and advance bold reforms that stand the test of time.

The Opportunity

The country's demographics are shifting rapidly, and America's growing diversity is a powerful force for transformative change. By 2040, people of color will represent roughly half of eligible voters in 17 states. But demography is not destiny. The same shifts are also creating new tensions that are being exploited to divide people by race and class and pit communities against each other.

We work to overcome these barriers by supporting organizations and networks in Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Texas that can build bridges between communities to foster solidarity and a shared progressive vision of governance inclusive of all Americans.

Women, communities of color, and people from low-income rural and urban areas have the potential to form powerful constituencies for change. To activate this changing electorate, we invest in efforts that engage communities year-round to ensure people from all backgrounds can become actively involved in policy decisions that affect their daily lives.

Our Aim and Approach

We work to strengthen state-based and regional organizations, coalitions, and networks. We focus on:

Investing in long-term approaches to advocacy

We fund grassroots organizing, strategic litigation, civic engagement, policy and budget advocacy, and creative storytelling to advance long-term, systemic change. Much of our support takes the form of flexible, multi-year grants that enable bolder campaigns and alliances to take shape.

Building the leadership of traditionally marginalized constituencies

We invest in organizations led by and accountable to low-income rural and urban communities, women, and people of color to bridge key divides. We amplify the voices of those affected by inequality so they play a role in reimagining the systems that shape their lives. Their leadership is critical to advancing inclusive policies and practices.

Supporting areas of opportunity: the Midwest, the South, and New York

In the Midwest, we support multiracial, urban-rural coalitions for social change in Michigan and Minnesota that are imagining new social contracts for their states and the region in the face of significant economic and demographic change. In the South, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas share similar demographic diversity, growing populations, and economic conditions that exemplify recent transformations in America’s political economy. We support coalitions and emerging leaders advancing civic engagement and advocating for progressive change. And in New York, we invest in organizations bridging the upstate-downstate geographic divide that has stymied recent efforts for city- and state-level reform. Alongside these state-based investments, we fund regional networks that build the capacity of organizations across the Midwest and South.

Our Impact

Through our work, we aim to create the following impacts:

Stronger, more resilient, and interconnected organizations

Statewide, membership-based organizations, networks, and coalitions will have the resources and capacity to engage and mobilize low-income communities and communities of color as forces for progressive change.

Progressive policies are put in place

States will adopt and implement progressive policies that reduce racial, gender, and economic disparities such as inclusionary housing policies, progressive minimum wage, and extending voting rights to formerly incarcerated citizens.

More national funding for state-based efforts

National donors will increase their philanthropic support for integrated state-based civic engagement strategies that focus on the needs of low-income people and communities of color and bridge historic geographic and racial divides.

Portfolio Snapshot

ANNUAL BUDGET

$8 million

BUILD budget

$30 million

BUILD grantees

20

Where we work

Number of Grantees

63

Grantee Snapshot

Shaping a shared future for Minnesota

With support from Ford, Our Minnesota Future helped bring together 22 faith, labor, environmental, and community organizations and their members across the state, including in rural areas and small towns, to push for progressive reforms. Over the past decade, when many states in the Midwest experienced widening inequality and declining economic indicators, Minnesota enacted many reforms to reduce inequality and improve economic outcomes for people of color. Innovative collaborative efforts such as the Race-Class Narrative produced in partnership with Demos—which engaged communities around questions of race and class to build solidarity and established more people of color and immigrants as civil society and government leaders—created a viable foundation for these policy victories.

Housing insecurity affects tens of millions of Americans and exacerbates the country’s social, economic, and political inequality. We work to build the power and capacity of those most affected by housing insecurity, including people of color, formerly incarcerated people, youth, immigrants, and those with disabilities. With stronger collaboration, research, and communications, affected communities can become powerful advocates to advance just housing solutions that protect tenants facing exploitation, eviction, or displacement, preserve what’s currently affordable, and expand the supply of permanently affordable homes.

The Challenge

Everyone—regardless of who they are, where they come from, or how much they make— deserves a safe, affordable place to call home. It is the foundation for health, economic security, and building community. However, the United States has failed to provide adequate resources and protections to ensure this basic need is met. Today, 10 to 15 percent of households report being insecure. And of the 43 million people who rent their homes, 38 percent report being burdened by the cost. As of 2018, a minimum-wage worker would have to work 122 hours per week to afford an average two-bedroom apartment. People of color, formerly incarcerated people, youth, immigrants, and people with disabilities face disproportionate exclusion, risk of eviction, and homelessness.

Years of federal, state, and local discriminatory housing and land use policies—such as redlining, urban renewal, and the construction of the federal highway system—have created the segregated and unequal systems still in place today. Despite clearly unequal development, the current real estate system has facilitated enormous profits for financial institutions, corporate landlords, and developers through weak or missing regulations and large federal subsidies.

With the arrival of COVID-19 and a rise in climate-related disasters, the nation’s housing crisis has become more visible. We must reimagine our market-driven systems of housing and community development, which too often prioritize the needs of investors over communities, and implement policies and practices that make sure everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home.

