How We Make Grants
We make grants to develop new ideas or strengthen organizations that reduce poverty and injustice and promote democratic values, international cooperation and human achievement. To achieve these goals, we take varied approaches to our work. Grant making can support such things as:
- Training, research, capacity building and innovation
- Improving local capacity to conduct social science research on critical issues
- Strengthening the analytical and empirical basis of policy debates
- Identifying processes and features of policy experimentation that lend themselves to adaptation elsewhere
- Supporting innovative efforts by government agencies and institutions to improve their social services, policy and research
- Fostering the development of an effective and diverse nongovernmental organization sector to address community-level problems through research, training, grassroots experimentation and advocacy
- Developing community outreach services
- Encouraging groups and communities affected by special problems to develop responses to their own needs
- Supporting informal exchanges between policymakers and scholars
These methods of problem-solving reflect our values and the diverse ways in which the foundation addresses enduring challenges. They also describe a model of philanthropy that the foundation has pursued for more than 70 years: to be a long-term and flexible partner for innovative leaders of thought and action. Lasting change in difficult areas, such as the reduction of poverty, protection of human rights and strengthening of democratic governance, requires decades of effort. It involves sustained work with successive generations of innovators, thinkers and activists as they pursue transformational and ambitious goals.
Our mission is broad, and we carefully target how our grants can be used most effectively. Once the foundation decides to work in a substantive or geographic area, our program staff consults with practitioners, researchers, policymakers and others to identify initiatives that might contribute to progress. We explore specific work grantees might undertake, benchmarks for change and costs. A program officer conducts this analysis, then presents the ideas in a memorandum reviewed by peers, a supervisor and at least two foundation officers. When it is approved, the program officer begins to make grants within the parameters of the approved memorandum and a two-year budget allocation. Staff members regularly provide reports to the board about grants made and ongoing lines of work.
Our Grant-Making Process
If your submission falls within our general areas of interest, your inquiry will be numbered and a confirmation letter will be sent to you. Each numbered inquiry is reviewed by the relevant program officer. The program officer looks for new ideas and effective organizations that can help advance work in a particular area, as well as for evidence that the people and organizations are likely to succeed in their project and work well with others. The foundation supports pluralism and equal opportunity in its grant making and in its internal policies. Opportunities that prospective grantee organizations provide for women and other disadvantaged groups are considered in evaluating proposals.
Our funds are limited in relation to the large number of worthwhile inquiries we receive. In a typical year, less than 3 percent of inquiries made to the Ford Foundation result in a grant. If our review of the initial inquiry is favorable, you will be contacted to discuss your ideas in greater detail with the relevant program officer to help shape a full proposal.
Applications are considered throughout the year. Normally applicants may expect to receive within six weeks an indication of whether their proposals are within the foundation's program interests and budget limitations. If the proposal is being considered for a grant, the approval process—which includes meetings, site visits, grant negotiations, administrative and legal review and presentation of the grant for approval—is generally completed within three months but can take longer depending on the complexity of the project.
Activities supported by grants and program-related investments must be charitable, educational or scientific, as defined under the appropriate provisions of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. In addition to ensuring appropriate use of our grant funds, we have extensive procedures for making and monitoring grants.
If a grant is approved, the first payment from the foundation usually arrives within a few weeks, according to the negotiated schedule of payments.
What We Don't Fund
We do not award undergraduate scholarships or make grants for personal needs. Other areas frequently inquired about, but not funded, include health care, vehicle purchase, student loan repayment, scientific inquiries and inventions. Except for limited grant making through our Good Neighbor Committee to institutions located near the foundation's offices, we also do not generally support after-school programs, athletic leagues, orphanages or elder care.
If you have general questions about our grant making, please contact our China office.