Evaluation of Ford’s BUILD Initiative

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  • Ford Foundation
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The Challenge

Complex social change takes time—yet the majority of funding that supports nonprofit organizations’ work towards it is short-term and project-focused. Furthermore, typically low indirect rates on project funding are insufficient to cover the true costs of project implementation. Underinvestment in critical nonprofit strategies, systems, people, and financial infrastructures can leave organizations ill-prepared to adapt and respond to dynamic and volatile conditions, address challenges, seize opportunities, and ultimately realize social change goals.

The power imbalance between grantseekers and grantmakers—the donors and the doers— leads to funding relationships that are not grounded in the collaboration, support, and trust required to achieve common and aligned goals.  

More and more, these systemic funding hurdles are being recognized for what they are, and trust-based philanthropy is becoming practiced by an increasing number of funders. Aligning funding to strategy, supporting effective and values-aligned organizations, and then leaving operational and program decisions to their leaders can create pathways to organizational resilience and mission impact. 

What We Did

In recognition of the need to model a more grantee-centered approach, our Board of Trustees allocated a total of $2 billion over 12 years to support Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD), an initiative that provides multiyear, flexible grants with focus and dedicated support for institutional strengthening.

Since 2016, Ford has provided $1.85 million in BUILD grants to over 560 organizations in 47 countries. BUILD grants provide a five-year grant term including core support and dedicated funds for institutional strengthening. BUILD also provides avenues for peer learning and technical assistance in areas of institutional strengthening. Finally, BUILD works to engage other funders in increasing and improving grantmaking practices for more equitable, trust-based funder-grantee partnerships.  

In 2022, we shared the results of our developmental evaluation conducted by an external evaluation partner, NIRAS.  We continued this evaluation partnership with NIRAS, who recently completed a longitudinal evaluation final report that observes, examines, and analyzes the longer-term evolution of BUILD’s impact on organization and network grantees. The longitudinal evaluation focused on the ongoing and medium-term effects of BUILD on the organizations that received BUILD grants between 2016 and 2019. 

What We Learned

  • BUILD is effective. Multiyear, flexible funding with a focus on institutional strengthening demonstrates positive effects on organizations’ strength, resilience, and mission impact.  
  • There are observable pathways from institutional strengthening to organizational resilience and mission impact. The longitudinal evaluation explored and found a relationship between the BUILD grant and the emergence of pathways to achieve mission impact. While the developmental evaluation—which was conducted earlier in organizations’ BUILD journeys—suggested enabling conditions for mission impact, the longitudinal evaluation reflected more clear, albeit complex, relationships between organizational resilience and mission impact. Partners were able to describe and credit this relationship in detail.
  • BUILD-like practices need to be continued to maintain and preserve gains in institutional strengthening. The evaluation showed that organizations that received a second BUILD grant were able to expand and reinforce their resilience-building efforts. In contrast, some organizations that did not receive a second BUILD grant experienced some loss of resilience achieved during their BUILD grant, and this effect was stronger for organizations that received no further funding after their BUILD grant ended than organizations that continued to receive flexible support. 
  • Early, clear, and consistent communication helps organizations prepare for the end of the BUILD grant and minimize setbacks caused by uncertainty around future funding. Despite many grantee partners noting the transformative nature of BUILD funding, some expressed that a lack of clarity around future funding and partnership after the BUILD grant led to pulling back on organizational investment and created uncertainty for organizational planning. 
  • A strong relationship between the grantee and the program officer affects how BUILD works and is experienced by the grantee partner.  Several BUILD grantee partners noted that a program officer transition set back the BUILD funding relationship in the form of needing to rebuild trust and/or experiencing the transition as a challenge to remain a priority for the new program officer.