The Opportunity

For the first time in 20 years, housing has become an urgent national policy issue. Those most affected by housing insecurity are organizing to demand bolder solutions and forge coalitions and campaigns with advocates and policy makers to challenge the politics and policies driving evictions, displacement, and inequitable development. These efforts demonstrate how racially and economically diverse organizing can build the political will necessary to transform housing and development policies across the country.

In states as varied as California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and New York, new coalitions—particularly those led by people of color—have emerged to advance groundbreaking local and state policies to protect tenants against unjust eviction, preserve and expand affordable housing, and end discriminatory land use and financing practices. As a result of this growing grassroots pressure, affordable housing has re-emerged as a significant issue on the national agenda, with policy makers and political candidates advancing ambitious policy platforms to tackle this crisis at a scale not seen in decades.

Our Aim and Approach

We aim to build on this growing momentum by investing in multiracial organizations working in civic engagement, housing advocacy, and technical assistance including land and capital management. These groups are led by communities historically affected by disinvestment and policies that prioritize the profits of developers and landowners over the needs of low-income people. We focus on:

Advancing a national vision and public will for progressive housing reform

We support a diverse group of leaders, advocates, and policy and community stakeholders, and foster organizing, research, communications and advocacy to strengthen the capacity of communities to advance housing policies that protect tenants, promote long-term affordability, and expand the supply of inclusive affordable housing.

Building a diverse, national grassroots constituency for housing justice

We support affected communities to build their power and form coalitions with a broader set of stakeholders (education, health, labor, environment) to hold policy makers accountable and achieve equitable development. We also invest in national networks and coalitions, particularly those led by people of color, that position housing as a fundamental pillar in broader racial and economic justice agendas.

Expanding the range of funders to address the country’s housing crisis

We work with funder collaboratives to mobilize resources toward housing initiatives that prioritize civic engagement and coalition-building. These collaboratives also work to identify and counter false narratives related to affordable housing by working with journalists, media partners, and other influencers.

Our Impact

By 2021, we aim to contribute to a stronger movement for housing justice across the country and to accelerate the adoption of policies and practices that promote housing stability and security. We work toward three critical outcomes:

Stronger housing coalitions and campaigns

Local, statewide, and national housing campaigns will have the capacity to engage and mobilize low-income communities and tenants to advance progressive policy reforms.

Housing policies that expand tenant protections

More just policies at the local and state level will accelerate the rehabilitation and reuse of vacant or substandard housing, give tenants access to legal guidance and financial support to halt evictions, and promote development without displacement.

Stronger funder partnerships and collaboratives

These collectives will use and align resources to strengthen organizations, coalitions, and campaigns working toward equitable housing.

Portfolio Snapshot

ANNUAL BUDGET

$10.2 million

BUILD budget

$45 million

BUILD grantees

15

Where we work

Number of Grantees

59

Grantee Snapshots

Building a national movement for housing justice

Public Advocates, PolicyLink, Right To The City Alliance, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Poverty and Race Research Action Council formed the Alliance for Housing Justice (AHJ) to build a national movement that not only mobilizes people across the country to push back on some of the federal government’s most harmful policies that undo discrimination protections, but also proposes a visionary agenda for how the nation should respond to COVID-19’s impacts on housing insecurity. While the government has rolled back its housing protections, AHJ members have made progress in a number of states—including California, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, and New York—to win new policies that protect low-income people from discrimination and center the voices of those most affected by housing insecurity in decisions about development policy and investment.

A national network supporting local housing reforms

Local Progress is a network of thousands of elected officials around the country that provides support for policy makers to enact and implement progressive housing reforms. It launched a working group of members seeking to reform housing policy to protect low-income renters and provide more affordable housing options. In Minneapolis, Local Progress members were able to end single-family zoning in the city. In places such as New York City, policy makers are advancing protections against eviction such as the right to counsel. In states like Florida and Texas, policy makers are ensuring that funds for disaster recovery are directed to meet the housing needs of those most affected by climate change.

Building grassroots power and equitable development

The Amplify Fund is a funder collaborative that believes community power is the key driver of just and equitable development. The Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG), a network of donors interested in supporting racial, economic, gender, and climate justice movements across the United States, partnered with Ford and a set of foundations to create the Amplify Fund. Amplify supports people of color and low-income communities in California, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Tennessee to build power to influence decisions about where they live. Through Amplify and its other work, NFG mobilizes philanthropic resources to build grassroots power and support equitable development.

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Since our founding in Michigan in 1936, we have been deeply committed to Detroit. From supporting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Institute of Arts in the 1940s to committing $125 million over 15 years to the city’s 2014 Grand Bargain, our aspirations and work are uniquely rooted in our history there to ensure that the city is prosperous, equitable, and sustainable.

After Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history in 2013, we are continuing our work with the city to rebuild and secure a better future for its residents by preserving affordable housing, strengthening civic engagement, and creating opportunity for all. We support policies and reforms that disrupt entrenched racial and class inequities at city and state levels, and work with government, philanthropies, business, and civil society across Michigan to promote collaborative partnerships to rebuild a thriving, more just city and region.

