Ford Foundation

#PrideMonth is all about loving out loud – without reservation and with conviction. This June, we will spotlight the critical efforts of groups at the frontlines of LGBTQ+ advocacy. In a recent report and accompanying film, our grantee Amnesty International brings us to Thailand, where women, girls, and queer activists find themselves grappling with digital violence, silenced by spyware just for speaking up and being themselves. For years, Amnesty has been part of a growing chorus of civil society organizations shedding light on the threat mercenary spyware poses to human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents around the globe. Learn more. #Pride2024

Congratulations to the Ford Foundation Gallery on the opening of “Cantando Bajito: Incantations,” bringing together artists who consider ancestral, contemporary, and future-facing networks of support and care that safeguard feminized bodies through forms of knowledge transmission. Visit us through August 10th. https://lnkd.in/ePwv7_2E

Indigenous, Afro-Descendant, and Traditional People’s (IAT) organizations are key partners in several of our program strategies at the forefront of social, political, cultural, and environmental transformation. They do critical work to address some of the most urgent challenges driving inequality worldwide. Learn more from Sophia Hernández Reyna Program Officer, Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) and Sindis Paola Meza Pineda, Senior Program Officer, Andean Region.

Degan Ali, Adeso, and Ford's Martín Abregú recently discussed shifting to locally led development for our #OnWhatMatters series. ICYMI, watch their full conversation: fordf.org/DeganAli

Government programs like unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and SNAP all dramatically reduce poverty and boost outcomes across generations – but $80 billion in public benefits go unused by eligible people each year. That’s why we’re launching the Benefits Access and Equity Initiative, a five-year, $45+ million philanthropic effort to significantly improve access to and delivery of poverty-reducing benefits across the U.S. Through pooled philanthropic investments, we will activate and grow a network of innovative nonprofit, tech, and government agency partners to help deliver $3.5 billion in public benefits to 1.5 million people over the next five years. If you’re a funder working on tech, poverty, children and family issues, hunger and nutrition, economic opportunity, or any related mission, we invite you to join us! https://lnkd.in/g7KZB_sz

We are proud to announce the launch of the Global Media Index for Africa (GMI)! Along with our partners, @theafricacenter (@university_of_cape_town) we’ve developed a barometer that will track and measure the way Africa is covered by top global media outlets. The Global Media Index for Africa put 20 leading global media platforms to the test, and analyzed how they tell Africa’s stories, whose voices are being heard, which topics are prioritised, and how fairly they are covered when compared to other continents and countries. The Global Media Index for Africa will also recommend best practices for more balanced reporting on Africa and its people. How do you feel about the way Africa is covered in the media? Is it fair? Could it be better? Click here for more 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/d7dmewd3 The Economist The New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Washington Post Reuters AFP XInhua News Agency CNN Bloomberg BBC CGTN RFI - Radio France Internationale

This Month in Ford History: May 1962: Another Country, James Baldwin’s third novel, is published by Dial Press. The bracing, lyrical story of interracial tensions, sexuality, and artistic struggle in New York’s Greenwich Village becomes a national bestseller and helps cement Baldwin as one of the most celebrated American writers and civil rights advocates of the 20th century. Another Country didn’t come easily to Baldwin: Starting in 1948, he toiled over the manuscript for more than a decade. In 1959, the Ford Foundation awarded Baldwin a $12,000 fellowship as part of its newly created Humanities and Arts program, which the author later credited as the reason he finished the novel. (Other literary giants who received support from Ford in 1959: Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor, E.E. Cummings, and Bernard Malamud.) Read more: https://lnkd.in/e5YCG_7G This year marks the centennial of Baldwin’s birthday; he was born in Harlem on August 2, 1924, and died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, on December 1, 1987.

Bridge-building and civil engagement are critical to preventing further polarization. Here are 10 steps the world should take now. #OvercomePolarization https://lnkd.in/dXq6sC2J

Making progress on critical issues like climate change, technology or social justice requires debate and compromise. But polarization threatens to get in the way of that progress. Learn how we can find common ground. #OvercomePolarization https://lnkd.in/efaVrr2E

Bridge-building and civil engagement are critical to preventing further polarization. Here are 10 steps the world should take now. #OvercomePolarization https://lnkd.in/dXq6sC2J