The Challenge

Filing for bankruptcy allowed Detroit to invest $1.7 billion into improving ineffective city services. Despite this, it is still experiencing uneven economic growth and development, exacerbating long-term racial, class, and economic tensions that the city’s power brokers—both public and private—have never fully addressed.

Many Detroiters, particularly longtime black residents, are at risk of further marginalization as the city continues its recovery. Underinvestment in Detroit’s low-income areas has reduced black homeownership and left 30 percent of the city’s housing stock vacant. The city’s median income has steadily declined over the past 15 years, and almost half of its residents live at or below the poverty line. And yet the city’s downtown area—a mere 7.2 square miles of Detroit’s almost 139 square miles—has received almost $5 billion in investments, creating new businesses and housing for some but deepening the racial and geographic disparities for low-income residents.

While a growing number of local nonprofit leaders and organizations have called for more equitable recovery efforts, there is significant underinvestment in organizations and coalitions led by people of color and the communities closest to the issues at hand. The philanthropic, public, and private sectors historically have also approached these issues in fragmented ways, failing to collaborate effectively with local organizations to advance the city’s and state's goals of a prosperous recovery. As a result, Detroit has made limited progress in addressing its historic racial and economic inequalities.

The Opportunity

Detroit has received more local, national, and global investments than any city of its size in the country since its bankruptcy. As interest from institutional and private investors continues, the city is at a critical moment to strengthen partnerships across the philanthropic, public, and private sectors to advance equitable growth and racial equity. We work to ensure that these investments work better together to benefit all Detroiters, no matter which neighborhood they’re born into.

Recent local and regional government appointments, as well as increased civic leadership among Detroiters, have sparked new momentum toward a democracy that fully represents all communities across the state. A growing number of local leaders, organizations, and networks are partnering across the city’s and state’s historically divisive lines to push reforms that expand voting rights, economic mobility, immigrant rights, and racial and disability justice for residents who face the greatest barriers to prosperity.

Our Aim and Approach

We aim to support Detroit’s leaders, residents, and businesses as they strive to transform the city and the state of Michigan into a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable place where everyone thrives. We focus on:

Community-based leadership and mobilizing

We support civic engagement efforts that nurture local leadership, build community power, and mobilize voices that know best how to rebuild Detroit and reform Michigan. By putting the community at the center, the city’s systems can be reimagined to better serve all residents and drive local and state policy reforms.

Affordable housing and equitable development

We fund local, regional, and national efforts to preserve affordable housing and promote more equitable development across the state. We work with grassroots and community organizations that empower Detroiters to hold city government and developers accountable, so they deliver inclusive housing policies and practices that prevent foreclosures and displacement and make housing opportunities accessible to everyone.

Shifting the narrative through journalism, creative arts, and storytelling

We help build the capacity of community organizations to tell more balanced, locally driven narratives that put activists, advocates, and grassroots efforts at the center of Detroit’s story of equitable recovery rather than just businesses and corporate players.

Strategic partnerships across sectors

We build partnerships across the philanthropic, public, and private sectors, bringing together civic leaders, funders, and other stakeholders to promote greater coordination in creating transformational change in Detroit and across Michigan. We work to develop coordinated funding strategies with other investors, including private foundations, corporate donors, and state agencies, that share our vision for equity and inclusion.

Our Impact

We work to create a sustainable social justice ecosystem in Detroit that builds community power and leads to innovative reforms in affordable housing, civic engagement, and economic development by influencing key stakeholders. We are focused on three outcomes:

Powerful, coordinated coalition-building

Local, regional, and statewide organizations will join forces with affected communities to build their capacity, increase civic engagement, and develop integrated strategies that advance progressive policy change to reduce inequality in Detroit and Michigan.

Affordable and equitable housing for all

Low-income residents will have equitable access to safe, high-quality affordable housing in diverse, thriving neighborhoods across Detroit. Housing and land use policies will promote security for all and help reduce historical racial and economic disparities.

Strong partnerships and investments across sectors

Building partnerships across the philanthropic, public, and private sectors locally and nationally will align investments across programs and initiatives to advance equity and inclusion in Detroit and Michigan.

Portfolio Snapshot

ANNUAL BUDGET

$13 million

BUILD budget

$5 million

BUILD grantees

3

Where we work

Number of Grantees

77

Grantee Snapshot

Providing legal support to racial justice movements

The Detroit Justice Center (DJC) is a nonprofit law firm that works to reduce poverty, end over-criminalization and mass incarceration, and build thriving communities. DJC has helped expunge criminal records for hundreds of Detroiters and supported efforts by Detroit residents advocating for alternatives to a new Wayne County jail, including investments in the community and its people. DJC surveyed Detroiters at various community events to provide their definition of safety, and held a design summit for young residents to envision the development of community resources in lieu of a new jail. DJC has also partnered with other legal organizations to create the Detroit Coordinated Defense Coalition, which provides legal support to protestors arrested in response to 2020’s fatal police shootings and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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